Chapter 224: The Turning Point (1)
Translator: Leo Editor: Frappe
It seemed like the old man named Ander had nothing to fear.
Angele's pouch and his extraction method were not what Ander was going after.
Without the chip, Angele would not be able to extract the ancient blood just by himself. Other wizards had already spent hundreds of years in trying to discover a method that had a high success rate. And even if they managed to find one, they would keep it as a top secret. Extracting the ancient blood was one thing, but creating the signet was completely different. Ander was trying to take everything away from Angele.
He himself knew that if he could get the signet, he would not need to extract the ancient blood by himself.
Furthermore, without the signet, Angele could not backstab him with the illusions. He knew how difficult it was to prepare for a strike from the mysterious signet.
The countless dark flower patterns were squirming around Angele's entire body. The patterns would only reveal themselves when Angele had the intention to kill.
However, the power of the patterns was not strong enough to directly impact a Liquid stage wizard. He needed to properly time his attack.
Angele wondered how Ander found out that he had the signet, but it seemed like…
'Zero, can you analyze the properties of the energy waves Ander was releasing?' He had a plan in mind.
'Task created…Analyzing…Success rate: 83%. The properties of target's energy wave are…'
The chip evolved again. It could now analyze the old man's energy properties using the tiny amount of energy waves being released into the air by the target.
Angele was confused for a second after checking the result.
Ander did not notice what Angele was trying to do.
"Master Ander…it seems like…you don't really care about the extraction method…" Angele suddenly said.
"Huh?" Ander was waiting for Angele to transfer the signet. He hesitated for a second after hearing his words. "Stop wasting my time. Just do it. If you don't, I'll let the whole land know about your little secret. Also, you think I don't know you're trying to trick with this piece of crap?" He waved the notes made by Angele. "I'm sure there are many people interested in the ancient blood that's in your body."
The old man was getting impatient.
Angele was not intimidated by Ander's threats.
"I extracted the ancient blood by luck. I don't think I can do that again. Why should I give it to you? If I transfer it to you, you'll be satisfied? No, you won't. You'll still sell me out." He spoke in a calm tone, "Also, if you want to push me to the public, I won't stop you."
Ander was not sure what changed Angele's mind. He knew that the young man had the ancient blood in his veins. Angele showed compliance at first but his attitude suddenly changed. If Ander leaked his secret to the public, many wizards would try to capture him and study his body. The human subject experiment was forbidden in Nola but evil wizards had their own methods of escaping detection.
Ander's brow furrowed. He believed that Angele found the method of extracting ancient blood by accident and that was the reason why he focused more on the transfer of the signet.
He had spent years studying all the different techniques and he knew Angele's method came from the dark wizards after reading through the notes. There was nothing new. Apart from that, he noticed the switched concepts from different wizard books. Ander did not believe that a Gas stage wizard would have the proper technique to extract the ancient blood.
Angele noticed the change in the old man's expression and was now even more certain that his assumption was correct.
"Alright, master Ander. Hand everything back to me. There were impurities in the ancient blood I extracted, but you…you have the purest ancient bloodline of the harpies, right? How did you manage to extract that? You know what? I can leak that to the public, too. Oh, right. You're a famous potion master, so the rumors probably won't bring any trouble to you. Also, those greedy bastards probably can't even detect the ancient blood in your veins. Ha."
Ander gritted his teeth. He tried to hide the truth from others by drinking various types of potions that could help disguise but did not expect the young man in front of him to detect it. If Angele sent out the rumor, a few high-level wizards would go after him. Old wizards had spent hundreds of years trying to find the secret of the ancient blood and they would do anything to achieve their goal. Acquiring the pure ancient blood would grant them the chance to reveal the mystery of the ancient wizards.
The reason why he noticed the ancient blood in Angele's body was that he had the bloodline in his own body and he was an inheritor of the ancient harpy.
Ander's grandfather was an abandoned child by the harpies. The harpies would only keep the female children. That was the source of the ancient blood in his veins. His grandfather developed special potions to keep him and his children stay undetected.
Ander's grandfather, father, and himself, all developed a complete method of extracting the ancient blood from harpies, but it would take years to prepare all the necessary materials and creating the signet was a different story.
"What are you waiting for?" The tables had turned.
"I'm sure that those old wizards will be more interested in your body. What do you say? Almighty master Ander?" Angele smiled.
Ander regretted his decision. He would've never thought that a Gas stage wizard could detect the ancient bloodline inside his body. The old man thought that he was the only person in Nola who knew how to detect traces of ancient bloodline in the air. The only possibility was that the young man had some incredibly rare enchant items that could track down strange energy waves.
He had met several rank 2 wizards in his life but none of them had been able to detect the ancient bloodline in his body.
"Hurry up. Come on, you know I can spread message anytime I want…" Angele was still smiling.
"I'll f*cking extract your bloodline if you keep threatening me!" Ander yelled in a cold tone, but he knew he messed up after he finished speaking.
"Aha!" Angele chuckled. "I know you have the proper method. Come on, give me my pouch now and I want yours as well."
Ander was speechless.
He opened his mouth but had no idea what to say. He was the one doing the blackmailing several minutes ago.
*PA*
Angele caught the two pouches Ander threw to him.
He opened it and checked its contents.
"Nice, nice. You got some rare items, too." Angele sneered and slightly nodded.
Ander might be a decent potion master, but he was not good at choosing his words. Angele checked the result from the chip and successfully tricked the old man.
Angele had no idea how he should solve the problem if Zero had not come up with the report he needed. He was not prepared for the trouble. This area was controlled by the hunting team of Six Ring High Tower, and Isabel would not be able to help him. Apart from that, it seemed like Flan had long been dissatisfied with what Isabel was doing for him.
Ander was a Liquid stage wizard. Although he was just a light wizard, he was still a respectable potion master. There were many potions that could help him defend against damage spells, though he had not yet found a way to deal with the life mark.
"You know what? We're even now." Angele knew when to stop. "Just one more thing, how about writing down your method for me? We're in the same boat now. We can work something out here."
Ander bit his lips.
"Don't be ridiculous."
"It's not." Angele stared at Ander. "You see, both of us have the ancient bloodline in our bodies, so we can form the best alliance. I'll help you in the future and you can help me too if I need it, right?"
Ander stared at Angele with hatred. The situation was completely different for him. Since the ancient blood was already part of his system, if it was extracted, he would die within several hours. Furthermore, his method was perfected by hundreds of years' worth of experiments. In addition to that, Ander had purchased land, potion labs, and there was someone he loved in Nola, so he did not want to lose any of those.
He had made the decision too fast. Ander wanted to acquire Angele's signet by simply threatening him and it was too late for him to retreat.
Most importantly, Ander could not understand how this young man detected the ancient bloodline within him.
Wizards had their own specialties but it was impossible for a Gas wizard to have such skills.
The two wizards stood face to face inside the room and started communicating using energy particles.
Angele looked satisfied as the conversation continued, but cold sweat was dripping down Ander's chin.
Chapter 225: The Turning Point (2)
Translator: Leo Editor: Frappe
As a contracted potion master in the Six Ring High Tower, the life mark was planted into Ander's body. If the rumor was to be spread out, the organization could track him down easily.
The organization would sacrifice him just for his blood and the perfected method of extracting harpy's ancient blood.
Wizards specializing in prophesying could cast spells to visualize events that had happened at a certain time and certain location. Angele had experienced something similar before.
Only wizards above rank 2 could completely remove the trace of their energy waves. There was no way for Ander to escape this.
"Alright. Master Ander, you're a wise man. I didn't expect you to be one of the elders in the Bennis Family. I look forward to our future dealings." Angele's words made Ander feel even worse.
The Bennis Family was as strong as the Jones Family. They were the third in the ranking and had a significant amount of power in their hand. The council of the elders had similar rights to the family head. There were ten elders in the Bennis Family and most of them were chosen from within the family. The family had more than a hundred wizards and more than a thousand wizard apprentices as its members.
Ander had a share of the council's rights. Although he was a light wizard, he was probably a talented potion master. He also said that he was in charge of this branch.
Ander initially thought that he had nothing to fear and decided to confront Angele right after finding out the young man's secret.
After having a conversation with Ander, Angele acquired some of the information he needed for the ancient blood extraction. However, Ander was still trying to hide the critical part of the extraction method and he did not want to get along with Angele at all.
Ander had to fulfill Angele's request for now and decided to find a solution later.
Angele would not die if his ancient blood was extracted, but he would still take severe damage. Ander thought that he still had hope if he could dig out more secrets about the young man.
Ander left the potions lab quickly after Angele got what he needed.
Angele stood in the room alone with the old man's pouch in his hand.
"Sunstone, earthworm's veins, the seed of Hark, and then crystal cards…" Angele was satisfied with what he acquired. "All these materials can be exchanged for more than 100,000 regular magic stones…"
As a potion master of the tower, Ander also carried special potions and formulas with him but Angele took them all.
It was almost like the old man was here to help Angele.
Most importantly, Angele acquired some important information on how to extract the ancient blood properly. He had one more way to back himself up if his ancient bloodline were to be noticed by other wizards again.
Furthermore, Ander was an elder of a family that had similar power and authority as the Jones Family. Angele was expecting something else from him in the future.
Angele's position in the potions department was granted without facing any problem.
He left the potions lab and followed a wizard apprentice to a private meeting room. There should be someone to check his identity here but with the help from Ander, most of the procedures were skipped.
Angele went straight to the registration table for potion masters.
He needed to pick the division or the school he wanted to join.
**********************
Inside a tiny room, the light from the crystal lamp only brought minimum visibility to the table.
Sitting opposite to Angele was an old wizard with a white beard who looked like Santa Claus.
"Philip, ask master Parrot to come here. We need him." The white beard stared at the wizard apprentice standing near the door.
"Sorry, master Vincent. Master Parrot went to the Forgotten Forest for the materials. He hasn't come back yet," the wizard apprentice responded politely.
"Where's Kenny then?"
"Master Kenny asked for a leave. He needed to visit some old friend."
"Damn it, so I'm the only one in charge right now? Seriously?" the old man cursed and turned to Angele.
"Alright, let's get this over with. You've been recommended by master Ander, right? Just write down where you want to be sent to. Like, which division, or do you want to go to the school? Pick one and I'll give you a letter that will prove your identity." The wizard handed a long yellow list to Angele.
Angele took the paper and checked its contents.
'Southwest Branch, Parrot, biological potion master.'
'East Branch, Thunder, explosive potion master.'
'North Branch, Kandre, healing potion master.'
.....
Each of the rows listed the directors of different divisions and their specializations.
The Six Ring School was listed in the last row.
"You get to choose the place you want to go as a benefit of joining the Six Ring High Tower," the old man rubbed his long white beard and explained.
"Can't I just stay at my home and study?" Angele smiled and questioned him.
"Well, you need to follow the rules. You need to contribute to the organization." The old man knitted his eyebrows.
Angele activated the communication rune on his nail and a flower-shaped rune flashed upon his right hand.
"Master Ander…I really don't want to bother you with something like this but…" He sent the message through the rune.
Ander responded within seconds.
It seemed like he was monitoring the situation in the room.
The old wizard in front of him hesitated for a second before he slightly nodded.
"Alright, I just got a message from master Ander. Your request will be fulfilled. However, the knowledge and materials of the tower won't be provided to you for free. You must send a research report to me and make a certain number of potions for the organization every month. Also, you need to report to the school of the divisions every five years. A life mark will be planted in your body to make sure you don't betray us."
"You know what? Master Ander said he'll take care of all these for me." Angele stood up and chuckled.
"But it's the rule. I don't know how you're related to master Ander…" Angele turned around and left the room before the old man could finish his words.
***************
*Crack*
Inside a hidden chamber of a basement.
Ander was furiously pounding the crystal orb so hard that it cracked.
"Little bastard…He wants me to do everything for him?!"
Sending research report to the directors and making potions for the organization was required to all the potion masters in the organization, including Ander. Ander needed to prepare everything for Angele since he could not refuse this request.
Apart from those, the implanting of the life mark was the biggest problem. It was almost impossible for Angele to ask for resources from the tower if there was no life mark planted in his body. Ander needed to rely on his family to somehow make it possible. It would cost him a lot of money and time.
It was easy for Angele to ask Ander to do the favor for him, but Ander needed to work much harder to fulfill the request. Although he had power in the potions department, it was still a big trouble to him.
"I'll show you what I'm capable of!" Ander started drawing runes in the air quickly but stopped after several seconds.
He calmed down as he thought of the consequences.
Ander did not want to mess with Angele at the moment, but it was getting ridiculous to him.
A dark snake-shaped rune shined upon his nails as he raised his right hand.
"That's the last thing I'll do for you!" He sent the message using the rune.
Angele responded quickly.
"Don't worry. We're still in the same boat. This is the last thing I want you to help me with. Oh, just ask if you need my help."
"Remember, this is the last time!" Ander shook his head. "Otherwise, I'll just let the boat sink!"
"Don't worry, master Ander. I know when to stop."
Ander felt better after the conversation and he decided to work on the life mark matter first.
********************
Angele walked out of the registration room as the flower-shaped rune faded from his nail.
A slight smile appeared on his face.
Angele was certain that the old man had no gut to send people to assassinate him, however, he was not sure if Ander had some strong backup plans.
Ander was a greedy man but it seemed like he was not good at backstabbing his enemies. As long as Angele knew his secret, he would not fight back.
'The last time? Ha…' Angele sneered and shook his head.
'Ander is too naïve…Who would believe in words like his?'
Angele wanted much more from the old man. It was a great opportunity for him to gather materials and knowledge.
Chapter 226: Exploring (1)
Translator: Leo Editor: Frappe
After leaving the registration room, Angele went straight into the library.
All the divisions of the Six Ring High Tower had libraries to store the important books.
The library here was built in a separate building beside the main one.
The building was surrounded by grasses.
Sitting in the center of the grassland was a lonely black stone house. Large mysterious runes were painted on the surface of its walls.
The sun was setting and the orange light illuminated on the runes.
No entrance could be found on any side of the stone house.
Angele followed a wizard apprentice and walked to the library slowly.
Several light wizards were walking out of one of the walls. It almost looked like they appeared in the air from nowhere.
Angele narrowed his eyes.
"Those walls…are illusions?" he asked in a light tone.
"Yes, master." The apprentice responded politely, "They were set up by a wizard from the headquarters."
The two walked past the white robes and arrived in front of the stone house shortly.
Angele walked straight into the wall without any hesitation.
*CHI*
As expected, he passed through the wall without hitting anything. The black wall distorted for a second and revealed a tall arched stone gate as Angele approached.
The wizard apprentice waited outside the gate.
Inside the house, there were three bookshelves. There was no window, no ceiling, no carpet, and no glowing crystals.
Clean books lined up on the three red wooden bookshelves. These were glowing and its produced light illuminated the whole room.
Angele smelled a flowery fragrance as he walked to the bookshelves, making him feel comfortable and relaxed.
Two white robes were checking the books on the same bookshelf. One was a male, while the other one was a female.
They had no interest in Angele's presence. Both of them were completely focused on the books in their hands.
The three bookshelves divided the room into four areas and two were occupied by the light wizards.
Angele walked around the shelves and checked the labels.
'Basic Knowledge.'
'Spell Models.'
He walked passed two shelves and stared at the label of the last shelf. It was labeled, 'Rare Books'.
The other two wizards were checking this shelf as well.
Angele took a glance at the books and saw the titles of the various types of books in this shelf.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Biological Modification, The Horn of Akraham, The Water of Seal, The Cursed Wizard Books, The Light of the Eternal Night…
He had never heard of any of the books but the glows surrounding the books were much stronger than the ones on the other shelves. It meant that the wizards who wrote those books were much stronger.
Angele walked to the shelf that was labeled as 'Spell Models' first and started searching for the information he needed.
Most of the spells in the library were basic. Only some of them were slightly modified, but they were still weaker than the ones improved by Angele. Although the numbers and figures on paper looked better, he doubted if those spells would be more effective.
Angele grabbed one of the random books. Each book recorded one certain spell model and it also indicated the method of casting the spell properly. Wizards could die if they failed to follow the correct procedures when casting the spells. Furthermore, the hardest part was creating the mentality model. Some spells even required supporting materials.
He was trying to find strong damage spells to replace the heart bombs and he could make those spells even more powerful after improvements.
The Lesser Fireball was his most used spell during battles, and he had been relying on his Metal Mastery way too much. Angele barely cast other spells he knew but combining the Metal Mastery with the Electric Rune was the most effective way to execute the enemies.
The illusion signet and heart bombs were helpful but there could be situations that he was restricted from using them.
Angele had recorded so many spell models back in Ramsoda. He wanted to master the better ones after reaching the Liquid stage.
'I need Fire and Wind spells. I can also check out illusion spells since I have the great harpy's blood in my veins.' Angele had a plan in his mind.
The High-Temperature Field and the Evaporate spells were the best choices for him, as he could use these two to damage his opponents during close combat.
Angele had been improving these two spells for years after acquiring them from Ramsoda.
Both spells were of the Fire category. For the Wind category, he only found the Light Weight spell practical but if the battle got intense, it would be nearly impossible for him to prepare the spell. Most of the time, fights would happen randomly in the wild.
Angele was thinking with great efforts to figure out a way to solve the problem.
He had many fights with dark wizards and learned one critical thing from his experiences: one must finish his incantation faster than his opponent. In a kill-or-be-killed situation, one extra second could change the outcome of the battle.
Angele thought that the spells that needed long preparation should be used for ambushes.
He wanted to store one powerful spell in the chip so he could cast it instantly when necessary.
For a very long time, Angele had been storing the Lesser Fireball in his chip, but he wanted something better as he advanced to the next stage.
He also wanted to find high-level enchanted items, or even magic devices, as these objects would aid him in battles greatly.
High-level enchanted items and magic devices could be used instantly, but they were extremely difficult to find. It was said that only the strongest wizards had access to such high-quality gears.
Angele found a spell called the Breath of Nature after searching for a while on the shelf.
The spell was simulating the breaths of some magic beasts. It was basically creating wind in front of the caster, which could knock back the target and slow them down. The wind produced was also infused with acid damage.
It was not a powerful spell but its effects lasted long and it had a great range.
The wind could cover a shell-shaped area in front of the caster. Its effective radius was more than 20 meters and could last for about three hours.
However, the model was hard to learn considering how it was complicated.
Angele realized that the book in his hand was just the part one of the spell. In total, the spell comprised of 20 parts.
He sighed with mixed emotions. The spell would be a great addition to the Metal Mastery. When the enemies became impaired by the negative effects, it would be easier for him to find the right timing to strike. Average wizards would have a hard time trying to dodge the spell due to its range.
The creator of the spell explained why the spell was so complicated. The energy particles were arranged in a certain structure that was completely different from average Wind spells. Those energy particles would change the energy flows in the air within the effective range in order to deliver the negative impact to the enemy.
The only hard part of the spell was in learning and mastering it.
Meanwhile, the mentality required to cast the spell was nigh insignificant.
Angele calmed down and started reading those books. He also scanned everything into the database.
Time flew by.
The sun was sinking into the horizon.
Suddenly, he heard an eagle soaring through the sky.
Angele put down the book and leaned to the door, moving his lips slightly.
He saw the wizard apprentice who brought him here walking toward him. The wizard apprentice lowered his head while avoiding in looking at the book in Angele's hand. His mentality level was not high enough to read the strong wizard's books and he could get injured if he read it by accident.
"What happened?" Angele questioned.
"Master, the new wizard apprentices have just arrived at the area. The noise you heard was from the eagles they rode," the apprentice responded politely. "They'll stay here for the second test and if they can pass it, they'll be sent to the school or other departments."
"Newbies, huh?" Angele closed the book and walked out of the library. The other two wizards were still standing there reading the books, not concerned about the situation outside.
Warm wind blew over Angele's face as he raised his head. He saw a convocation of black eagles slowly landing on the empty ground in front of the main building.
"Since master Tyler is leading the group today, those apprentices must be talented," the wizard apprentice said in a light tone. "Master, the test will start soon and you can meet the leader of this branch's hunting team, master Robin, there. Would you like to go take a look? It only happens once every four years."
Angele stared at the building. He could hear people chatting and eagles shaking their wings. It seemed like the atmosphere there was phenomenal.
"I'll pass. You may go if you want. I prefer quiet places." He scrunched his eyebrows.
"I'm in charge of assisting you, master. I won't go if you don't want to go," the apprentice quickly responded.
Chapter 227: Exploring (2)
Translator: Leo Editor: Frappe
Angele saw a white robe being welcomed as he stepped out of the gate. He led the apprentices and wizards that had just landed into the building. Angele noticed that it seemed like there were two extremely talented apprentices that were being surrounded by the rest of the students.
The two entered the building before the other apprentices.
Angele was not interested in attending such events. He turned around and returned to the library.
He noticed that someone else was grabbing books from the one with spell books. It was a male light wizard.
The man had gray short hair with a pair of silver eyes. He had a blank expression on his face. It looked he was still in his early twenties.
Angele hesitated for a second before starting to record the spell again.
The wizard apprentice waited outside the library quietly.
After a while, he heard footsteps and two people entered the room.
Angele knew the two wizards. They were inside the same arena as Angele.
It was the bald man and the pretty lady with black hair, who almost started a fight with the others back in the arena.
"Oh…" The bald man recognized Angele right away after entering the room. "You finished all the procedures already?!" He looked surprised.
The man turned around and looked at the female wizard. "Hey, Vivian. He's much better than us, right?"
"Stop bitching, or I'll cut your tongue off!" Vivian responded in a cold tone. She glared at Angele before walking to the bookshelf labeled, 'Basic Knowledge'.
The bald man shook his head. It seemed like he was not angry about her words. He walked to Angele and started checking the spell books as well.
"Hey, so you successfully joined the potions department? Was everything smooth for you?"
Angele glanced at the man. "Yeah, you two both joined the hunting team?"
"Yeah, five people passed the test. I and that lady were assigned to the same group. We'll be completing missions together." He smiled. It seemed like the man was satisfied with the result.
Angele slightly shook his head. He was not sure why the man was so happy, but he decided not to ask.
"Good for you. I wanted to join the hunting team as well, but I'm too weak for that."
"Don't give up. Improve yourself, and one day you'll be just like us." The man patted Angele on the shoulder. "We're in charge of the security of the southern border. My name is Karl, by the way. If you need any help when you're visiting the south branch, just let me know. I'll see what I can do."
"Thank you. My potions department branch is in the south, too. Come find me if you need to purchase potions. I'll give you a discount for sure. We joined the organization together, so we should look after each other." Angele smiled. He had plans in his mind.
"That'll be great." Karl chuckled. "But I heard a rumor that one of the wizards from the hunting team went missing during a mission in the public market. That's the reason why they're recruiting new blood. You live in the south, right? Do you know what happened?"
"I heard the rumor too, but I'm not sure about the truth. You're talking about the captain of the patrol team, right?" Angele questioned.
"Yeah, that one." Karl licked his lips. "I heard that the captain was strong and was a representative of a large family. I guess someone assassinated him. There must be something going on. The three large families are now investigating that incident. I'm really interested."
The bald man named Karl was not hiding his mentality waves at all. Thus, Angele knew that he was a Liquid stage wizard. Angele could sense the curses of deceased wizards from the man's mentality wave. It was possible that Karl was a dark wizard.
Most dark wizards dealt with dead bodies all day and most of them were cursed by the wizards they had killed. That was one of the reasons why the white robes despised them.
The library was silent, Angele chatted with Karl using energy particles as he scanned the spell books he needed. He acquired some valuable information about the hunting team from the bald man.
There were two types of members in the hunting team of the Six Ring High Tower.
People that were doing the dirty work such as collecting intel and tracking down targets were called ants. They were everywhere. Some of them were just apprentices and Knights, yet they did not even know they were working for the hunting team.
The number of core members was much smaller and all of them were strong formal wizards. They were elites that passed the tough test, though some of them were just trying to get rid of their criminal record.
The total number of the core members in the southwest division was around 30. When they were killed in the mission, the leader would start recruiting because a certain number of people was needed to keep everything in order.
Only several of the core members survived all the missions and they were promoted as leaders of the teams.
The structure of the whole hunting team was simple.
The president, the vice president, the leaders of divisions, the core members, and the ants.
The higher one's position was, the more missions he had survived. Most of the missions for the core members were dangerous, so completing and surviving many of them would be hard.
The core members usually acted in groups during their missions. They were usually sent to track down wanted criminals and eliminate them when necessary. They were allowed to hire no more than 15 followers and their salaries would be paid by the tower when the contracts were validated.
There were many resource points to guard in Nola, and more people were needed to solve the incident happened around the public market. That was the reason why Karl and Vivian were assigned to the south.
Karl said that they would be guarding the southern border so that the more experienced members would be free to join the investigation. There were many small wizard families around the border. It would be a great opportunity for them to build a community there.
After their conversation, Angele exchanged communication runes with Karl, thinking that Karl might be able to help him in the future.
Angele had been living in the south area since he entered the Six Ring area. His home was close to the border and the public market that was guarded by a small team led by Kuirman.
He knew that there were small wizard families living in the towns around his territory, but he did not want to build relationships with them.
Angele just wanted to live close to the trading tower and stay out of people's sight.
However, he realized that he would be staying in the Six Ring area longer than he had initially thought. Angele decided to make friends with people like Karl and build a small network that could back him up when he was in trouble. By communicating with Karl, he would be able to know the latest happenings in the areas around him. The old man with red eyebrows from the Labyrinth College was still going after him, therefore he needed to be prepared for it.
Angele also learned that he could acquire the basic knowledge for rank 2 wizard after becoming a core member of the hunting team. Some of the knowledge could help him progress to the Crystal stage. He was a member of the potions department and in order to get that knowledge, he would have to submit a request form to the director.
It was not a big problem as he knew Ander. The old man could likely help approve his request.
It was getting darker outside. The female light wizard had already left the room, but the male light wizard was still reading a book.
Angele finished scanning everything and left the library after saying goodbye to Karl.
The glowing crystals on the main building brought minimum visibility to the area around the stone house. He walked to the narrow path beside the forest, which was the only way out.
Beside the path was a small area with unicorns for rent.
Angele walked to an oil lamp that was hanging on the branch of a large tree. Under the dim light, there were several unicorns eating the grasses.
He took out a regular magic stone from his pouch and threw it into a black unicorn's mouth. Suddenly, he looked over his left shoulder with surprise in his eyes. A familiar feeling emerged onto his mind.
A distorted image flashed in front of Angele. It was the great harpy, who had long black wings and the tail of a snake. The harpy slowly climbed up his shoulders and stuck her tongue out. A wet and warm fragrance rushed into Angele's nose.
The great harpy finally woke up.
Angele calmed down, then he decided to explore the Nightmare Realm after returning to his home.
The black unicorn chewed the magic stone several times and swallowed it.
He then jumped on its back.
"Thanks." Angele grabbed the unicorn's spiraling horn tight.
"You're welcome," the unicorn responded. "Same location, right?" It was a male unicorn that had a deep and attractive voice.
"Of course, if you can take me there before six in the morning, I'll give you two more magic stones."
"Sit tight then." The unicorn slightly shook its body.
Its body was then surrounded by a green glow and tiny vortexes appeared around its hooves.
The unicorn started moving forward. It started at a slow pace but after several seconds, it turned into a distorted shadow that stormed into the deep forest. The noise made by the hooves echoed in the area.
Chapter 228: The Nightmare Realm (1)
Translator: Leo Editor: Frappe
Angele successfully arrived at his house before six in the morning after traveling for a while. He changed his mind right before jumping off the unicorn and asked it instead to take him to the trading tower beside.
It was still dark outside and the area was deadly silent.
The glowing crystals on the tip of the tower were bringing light to the surroundings but there was no one around.
The chilling wind blew the dried leaves and grasses into the air.
Angele felt refreshed traveling on the back of the unicorn. The only thing he could hear was the noises made by the hooves.
He asked the unicorn to stop by the trading tower and jumped off its back.
"Great job." He took out two magic stones and threw into the unicorn's mouth.
*Crack*
The unicorn chewed the magic stones and swallowed them right away.
"I'll be leaving then," the unicorn said.
"Sure." Angele nodded slightly, then he pulled his collar up and put on his hood.
The unicorn turned around quickly and disappeared into the dark forest.
Angele glanced around. After confirming that he was the only one here, he walked toward his house.
He saw a black carriage parked on the right side of the path. The carriage was shaking slightly, and Angele could hear people breathing heavily.
Obviously, someone was having fun here. This was a common occurrence in the peaceful Nola. The forest was nice and safe, so they did not need to worry about being ambushed by others.
Angele shook his head and increased his speed, quickly vanishing into the undergrowth.
After about half an hour, he saw a guarding post sitting quietly beside the lake. Crystal lamps were hung on top of the watchtower that brightened up the surroundings.
Rays of white light were coming out of the crystal surface of the lamps and there were some flies wondering around them. Some of the lamps were covered with dead flies and the light it was giving off was fading.
Beside the watchtower, there was a campfire and its flame was dancing. A male Knight in a leather armor suit was yawning by the fire while adding firewood into it.
Angele walked out of the forest and headed toward the tower.
"Who's there?!" The Knight suddenly yelled then grabbed his longbow and nocked a white-feathered arrow on the bowstring, aiming toward the direction Angele was coming from.
"Easy, it's me." Angele walked into the light and removed the hood.
"Ah, master Green." The Knight lowered his bow immediately. "Glad you're back."
"Good reaction there." Angele nodded and walked past the guard post, heading to his home.
He pushed the gate open and used the key to unlock the door of the house.
Everything looked same inside, nice and clean.
The doors of two bedrooms were opened as Angele stepped inside. It seemed like he had woken some people up.
Two girls rushed out of the rooms with white pajamas on their bodies.
"Welcome back, master." Amy opened her mouth first. "Would you like us to make you some food?"
"It's fine. Go sleep," Angele responded in a light tone. "Where's Nancy? Is she in your room?" He noticed that someone else was inside Alice's bedroom.
"Yes…" Alice replied as she lowered her head, "The house is too big and we're scared…"
"Alright." Angele nodded. "You can return to your bedrooms now. I need to go to the basement. Make sure no one disturbs me."
"Understood!" The twins bowed to Angele politely and returned to their rooms.
Angele knew Nancy was awake, but she was just being shy. He saw the clothes on the floor inside Alice's room and Nancy was probably naked. Nancy was pretending to sleep, so she did not have to leave the room.
The twins were trained in the slave market and knew how to bring sexual pleasure to their owners. Angele was not interested in kids but Nancy spent quite a lot of time with the two girls. They knew how to use special tools and techniques to bring happiness to her daily life. Furthermore, it seemed like Nancy was enjoying it.
Angele was not sure what Nancy was thinking, but he was not too concerned about it.
He took off his white robe and hung it on the back of the door.
Angele then walked to the staircase and pressed his palms against the wall.
A door appeared on the surface of the wall quickly, then he pushed it open.
After sealing the gaps around the door, Angele walked down the stone stairs and entered the spell lab.
He locked the door and sat down in the middle of the room with his legs crossed. He started meditating after closing his eyes.
Time flew by. Angele wanted to make sure that he was well rested before proceeding to the realm.
"Let's do it," he muttered.
*CHI*
He could feel the great harpy rubbing her chest against his back while giggling and moving around Angele's body. Angele covered his skin with a thin layer of metal to prepare for possible encounters.
After several minutes, he felt tired and dizzy. It felt like someone was forcing him to fall asleep.
Angele did not resist the strange feeling. Instead, he relaxed himself and fell into slumber.
His body was surrounded by some distorted waves that became translucent. After several seconds, Angele disappeared from the spell lab.
*****************************
*HA*
Someone was breathing beside Angele's ear.
He opened his eyes again.
It was dark. The small great harpy lay on his left shoulder with a tired look. Angele could see her wings and tail moving clearly.
It seemed like bringing Angele to the Nightmare Realm was not an easy task. A bright smile appeared the harpy's face after she noticed that Angele was waking up.
Angele was having a hard time to check the surroundings, but he could feel that the harpy was leaving him. Her body was getting lighter and lighter.
About ten seconds later, the harpy was no longer breathing beside his ear. She just disappeared.
*PA*
With a flick of his finger, a tiny fireball appeared in front of him and its light illuminated the place.
Angele looked at his left shoulder and confirmed that the harpy already left. It seemed like she started recovering again just like the last time she used up all the energy. Furthermore, the stronger Angele became, the more energy she needed to consume to bring him into the realm. Angele assumed that the harpy needed a much longer time this time.
He calmed down and glanced around. He was still sitting in the spell room. Everything looked the same except for the floor that was now covered with a thick layer of gray dust.
Some of the dust was floating in the air and the visibility inside the room was low.
Angele stood up and walked to the door. He noticed something strange as he put his hand on the handle.
"Huh?" He suddenly released the handle and checked his palm. It was coated with some green moss mixed with dust.
It almost looked like the room had not been used for years.
Angele decided to proceed with caution. He grabbed the handle again and started turning it slowly.
*Creak*
The door of the spell lab was pushed open.
The main hall was empty and dark.
Only two of the glowing crystals on the walls were still bringing dim light to the hall, while the rest had already stopped working.
Angele slowly stepped into the main hall without making any noise.
The floor in the main hall was covered with thick dust as well. He left a trail of footsteps as he moved onward.
Angele stayed calm and he started checking the surroundings carefully.
The walls and the floor were dirty. The two working glowing crystals had cracks all over their surfaces.
It felt like the basement had been abandoned a long time ago.
Angele opened all the rooms one by one—the materials room, the potions room, etc. He checked all of them, but the materials and items were no longer there. The only things left were the chairs and tables.
He turned around and left the potions room, heading to the exit of the basement.
Angele slowed down when going upstairs. He reached the exit without making much noise.
He used the stealth technique and pressed his palms onto the door.
*KA*
The door was pushed open.
Several rays of pale light beamed into the living room from outside. He was not sure if it was the sunlight or the moonlight.
Angele closed the door carefully and stepped out of the basement.
The dust in the air blurred his sight and the place smelled like rotten vegetables.
A heart bomb slid onto Angele's right hand from his right sleeve, and he held it tight.
No one was in the living room and the floor was also covered in dust.
Angele pushed the twins' bedrooms open but they were empty.
The whole place was deadly silent.
Angele's brows furrowed. He turned around and walked to the main door.
Chapter 229: The Nightmare Realm (2)
Translator: Leo Editor: Frappe
Every object in the living room was covered with thick dust, such as the control panel, the sofas, table, and the paint. They looked old and their color was fading.
*Creak*
Angele opened the door carefully.
The light outside was orange that illuminated on Angele's body and brightened up the whole living room.
He stood beside the door and looked around. The sky was covered by clouds. Angele could barely see what was around him due to the thick fog.
Angele raised his hand and aimed at the sky. Some green light dots flashed on his palm and formed a tiny vortex. However, he hesitated and decided not to cast any spell.
The flowers and plants in the garden all died. What was left in the mud were the rotten petals.
Angele walked across the garden. When he was about to leave the area, he detected some movements on his right.
He narrowed his eyes, then he lowered his footsteps and slowly walked along the fences.
After turning the corner, Angele noticed a strange relief sculpture on the wall of the house. It was a child's face and it appeared from nowhere.
It was a boy with a short, curly hair. He had no eyes yet his mouth was moving. Angele was wondering if the boy was trying to say something but nothing was coming out of his mouth.
Angele narrowed his eyes and stepped back trying to observe the changes happening to the boy's face.
After several seconds, the sculpture sank into the gray wall but immediately appeared on another wall. The boy's mouth was still moving but Angele just could not hear anything.
It seemed like the sculpture was not a threat. He slowly lowered the heart bomb in his hand, then he turned around and jumped over the fence, landing beside the lake safely.
*Blop*
It sounded like something jumped out of the surface of the water.
Angele turned around and stared at the lake.
He walked to the lake slowly, and the clean surface of the water reflected the image of his body.
Short brown hair, pale skin with a silver glint, and a pair of golden glowing eyes. Angele stared at the image and he knitted his eyebrows.
*Splash*
A tiny silver fish opened its mouth as it rushed toward the image in the water.
"What the…!" Angele suddenly stepped back and held the back of his left hand tight. Blood was dripping down his wrist.
The fish bit the image in the water but the damage reflected on Angele's physical body. It felt like the fish had bitten a large piece of meat off the back of his left hand.
Angele moved away from the lake quickly. Cold sweat covered his forehead. He took out the healing gel from the potion and applied it on the wound. White steam rose from the back of his hand immediately. After several seconds, the bleeding was stopped by the formation of a scab.
Blue light dots flashed in front of Angele's eyes. He felt relieved after Zero confirmed that the wound was not infected by any poison.
He turned to the lake again and saw the silver fish swimming around the surface of the water. There was blood around its mouth, and it stayed there for several minutes before swimming away.
After the silver fish left, a five-meter-long black fish appeared on the surface of the water.
Angele was surprised. He could see the white triangle on the back of the fish, which was the rune he used as the mark for the creatures that were kept in the biological lab.
He checked the room yesterday and the black fish only had the size of an index finger.
Angele swallowed his own spit loudly and pursed his lips. The things that were happening were not making any sense.
He walked to the other side of the lake and stopped by one of the guard posts.
*Croak*
Something was moving around his feet.
Angele lowered his head and saw a green frog jumping around on the ground.
Strangely enough, there were two human faces on the back of the frog. It looked like they were having a conversation, though he could not hear anything.
Angele crouched and took a closer look. The two human faces were twitching and their voices suddenly echoed in his ears after he stared at them for a while.
'I broke my father's vase yesterday. He'll blame me. What should I do?' The face on the left had the voice of a young boy. Angele did not know what language it was but for some reason, he could understand their words.
'He'll hit you hard with a mace. Wait for it.' The face on the right had the voice of a young girl's voice.
'I also poured dirty water onto my father's clothes. He'll blame me. What should I do?' The boy continued.
'He'll stab your eyes with a burning hot needle,' the girl responded quickly.
The two faces just kept talking on the back of a green frog.
The green frog started jumping away and the voices finally disappeared into the air after several minutes.
Angele shook his head. Everything in the Nightmare Realm was weird and mysterious. The strike from the fish ignored his forcefield and metal barrier, and a large piece of flesh was bitten off his hand.
"Young man, why are you here? And what are you looking for?" A deep and hoarse voice came from the direction of the lake.
Angele stood up and looked over.
A one-meter-long black turtle was slowly moving out of the water. But instead of legs, it had four human arms to support its body.
The turtle was walking on its four 'palms' slowly but steadily.
Wrinkles covered the skin of the turtle's head. Angele was trying to figure out what was happening. The turtle was staring at him in the eyes.
"Do you live here?" Angele could not help asking this question.
The turtle shook its head.
"Finally…a creature I can communicate with…" He felt a bit relieved.
"Finally…a creature I can communicate with…" The turtle spoke again, but it was imitating the way Angele was talking, that even the voice sounded identical.
Angele shuddered.
"Finally…a creature I can communicate with…" The turtle started moving toward Angele while repeating the sentence. There was a horrifying expression on its face.
"Finally…a creature I can communicate with…"
The turtle was walking slowly but steadily.
Angele's skull numbed. He tried to step back as soon as the old turtle approached. However, he immediately realized that his legs were frozen.
The bottom half of Angele's body was being petrified. The part below his knees had already turned into gray stone and the petrification was spreading. He could not feel any pain, but the situation was getting worse.
"F*cking hell!"
Angele gritted his teeth and threw a red heart bomb into the air.
The bomb drew a red arc in the air and landed directly on the turtle.
*BOOM*
The explosion was intense and red flames were flying everywhere.
Angele was hit by the heat waves and his ears were ringing. The metal forcefield created a silver metal shield that helped absorb the remaining shockwave. The heated waves were rushing in all directions from the center of the explosion and the leaves from the trees were being blown into the air.
*PA*
Pieces of red flesh dropped on the ground beside Angele's feet, which were still steaming hot.
He lowered his head and saw his petrified legs recovering quickly. He could finally move again.
The fire extinguished quickly in the thick fog, what left on the ground was a pile of burnt meat and broken pieces of its carapace.
Angele walked to the remaining of the turtle and crouched. He found three pieces of flesh that were still usable, while the rest was almost burnt to ashes.
He thought for a while and threw the meat into one of his pouches.
Angele stood up and walked to the stone watchtower.
He peeked inside through the window. It was empty; the chairs, the table, and the bed had all disappeared.
'This place must be related to the real world. Everything looks identical to my home, but it feels like I'm trapped in a different time dimension." Blue light dots flashed in front of Angele's eyes.
The chip was scanning and analyzing the whole time.
However, it seemed like in the Nightmare Realm, the rules of nature were different so Zero had to recollect basic information.
Angele checked all the reports but found nothing valuable.
"Time is up," Angele muttered as he was hit by a familiar feeling.
He raised his right hand that was now translucent.
Angele knew that he was an outsider to this realm and could only spend a certain amount of time here. The bloodline of the great harpy could connect him with the realm, but it could not help him stay in it forever.
"Damn…if only I can stay here for a bit longer…There are many mysteries waiting for me ahead…" Angele's eyelids were getting heavier and heavier.
Seconds later, he lost his consciousness.
Suddenly, Angele opened his eyes.
He was still sitting in the spell lab with his legs crossed.
He raised his left hand immediately and confirmed that the wound was still there. The intense pain indicated that everything that had happened in the realm was not his imagination.
'I need to wait for the next time the harpy wakes up.' Angele took out the flesh of the turtle from the pouch.
He lined up the three pieces of fresh meat on his right palm.
"So I actually did take these back here…how…?" Angele recalled the events happened in the Nightmare Realm, wherein he was almost killed by the turtle.
"Well, let me see what I can do with its meat." He had a plan in mind.
Chapter 230: Experiment (1)
Translator: Leo Editor: Frappe
With three pieces of warm flesh in hand, Angele stood up and left the spell room.
He left the basement and sealed the door. He then walked upstairs to the second floor.
Angele stopped by the end of the hallway and tapped on the door several times with his right hand.
*PA*
A red handprint appeared in the center of the door which faded after several seconds.
*Creak*
The door opened by itself when the handprint disappeared.
The room was brightened up by white glowing crystals. On the shell-shaped table in the center, there were surgery tools and special potions. There were also many colorful crystal bottles that were covered with bloodstains.
Large boxes varying in sizes piled up in the corner and were covered by a large piece of black cloth.
Angele closed the door and walked to a large box on the right, grabbing the edge of the black cloth.
He pulled the cloth off quickly, revealing what was hiding under it.
It was a translucent crystal box and there were many small birds with black feathers inside. Each bird was about the size of a human's palm. They got noisy when the black blanket was pulled off the crystal box, jumping and chirping.
Angele slightly lifted the lid and quickly grabbed one of the birds. He then picked up the bowl and refilled its food.
After everything was done, he closed the lid and covered the box with the blanket again.
"The Night Sparrow…Let's see what's going to happen." Angele had high expectations.
Night Sparrow was a common species in Nola that were nocturnal and had a high resistance. The residents in the area had many different ways of capturing them. Angele purchased a box of Night Sparrows for just one regular magic stone.
These birds were easy to capture and their meat was tasty, thus it was commonly used for stews or barbeque.
Angele held the bird in hand and brought it to the white table.
He then swung his left hand in the air.
*CHI*
A ray of red light appeared in the air. It looked like a red stick that was standing on the surface of the table.
The light came from a '$'-shaped dark red rune on the table and the light cylinder was about half a meter tall.
The light cylinder was making a strange sparkling noise due to the unstable energy flow.
Angele threw the Night Sparrow into the light.
The red light paralyzed the bird quickly, though it was still chirping as the light did not kill it.
Angele grabbed the flesh of the turtle and threw it into a tiny crystal bottle. He raised his right hand and the nail on his index turned into a silver metal needle.
*CHI*
The long needle reached into the bottle and penetrated the flesh. It then returned with a bloodstain on its tip.
Angele sealed the bottle and put it aside.
He pointed the needle at the Night Sparrow in the red light and pricked the left side of its body, just like an injection in the hospital.
After removing the needle from the bird's body, Angele grabbed a bottle with clean translucent liquid from the drawer and dipped the needle into it.
Several seconds later, the needle was cleaned and it returned into his skin.
'Create the task and record the reaction,' Angele ordered.
'Task created. Document created. Recording the reactions…' Zero quickly displayed rows of data in front of Angele's eyes.
The entire data were shown on the left in Angele's sight. It was being refreshed every second. The heart rate, body temperature, brain condition, blood pressure, and breathing rate of the bird were all being updated.
The chip's main functions were analysis and storage, but by scanning the energy waves from the creature, the chip could also provide detailed real-time information to Angele.
Most of the magic creatures would release their energy waves without any disguise. If the wave was protected by something like a force shield, the chip would have a hard time gathering the detailed information.
The chip's function improved again after Angele advanced to the Liquid stage. It could use the stored energy particles to radiate the target in order to gather data, but it still could not deal with forcefields. Zero needed to catch the leaking energy waves from the forcefield and try to do basic analyses.
Time flew.
Something was happening to the Night Sparrow. Inside the red light cylinder, the bird's body started trembling intensively. It almost looked someone was blowing chilling wind over its head.
The left part of the bird's body started swelling slowly.
Several minutes later, a large bump the size of the bird's head appeared on its body.
The feathers on the bump dropped to the table, revealing the purple skin.
*CHI*
Suddenly, the center of the bump was cracked open and a large wet black wing spurted out of it.
At the same time, a similar bump appeared on the other side of the bird's body.
*CHI*
The bump cracked as well, spurting out another wet black wing.
The bird only initially had two wings but after being injected with the turtle blood, two more wings grew on its body.
Suddenly, the Night Sparrow in the light chirped several times in a high-pitched tone.
*CHI*
The bird disappeared into the air.
Angele had no idea what just happened. But at the next second, he saw the bird exploding beside the wall, turning into blood mist.
Black feathers and fresh meat splashed everywhere.
The remaining of the four-wing sparrow slid down the wall and stopped moving. Most of its body was destroyed completely.
'Mutation completed. Four-wing Night Sparrow. Speed burst: 125.76 meters per second.' Zero's mechanical voice echoed in Angele's ears.
Angele stared at the data recorded right before the bird rushed out.
"Incredible, that meets my expectation." Angele slightly nodded and laughed.
The maximum flying speed of an original Night Sparrow was around eight to ten meters per second, but the mutated bird with four wings made it to 125.76 meters per second. Angele was not sure if it was the maximum speed when the sparrow died right after hitting the wall.
The bird usually needed several seconds before it could reach the maximum flying speed. However, the mutated bird just disappeared from the light while being paralyzed, which meant its initial speed was already at a very high level.
Within the tenth of a second, the Four-wing Night Sparrow reached the speed of 125 meters per second and the acceleration was horrifying.
The bird's brain had not yet adopted the changes. After leaving the red light, it failed to turn before hitting the wall. If it was an open field, Angele was not sure if he could capture it again.
He glanced at the blood and the carcass of the bird and decided to clean it up later.
Angele walked to the box and grabbed another Night Sparrow.
Learning from the last experience, he tripled the strength of the rune on the table as he wanted to make sure that the bird could not move.
The light from the rune almost blinded Angele's eyes.
Angele repeated the process and waited for the bird to mutate. Again, from both sides of its body, the bumps rose up and two black wings spurted out of them.
This time, the bird failed to escape the light. It was struggling and trembling.
Angele was checking the updated data in his sight quietly.
The heart rate of the bird doubled, the blood pressure also doubled, and the speed of blood flow tripled. The bird's body temperature increased from 40 degrees to 60 degrees.
'Analysis of the mutated Night Sparrow finished,' Zero reported.
'Start planting the puppet rune.' Angele ordered.
'Puppet rune planting started. 128 times simulated, success rate, 98.54%. Do you want to create a record for the process?'
'No, it's fine.' Silver metal liquid covered Angele's right fingers and turned into five tiny metal balls. Between each of the balls, there were several silver metal strings.
"Pera!" Angele chanted the short incantation.
*CHI*
In the center of the circle formed by the five metal balls, a gray hoof-shaped rune slowly appeared.
Angele kept the rune on his palm and carefully applied it onto the mutated bird's body.
The noise it made sounded like meat being grilled.
After about two minutes, Angele lowered his hand and the silver metal balls were absorbed by his skin.
The hoof-shaped rune was planted into the bird's body, which flashed several times before fading away.
Angele could feel the connection between him and the Four-wing Night Sparrow. It felt like the bird became part of his body, and he could move it however he wanted.
The puppet rune was widely used by dark wizards. It could be easily planted into weak magic creatures, and Angele learned this rune from one of the books in the Ramsoda school's library.
It was just a basic application of the energy particles. Creating the puppet rune was not a complicated process.
Angele modified the technique recently while recovering and learning the enchantment system. After the modification, he created a unique version of the puppet rune, so the other wizards would not know how to gain control of his creatures.
It was a commonly used way to secure their own creatures among the dark wizards. The order of the energy particles acted like a password. By changing the order, the other wizards would have to try more than a thousand times before they could find the right combination.
For that reason, although the puppet rune was simple, it was still the most used method to gain control of a creature.
Angele knocked on the surface of the table.
The red light cylinder disappeared as the rune faded.
Chapter 231: Experiment (2)
Translator: Leo Editor: Frappe
The Four-wing Night Sparrow struggled and stood up on the table with its feet shaking.
The bird still retained its own brain and it could do anything it wanted normally. Angele would only control its body when necessary.
"The only disadvantage of this rune is that it'll be consuming my Mentality constantly as long as it's still activated. The higher my mentality is, the more creatures I'll be able to control. But if I have too many runes activated at the same time, I'll have trouble casting high-cost spells. I need to plan it carefully…"
Angele did the calculations. He had around 40 units of Mentality at the moment and he could activate two runes at the same time with 1 unit of Mentality, which meant he could control more than 80 Four-wing Night Sparrows if he wanted to.
He knitted his eyebrows and grabbed the bird. He then walked to the window and pushed it open.
Angele could see the stone watchtower from the experimentation room.
The watchtower stood beside the forest quietly. Two wizard apprentices he hired were chatting beside it. They noticed that Angele opened the window and bowed immediately before returning to their patrol duty.
Angele waited for the two to leave and carefully put down the sparrow on the windowsill.
"Fly." He gave the simplest order.
*CHI*
The Four-wing Night Sparrow disappeared from the windowsill. Angele only saw a black string flying into the sky at an incredible speed.
Under the gray clouds, the black string was traveling with no hesitation.
Angele took out some black powder from the pouch and rubbed it with both hands. The black powder started burning and smoking.
"The creature shall serve as my eyes," he invoked the incantation.
Slowly, his eyes were surrounded by red glows.
Angele's sight blurred for a second and found himself staring at the clouds the next second.
He could feel the wind blowing over his face and below him was the sea of trees.
Quickly, a human's town appeared ahead. Angele asked the bird to approach the town and fly through it.
*DANG DANG DANG*
The bell tower was ringing.
Angele could see the houses lined up below from the sky. They all had red roofs and gray walls. The Knights patrolling on the street were wearing leather armor suits. A small twisted river went past the town and in the center, there was a tall bronze statue of a wizard.
The town disappeared from Angele's sight after several seconds.
'The Greenwood Town, 15 kilometers from my house.' Angele knew the place. It was a tiny town by the border controlled by several small wizard families. Towns like Greenwood were very common in the area.
"Come back to me."
Angele gave the order after stopping the vision synchronization.
The Four-wing Night Sparrow rotated once in the sky and started flying back to his house.
A tiny black dot appeared in Angele's sight after about two minutes.
It seemed like the bird already got used to the two new wings it acquired. The sparrow slowed down easily and landed on the windowsill in front of Angele.
"The speed is incredible," Angele praised.
He did the calculation for the last trip and the bird was traveling at about 110 meters per second.
The mutated sparrow was almost faster than the Peregrine Falcon from Earth. Furthermore, according to the chip, the Four-wing Night Sparrow's peak speed was higher than 125 meters per second.
It was the fastest creature Angele had ever found in this world.
Angele carefully patted the back of the sparrow.
Its feather was clean and smooth. Touching the sparrow calmed his mind down.
For just one second, he felt confused about his future.
It was a thought he never had before.
He was no longer a mortal the moment he became a wizard apprentice. Angele broke the limit at a very young age and he had the opportunity to explore the most mysterious field in this world. During this process, he had never stopped for one single second.
At the beginning, he wanted to gain power because he wanted to protect himself and his family.
However, after exploring many areas of the world, he started to seek the greatest knowledge of this land.
Angele carefully rubbed the feathers of the bird as he thought of this.
His achievement was incredible and he was definitely one of the most talented modern wizards in history. Angele was wondering if he should take some time and enjoy his life. For some reason, he was losing the motivation to keep progressing and he felt empty inside.
Angele's relationship with his father and the family was no longer the same. His life expectancy was much longer than mortals, and one day, the inheritors might not even know that he was a son of the Baron.
Angele started to understand why most of the old wizards were acting crazy and some of them even developed sick hobbies.
Time would change everything. Wizards like Angele came from mortal families and when their relatives all passed away, they would feel that they lost all the connection to the world. Angele felt scared just thinking about that moment.
Isabel's grandmother, Flan, was seeking comfort by monitoring the daily life of her granddaughter. She loved Isabel a lot since she was a kid but the love just changed into something twisted.
Angele reincarnated to this world. The only person he developed a special bond with was his father, but he realized that the bond was no longer there after his last visit. He started to face the problem the old wizards were facing.
"Maybe I should get some rest before trying to advance to the next stage. I just reached the Liquid stage and I can use this period to absorb new knowledge," Angele muttered. He was certain that he could win a fight against any Liquid stage wizard at this point.
It took time for his body to get used to the liquified mentality. He needed to acquire the basic knowledge for the rank 2 wizard and wait for his body to adapt to all the changes before trying to do any modification.
It was impossible for him to speed up the process using special techniques so he had to wait.
Angele thought for a long time. It was now getting dark outside.
*Thud thud*
Someone knocked on the door.
Angele carefully patted the back of the Night Sparrow again. The bird jumped off the windowsill quickly and vanished into the forest beside the house. He then walked to the door and opened it.
Alice was waiting outside with a silver plate in hand. She was wearing a white maid suit.
The food on the plate was still steaming hot.
"I'll have dinner downstairs." Angele closed the door and looked at the dish.
"Mushroom and deer stew with toasted potato buns? Nice combination. It'll be even better if I can pair the bread with some coconut jam."
"Understood, I'll prepare the jam for you right now."
Alice responded politely.
Angele walked down the stairs and sat on the sofa.
Nancy was waiting quietly beside the sofa.
"Master, there's a letter for you." She handed over a black wooden cylinder over to Angele.
"My letter? It finally arrived…" Angele wondered for a second and realized where it came from.
About one year ago, he sent several letters to Lennon City.
They were for Tia, Harland, and Tinos. The three people he communicated the most with back in the city.
Especially Tinos, the man who had a prettier face than the ladies and left a deep impression in Angele's mind.
Angele removed the seal and opened the lid. A yellow leather scroll slid out of the cylinder.
He opened the scroll carefully. The words written on it were stylish and clean.
'To my dearest teacher, Angele. From Tia Rio.'
It was the salutation.
'Right after you left the city, the horrifying plague arrived. People began begging the god for the cure. Piles of dead bodies were being burnt to ashes every day on the streets. The situation is getting worse and worse. Grand Knight Harland answered the call of the empire and joined the war against the invaders, so he had no time to help the city. Knight Tinos and I were planning to leave the city.
However, the south of the empire was suffering from the plague and we weren't allowed to leave the area. I wish you are here, Master. I'm certain that you can help all the people in the city. Even the lord of Lennon City has been killed by the plague.
Later, Harland was ordered to guard the northern border. I don't think he'll come back anytime soon. The King gave him a large territory there.
Tinos was almost killed during an assassination attempt. Politics is destroying the city since no one is in charge. Although he was saved by a great doctor, his eyes are severely hurt and he'll never be able to see the light again. I was asked to help defend the city since Tinos couldn't fight anymore.
Ah, by the way, Master. The darkest time has already passed. I'm now sitting in a warm room writing this letter to you and I already read the letter you sent to Tinos for him. He's sitting in a chair with a red blanket thinking about something.
Right now, Tinos is the lord of the Lennon City. He says that he misses the days you were still here. We're very happy that you sent letters to us.
Also, after training for years, I have already become a Knight. You'll be surprised to see how much I improved the next time you come to visit. The life energy seed you planted in my body is much stronger than the ones other Knights have.
I asked the workers to keep the manors you purchased clean. I didn't change anything since you left. Please pay us a visit when you have time…
I'm training the kids in the city recently, and some of them have the tenacity to endure all the hard training. They're just like me…Master, without you, I might be still working at the pancake house.
Tinos is blaming me for talking like an old lady again…He never treats me like a young girl.
Oh, and due to some special reasons, many trees in the forest were cut down…'
Tia's letter was more than 10,000 words long and she almost listed everything that had happened since Angele left.
Angele read the letter several times. A relaxed smile appeared on his face.
Chapter 232: A Simple Day (1)
Translator: Leo Editor: Frappe
Angele closed the scroll and returned it to the wooden cylinder.
"Pen and paper for me, please," he asked upon turning his head to Nancy.
"Sure." Nancy walked upstairs and fetched the pen, the paper, and the candle for Angele.
Angele finished his food quickly and started writing a reply to the letter sent by Tia. But before he continued, he asked Nancy to leave him alone for a moment.
The sun had already started to set when he finished writing his letter.
He then grabbed a wooden cylinder and put the letter in. The cylinder was sealed with wax, and Angele labeled it with the address.
"Amy."
Amy was watering the plants in the garden so she was able to immediately hear Angele's voice, then she quickly entered the house answering his summons.
"How can I help you, master?"
"Give this to the postal office and ask them to send it by means of flying courier." Angele handed the wooden cylinder over to Amy.
"Sure." Amy grabbed the cylinder and left the house.
He stayed on the sofa and checked the messages from the communication runes. Angele finished replying to the messages after about half an hour.
He suddenly realized that he still needed to check something.
Angele summoned the Four-wing Night Sparrow. Immediately, it rushed into the living room through the opened window and landed on his shoulder.
The sparrow silently stood on Angele's shoulder cleaning its feathers with its beak.
Angele patted the back of the bird and tried to figure out a way to maximize the value of the turtle's flesh.
The creature that was infected by the flesh would mutate just like the bird and the mutation came with special new abilities, he wanted to test that if the flesh could be used on himself.
Angele needed to proceed with caution when dealing with something that was collected from the Nightmare Realm. The damage done by the heart bomb was enough to blow up the turtle and the only things left were the three pieces of flesh.
He recalled seeing other creatures near the lake.
Angele stood up right away and walked out of the house, soon arriving at the lakeside.
He stood within the bush beside the lake, staring at the peaceful surface of the water.
The place was quiet. The wind was blowing over Angele's face from time to time. Several pieces of yellow leaves fell to the water and floated on the surface.
Angele slowly raised his right hand, aiming toward the lake.
*CHI*
A silver needle shot out of his nail and flew into the water.
*Blop*
A small black fish was impaled by the needle and brought into the air.
The silver needle than returned to Angele, dropping the black fish on his palm. It was a black fish with a rune mark on its back.
"It's the same fish I saw in the realm…" Angele muttered as he slightly shook his palm.
*CHI CHI CHI*
Countless silver needles appeared above the fish and penetrated its body. Its red blood dripped down to the ground from Angele's hand.
"Now that the fish is dead, let's see what will happen the next time I go into the Nightmare Realm." Angele knew that the realm had special connections to the real world, as it felt as though he had just experienced time travel the last time he went there.
He dropped the fish to the ground and cleaned the needles using the water from the lake before absorbing them back into his body.
Angele turned around and saw a black carriage with silver edges traveling toward his house. The carriage slowed down and stopped under the road sign that indicated that the area was owned by wizard Green.
A burly man wearing a yellow robe opened the door of the carriage and jumped off it.
Two patrolling Knights noticed the situation and walked over to question the man.
They talked for a minute and the two Knights bowed to the man politely, then one of them walked to Angele to report back.
Angele knitted his eyebrows. It seemed like the man in the yellow robe was a formal wizard, but he had no idea who it was.
The Knight quickly ran to Angele and bowed to him.
"So, who's that guy?" Angele questioned.
"Master, it's a wizard from the division. He said that he is here to deliver you something," the Knight responded politely.
"Huh?" Angele contemplated for a second before realizing something.
"Invite him to my house." He smiled.
"For sure."
Angele returned to the living room. He asked Amy to prepare the tea for the guest and sat down on the sofa.
After several minutes, the muscular man in a yellow robe arrived.
"Greetings, wizard Green. My name is Peter." Peter slightly nodded his head.
"Please, have a seat." Angele smiled in response.
Amy, Alice, and Nancy were still waiting on the side.
"Leave the house for now. We have something to discuss," Angele ordered.
"Yes, master."
The three left the house together and closed the door.
The living room became quiet.
The muscular man, now sitting on the sofa, grabbed the teacup and gingerly sipped on it.
Angele glare at the man with a deadpan face.
"Let's start then. You have been sent by master Ander, right?" he questioned.
"Yes, master Ander asked me to deliver the records of potions and compilation of potion concoction knowledge to you." Peter took out a crystal orb from his sleeve. Inside the crystal orb, there was a floating red rune.
He put down the crystal orb on the table in front of the two.
"Master Ander said that you can contact him directly through the orb."
Angele nodded and scanned the crystal orb using Zero. Blue light dots flashed in front of his eyes.
He hesitated for a second and put his right hand on the orb with both eyes closed.
'Contacting the communication device. Mentality connection detected. Do you want to connect?' Zero's voice echoed in his ears.
���Start.' Angele ordered.
*CHI*
It sounded like gas leaking out of a balloon.
The crystal orb was surrounded by a red glow. This bright light came from the rune inside. After several seconds, the rune started spinning.
At the same time, old man Ander's voice entered Angele's ears.
"Ha…impressive. You actually know how to activate this orb? It seems like Peter delivered it to you on time."
"What's the matter?"
Ander stopped for a second and continued. "The potion concoction knowledge is stored in the orb. It's provided by the organization. Parts of the basic knowledge for rank 2 wizards are also recorded."
"Great. Thank you for the help."
"Happy? We're even now, right? That'll be the last thing I do for you." Ander was speaking in a serious tone.
"Even? You really think it can be solved that easily? You should've never come to confront me." Angele chuckled.
"What else do you want me to do?" Ander gravely questioned. "You can threaten me all you want but remember, you have the bloodline too. I'll just let the boat sink if necessary."
"Come on." Angele shook his head. "Don't you think we can aid each other in many ways? We can totally obtain great achievements together."
Ander suddenly sneered. "You? A Gas stage wizard? What can you even do?"
"Plenty." Angele was not angry at all. "It's a win-win situation if we can work together. You're from the Bennis Family, though you're merely one of the elders. But you don't have that much power in hand, right? Otherwise, why would you work in a division? Instead of the headquarters?"
"What're you trying to say?" Ander was getting impatient.
"Live subject experimentation and human experimentation are forbidden in Nola, which means you're basically not allowed to kill a large number of creatures in order to extract ancient bloodlines. However, you have the perfect method of extracting harpies' ancient bloodline, right? Don't you want to test that method on other creatures? A secret lab will solve all the problems for you."
"Well, I do want to test it, but so what?" Ander had nothing to hide. He had joined the Bennis Family as an outsider, thus he did not have the bloodline of an inheritor so he had never been considered as an important member of the organization.
He did have the intention to build a secret lab, but it was too hard a task to accomplish.
"I can be the director of your lab. What do you think? You and I both have the bloodline in our bodies and we need to keep it as a secret. That means, we can't betray each other. Otherwise, we'll be captured by the hunting team."
Ander hesitated. Knowing that Angele's idea was quite reasonable to him, asking the young man to be the director of the lab would be an excellent choice. However, he just could not trust Angele and he did not want to give the complete version of his ancient bloodline extraction technique to the young man.
Ander knew that Angele was different from other light wizards. Nevertheless, he had not understood what Angele was planning.
"If you still need some time to think, we can just start working together first. I know your secret and you know mine, so we're in the same boat. You can trust me. I also have the signet and I still need to do research on it." Angele chuckled.
"The signet? Are you saying that we can work on the signet together? If so, I'm down for that." The old man sounded surprised.
"Of course." Angele stopped for a second. "My signet has the true power of the ancient bloodline. With the signet, it'll be much easier for me to extract the harpy's bloodline. Although there'll be impurities, we can save a lot of time."
"Sounds too good to be true but sure, I'll take the risk." Ander was satisfied with Angele's offer. He had never thought of using the signet at all. If Angele could transplant the signet to him, he would have no need to rely on this young man anymore.
"And one more thing, I heard someone purchased a few white centaurs from the last slave auction…"
Ander interrupted before Angele could finish.
Chapter 233: A Simple Day (2)
Translator: Leo Editor: Frappe
"The wizard who purchased the centaurs was ambushed and killed. Those centaurs escaped from their cages and ran away. Rumors told that it was the dark wizards who did it. Are you looking for those centaurs?"
"Yeah, but I need your assistance," Angele said in a low voice. "The intel said that there are many wizards going after those centaurs. It's very likely that the wizard was ambushed because someone wanted his goods. Some people will do anything to continue their lineage and those centaurs are perfect for that."
"Don't worry about it. My family has already sent people for that." The old man lowered his voice. "If we find them, I can send two to you." The old man thought that Angele was going to transplant the signet to him and was happily cooperating with him.
"Thank you so much," Angele responded with a smile on his face.
The white centaur's ancient bloodline was harder to extract than that of the harpies'. But with two centaurs, Angele could still extract a small amount of the bloodline. He could accomplish that only because he had the help from the chip. Zero could control the energy particles and find the hidden bloodline accurately. The only thing he needed to do after was to try to get rid of its impurities.
It was nearly impossible for other wizards to have such precise control of the energy particles. If they were to try to do so, they would need an extremely high level of mentality to perform a similar operation.
The two chatted for a while, with the tension between them almost disappearing bit by bit.
It seemed like the old man felt much better after Angele spoke of sharing the signet with him. After their conversation, he realized that Angele knew a lot more things than he had expected.
At first, Ander thought Angele was just an average Gas stage wizard, but he soon realized that several of the young man's theories were interesting and complicated. He decided to swallow his pride and then asked Angele some questions regarding ancient bloodline research.
Wizards were all knowledgeable. However, most of them needed to keep revising the knowledge they had learned. Basically, the more a wizard knew, the slower it would be for him to absorb new information.
Unless one had the photographic memory, it was nearly impossible for them to memorize everything they studied.
Only a small number of wizards had developed some special techniques to memorize information they obtained much faster than others and they were given the title called 'Master Scholar'.
Ander's impression of Angele changed during the conversation. Now, he was certain that Angele was very close to the level of a Master Scholar. Most of the time, it was him listening to Angele's theories regarding the extraction method. Never did he manage to think some of the theories the young man mentioned in the past.
He did not despise Angele anymore and he realized that he was a much weaker wizard than the young man in regard to theoretical knowledge. Ander had even begun considering Angele as the most talented wizard he had ever met.
They chatted for two more hours and finally stopped when Angele realized that it was already nighttime.
Angele learned a significant amount of information regarding the fundamentals of potion concoction system from Ander. Similarly, it seemed like the old man was satisfied with the new information he acquired.
"It's late. Let's stop it from here," Angele suggested.
"Sure, I learned a lot from you today. Sorry, but I didn't expect you to be so knowledgeable." Ander's attitude had changed a lot. Although the two still did not trust each other, the atmosphere between them was not intense anymore.
"Not a problem. Thank you for enlightening me on the potion concocting techniques."
They praised each other before cutting the connection.
The light from the crystal orb slowly faded.
"Are you done? Master?"
Peter was waiting on the sofa patiently the whole time.
"Yeah, you can leave now. Thank you, wizard Peter. It's a pleasure meeting you." Angele smiled.
"You're welcome, I'll see you later."
Peter said goodbye to Angele and left the house. Angele sat on the sofa with eyes blinking, thinking about his future plans.
He stood up after about half an hour, then he carried the crystal orb and headed to the biological lab on the second floor.
Angele walked straight to the table and grabbed the crystal bottle with the turtle flesh inside. The special crystal bottle would preserve the meat for a certain amount of time.
'I should try to inject more of its blood into the creatures.' Angele stared at the bottle and made his decision.
**************************
Several months later, in the morning.
*BOOM*
Something exploded inside the biological lab.
*Creak*
The door was pushed open. Dark thick smoke rushed out of the room, and a man covered in black ashes stepped into the hallway.
"Crap!" Angele coughed several times. A thin layer of metal barrier dropped to the ground, which was coated with the black ashes.
"Master Green, towel." Alice had already gotten used to such situations, so she calmly handed a wet towel to Angele.
"Thanks." Angele grabbed the towel and wiped his face with it.
"Prepare the carriage for me. I need to visit someone," Angele ordered.
"Understood."
15 minutes later.
Angele left the house inside the carriage. The coachman was a male human he purchased from the slave market.
The carriage advanced slowly along a narrow path in the forest.
About half an hour later, he arrived at wizard Shiva's manor.
"Finally, you're here." Shiva, who stood by the door of his residence, walked to Angele's carriage.
Angele quickly jumped off the carriage and gave Shiva a big hug.
"It's been a while."
"Yeah," Shiva responded then chuckled right after. There were two people standing behind him.
It was a boy and a girl and both of them were around 11 years old.
"Morrow, Sophie, this is the young man I told you about." Shiva pointed at Angele.
The two stared at Angele for several seconds.
"Hi guys, how are you doing?" Angele was not sure what else to say. "You look great."
"Thank you!" the boy and the girl both responded at the same time.
Angele looked at them.
The boy named Morrow had a handsome face with short red hair and was wearing a brown leather armor suit. There was also an ornamental silver dagger hanging from his belt. He looked just like a young swordsman.
The girl's name was Sophie, who looked cute and elegant. Her long blonde hair trailed over her shoulders and was staring at Angele curiously with a pair of large blue eyes. She was wearing a red one piece with red boots and black tights.
After greeting Angele, Shiva led him into the manor.
The two children followed after them and they were observing Angele.
Their first impression of Angele was good, as he looked like a kind and friendly man to them.
"We can probably make friends with him." Morrow communicated with Sophie using just his lips. It seemed like they knew how to read each other's lips.
"I hear he's our grandfather's neighbor, a smart and talented wizard," Sophie responded.
"I like him. I wonder if he will give us any gift." Morrow had an adorable smile on his face.
"I'll try act cute and see if he gives me something I like." Sophie turned to Morrow and smiled as well.
"We can probably visit his house later," Morrow added.
The two wizards in front did not notice the two kids' plan.
Angele entered the living room with Shiva and saw wines and fruits already prepared on the dining table.
Shiva sat down and asked Angele to sit on the opposite side. The two children sat down as well and they started eating fruits right away.
"I think you already know that they are my grandson and granddaughter. Both of them are studying in the school and has spent most of the time playing with my students. I'll teach them to recognize different materials when they come to visit." Shiva looked at his grandchildren and slightly nodded.
"I know that Nola is a peaceful land, but I don't think you should let them wander around in the school…" Angele stared at Shiva.
"Don't worry. I'm fully prepared. I know some special tricks to prevent bad things from happening." Shiva chuckled.
"Well…alright." Angele was a bit speechless. He turned to the two kids.
"You're Morrow and you're Sophie, right?"
"Yeah." The two nodded at the same time.
"Tell me, what do you want to become when you grow up?" Angele pursed his lips into a smile.
"I want to be a sailor and I want to design robes for wizards," Sophie answered first.
"I want to be a Knight, so I can win fights against the students in the school!" Morrow patted his dagger.
"You're not even exercising everyday…" Sophie rolled her eyes.
"Come on, don't expose me…"
Angele felt a bit speechless. It seemed like they had been spoiled and mostly protected by their grandfather from the moment they were born.
Nola was a safe place. Since they grew up in the school, they must have never met any bad guys before.
On the other side of the Gem Sea, a boy at Morrow's age would already start learning to hunt in the forest with his father. However, the two kids in front of him did not seem to know how dangerous this world was.