Chapter 382: Power of the Bloodline (1)
Translator: Leo Editor: Kurisu
Angele rubbed his teeth with the right hand and it felt like touching the blade of a saw.
'I don't even know what my true form will look like. The true form is the basis of all the inheritor's secret techniques. I have the scorpion woman's bloodline, the single-eyed giant's bloodline, the tree elf's bloodline, and my soul that is from the earth… I wonder what will happen if I combine all of them together…
Angele waved his right hand and the mirror disappeared; he then quickly created a black mask on his face.
Turning around, he opened the door and left the reading room.
Angele noticed that it seemed like Orphie and Freia had an argument. They sat far away from each other and no one was talking.
He glanced at the two girls and walked to them.
"Orphie, tell me if there's an area full of large creatures around here." Angele was not sure how strong he was after his body was upgraded. He wanted to test his power on the creatures of the Nightmare Realm.
Orphie quickly stood up as she saw Angele walking to her, however, she hesitated after hearing the question.
"Master, I'm not familiar with the surroundings, but I know that there was a creature called the Water Devil in the rivers around the Dark Cloud City. It was a strong creature and you can go have a look."
"Dark Cloud City, huh?" Angele's brow furrowed, he did not want to travel that far. "Well, it's fine, I'll try to find some in the areas close to the mansion."
Freia walked to Angele and jumped into his arms. "Green, why are you wearing a mask?" She questioned curiously. The girl was over 20 years old; however, she stayed in the mansion for so long that her mental age was still very young.
"There's a problem with my face and I don't want you to get scared," Angele rubbed Freia's hair softly and responded gently. "Alright, you two should stay in the mansion, I'll be back before you know it."
Angele calmed Freia down and assigned a room to Orphie, he then quickly left the mansion.
He stood outside the barrier and looked around.
On the left, there was the Ness River, and on the right, there was the forest that led to the Dark Cloud City.
He hesitated for a second and walked to the pass between the river and the forest.
The path led to an empty ground that looked endless. Angele's sight was blocked by the thin gray mist.
Angele walked along the path and passed by several dark green willow trees. The trees' long green branches were swaying in the wind.
He heard something vibrating in the air after walking for a while.
Angele slowly stopped and looked around. Everything was coated by the mist—the further away he was from the mansion, the thicker the mist would be.
He could barely see the green surface of the river and the only thing that was clear in his sight was the mud under his feet.
*WOO*
The noise was getting louder and louder, it sounded like there was a group of bees approaching.
Angele chanted an incantation in a low voice and countless flaming eyes appeared around his body. The eyes vanished into the air after about one second.
He raised his right hand and released a lava ball in the direction of the noise.
The dark red lava ball slowly blew the mist away with the heat wave it was releasing.
*CHI*
A blurry eye appeared in the center of the lava ball and was observing the surroundings.
A red light screen appeared in front of Angele's body—it showed the scene the eye on the lava ball was seeing.
The left side and the right side were engulfed in the white mist and the mud on the ground was moving backward. Angele could hear the wind blowing from the light screen.
Suddenly, an enormous shadow appeared on the light screen.
Angele's pupils constricted.
The creature that appeared in front of him was a humongous black dragonfly.
The dragonfly was more than ten meters long and the translucent wings behind it were vibrating. Also, the way the dragonfly was flying looked identical to a bee's.
The dragonfly was slowly flying on above the surface of the river—it seemed like the dragonfly was looking for food.
*KA*
The mouthpart of the dragonfly moved slightly, the lava ball was already inside its sight.
*CHI*
*BOOM*
Suddenly, the dragonfly disappeared from the light screen as the lava ball exploded. The light screen turned into flames and slowly dropped to the ground.
*WOO*
The intense vibration noise was still approaching, it was getting closer and closer.
Angele's expression changed, he created a long silver sword with bright burning flames on its tip.
A black shadow flashed in front of his eyes as he prepared the sword.
*BAM*
Something hit his chest hard, but it was blocked by the black shield created by the metal force field.
'The strength of the creature is terrifying…' Angele stood there and he did not move an inch. His Strength was 21 and with such strength, he could easily handle the impact.
Angele held the sword tight and slashed forward.
The black shadow was approaching; it looked like the shadow was going for the blade.
*Clank*
The black shadow was blown away by the impact and it seemed like the shadow stopped after hitting a tree.
The sword in Angele's hand looked like the edge of a crescent moon.
Angele's brow furrowed and the sword was absorbed by his skin. The alloy was not hard enough for his increased attributes.
He stepped forward, the mist slowly disappearing, and finally got a clear view of the scene.
Two of the large trees in the forest were destroyed and the large black dragonfly's body sank into the trunk of the third tree in the middle. The dragonfly's left eye was cut in half and its right eye was cracked. Its wings broke into pieces, but the dragonfly was still moving and struggling.
'The dragonfly has a strong body…' Angele praised the monster in mind. 'I didn't use all my power but the physical damage was over 300 degrees and it could easily crack the hardest sulfurous crystal. But this monster did not die after taking the direct hit…'
Angele walked to the dragonfly and raised his right index finger, aiming at the monster's head.
*CHI*
A silver needle flashed in the air.
A blood hole appeared in the center of the dragonfly's head.
'Scan the gene structure for me and check if the dragonfly has any ancient bloodline.' Angele ordered.
Blue light dots flashed in front of his eyes.
'Task created, scanning…' Zero's mechanical voice echoed in his ears.
The hologram of the dragonfly appeared in Angele's sight. The hologram quickly shifted to the blood hole on the dragonfly's head and the detailed picture of the creature's white flesh was displayed in front of his eyes.
Seconds later, the scene changed again and it turned into a hexagonal cell.
*CHI*
The hologram disappeared from Angele's sight.
'Analysis completed. No ancient bloodline detected. No special ability detected. The dragonfly's strength came from its special body structure.'
'Body structure?' For some reason, the word reminded Angele of the skeleton soldier. Also, he realized that there was a basic application of the runes mentioned in the inheritor's secret technique.
'Maybe I should give it a try later…' Angele looked a bit excited.
He left the dragonfly's dead body on the ground and walked along the river. This time, he wanted to see what he could do as a rank 2 wizard. He applied the wind energy buff to his body so he could move much faster than before.
Angele decided not to rely on the power of the bloodline when trying to fight against the monsters in the forest, so that he would know how much the bloodlines had been helping him.
Two more dragonflies appeared above the river from the left—Angele could hear the noise made by their wings.
The dragonfly on the left was black and the one on the right was red. They were smaller than the one Angele just killed.
Angele released two lava balls without locating the target, then quickly stepped back and moved to the side. He raised his right hand and started doing the gestures that would trigger the spells. He was also taking out tubes and bottles using the left hand. All the containers were quickly slammed on the ground.
*BAM BAM BAM*
An earth golem and two wind golems were created on the ground beside the river after the loud noises.
The dark brown earth golem was more than three meters tall. It hit its chest with the fists several times and opened its mouth.
Two translucent wind golems were rotating around the earth golem and releasing light green energy strings. They were trying to trap the two dragonflies using the energy strings; the strings were being destroyed by the dragonflies constantly, but they successfully slowed them down.
*BOOM*
One of the flies failed to dodge the strike from the earth golem and it was thrown into the river. The other dragonfly grasped this chance and removed a large piece of rock from the golem's body with its attack.
Angele's expression changed, the earth golem was not created with simple mud—it was made with granite. The body of the golem was much stronger and harder than normal earth elementals; however, the granite golem could not recover its body like the golems that were made with mud.
Angele was certain that normal earth golems would easily be destroyed by the dragonfly's strike.
He chanted an incantation with a low voice and created several flying fire beads over his palm. They looked like a ruby bracelet that was surrounded by flames.
"Pyroblast!" he shouted and released the ruby bracelet from his hand. The bracelet flew toward the black dragonfly that was thrown into the river.
*BOOM*
A circle of intense flame exploded in the air.
The dragonfly was blown back into the water and started sinking.
Angele glanced at the granite golem and the two wind golems that were fighting with the red dragonfly, then quickly casted a level 2 wind category binding spell.
Countless green strings spurted out of his hands and flew toward the dragonfly; the strings looked identical to the ones released by the wind golems. The two types of strings combined together and finally slowed the red dragonfly down.
The granite golem hit the dragonfly with its right fist.
The red dragonfly leaned down and hit the ground with its tail, then charged toward the golem's fist.
*BAM*
The noise was loud and deep.
The golem leaned backward after taking the hit, it seemed like the dragonfly was stronger.
*CHI*
The red dragonfly made some noise and rotated in the air. It started charging toward the golem again.
*BOOM*
The granite golem lost its balance after taking the hit. The red dragonfly increased its speed and hit the golem again before it could regain the balance.
The wind golems and Angele could barely catch the dragonfly with their energy strings.
Although Angele could see the dragonfly's movements easily, he wanted to fight with the creature using only rank 2 wizard's power. He asked Zero to do the simulation, and it seemed it was impossible for a rank 2 wizard to catch the dragonfly using spells. Also, he would not be able to predict the dragonfly's movements or track it down with the mentality wave as a rank 2 wizard.
Chapter 383: Power of the Bloodline (2)
Translator: Leo Editor: Kurisu
There was a red string rotating around the granite golem beside the river; a large piece of black granite would fall to the ground every time the red string hit the golem.
The two wind golems were already destroyed after being penetrated by the red string.
The granite golem was still trying to fight back but its body size was shrinking at a fast rate.
Angele released multiple binding spells and a level-2 illusion spell; however, none of them worked on the dragonfly.
Several minutes later, the black dragonfly jumped out of the river again; the dragonfly took the Pyroblast directly, but it was just slowed down and there was no visible wound on its body.
Angele stood on the side and stopped moving. There were blue light dots flashing in front of his eyes.
'Data collected, new creature profile created, please name the creature.' Zero's voice echoed in his ears.
'Red Dragonfly and Black Dragonfly. Show me their data,' Angele ordered.
The spinning holograms of the black dragonfly and the red dragonfly were displayed in his sight as he finished commanding the biochip.
'Black Dragonfly: Estimated Power Level – Rank 2 wizard. Strength 6, Agility 6.3, Stamina 17, Mentality 13, Fire Resistance 200, Wind Resistance 150-200.'
'Talent Ability: Defensive Buff, Resistance Buff, Fast Recovery, Energy Barrier (draw energy particles from water resources, maximum defensive power is 294 degrees).'
Angele's expression changed after checking the black dragonfly's information. The black dragonfly was the shield of the "two-men" army and it could easily soak up the damage.
He then looked at the information of the red dragonfly.
'Red Dragonfly: Estimated Power Level – Rank 3 wizard, Evolution product of Black Dragonfly. Strength 12.5. Agility 11.7. Stamina 16.5. Mentality 15.1. Resistance: Fire Resistance 300, Wind Resistance 200. Talent Ability: Defensive Buff, Resistance Buff, Agility Buff, Fast Recovery, Energy Barrier (same as the one Black Dragonfly has, with counterattack as passive ability).'
Angele finally understood why the two dragonflies were so hard to deal with.
The black dragonfly he slew not so long ago was a bit larger than the two dragonflies in front of him. However, it was killed by Angele's bloodline ability within seconds.
Angele nodded his head and he looked satisfied.
'How much data of the wizards have I collected in the database?' he questioned.
'1432 cases have been collected.'
'What about the wizards over rank 2?"
'Rank 3 wizards: 5. Rank 4 wizards: 3.' Zero reported back immediately.
'Scan the data and simulate the battles for me, use my current power level as a reference.' Angele was not sure if the order was going to work.
'Need more data. Your Talent Ability hasn't been activated yet.'
'Talent Ability?' Angele rubbed his chin as he watched the black and red dragonflies destroying the granite golem. The dragonflies switched their target and were charging toward him.
'Well, let me give my Talent Ability a try then…' He gathered all the bloodline power of the scorpion woman at the horn on top of his head and the bloodline power of the single-eyed giant on his extra pair of eyes.
Angele tried to activate the horn with the mentality; for some reason, he opened his mouth and it looked like he was about to roar.
*CHI*
A translucent sound wave was released from Angele's body.
The two dragonflies dropped to the ground, struggled for several seconds, and died.
All the trees, flowers, and grass started dying in the area around Angele; the effective range was more than thirty meters.
The brown tree trunks turned black, then twisted and cracked. The tree leaves turned from green to yellow, and yellow gray before falling to the ground.
The grass turned from green to yellow, and yellow to gray as well; it looked like they were burnt by flames. The grass was blown away by the gentle wind like ashes.
Angele stood there and stopped releasing the soundwave as his face turned pale. It was the first time he fully activated the bloodline power of the scorpion woman. After merging the bloodlines, the only thing he needed was the mentality, and the bloodline of the ancient creatures would no longer be consumed.
However, the sound wave cost him a third of his mentality.
Everything inside the effective range was turned into gray ashes and blown away by the wind.
'Let me name this ability as Ash Bluster, the area damage is around 500-600 degrees. It's a strong ability. Let me try the bloodline of the single-eyed giant as well…' Angele took a deep breath and focused on the second pair of eyes above his eyebrows.
Angele blinked his eyes.
*CHI*
The golden eyes on his eyebrows slowly opened; the pupils looked like the ones the cats had and the eyeballs were rolling.
Angele could see more things in his sight with the four eyes and his vision radius was greatly expanded. It felt like looking at a different world.
It would take him some time to get used to the four eyes he had.
Suddenly, Angele could feel that his body was filled up with a violent power.
The objects around were sinking slowly.
'Wait… My height is increasing…' He suddenly realized what was happening.
Angele lowered his head and looked at his body. The muscles in his legs and arms were growing. His body size was increasing like crazy.
Raising his right hand, a silver metal mirror appeared in front of him.
The man in the mirror looked completely different.
It was a strong giant that was more than five meters tall, his body coated with a thin layer of black metal. Red spikes appeared on the man's shoulders, elbows, and knees—the spikes looked like sharp teeth.
*CHI CHI CHI *
Angele felt that his back was itching after hearing the noise; a layer of a red substance that looked like bones removed the metal layer and covered his body.
Several minutes later, Angele's body stopped changing.
His body was covered with dark red bone armor and the appearance of his head had changed completely. The top half of his face was covered with a red mask and there were four holes for his eyes on the mask. Angele's pale chin and bloody-red lips were exposed to the air. His long red hair almost reached his waist.
Angele looked in the mirror and deactivated the Talent Ability.
*CHI*
Angele's body started shrinking after several seconds. His height and muscles returned to normal, but the dark red armor was still on his body. He still looked slimmer and slightly taller than before.
'So, that's the effect of the single-eyed giant's bloodline?' Angele looked at the man in the mirror and raised his right fist. He could feel that his attributes were increased to a terrifying level without checking Zero's report.
'A strong ancient bloodline…' Angele gasped. He pointed at the river and flicked his finger.
"BAM*
A translucent ball of air was released from his finger and splashed in the water.
Angele stretched his arms that were covered with sharp red spikes.
He waved his arms hard in the air.
The size of his right arm increased by several times and the diameter of the arm was more than one meter; it looked horrifying.
*BAM*
A one-meter-wide and ten-meter-long fissure appeared on the ground. The wet mud and the gray stones splashed in the air.
'So the single-eyed giant's bloodline is all about the strength.' Angele nodded slightly—he looked satisfied.
The hologram of his body appeared in his sight, spinning. Rows of data were displayed under the hologram.
'Strength is increased to 45 but Agility is decreased to 8.2. Mentality is the same and my Stamina increased to 56…' Angele's face twitched several times. He knew that his attributes increased, but the numbers were still hard to believe.
'I probably look like an enormous creature from the tales…' Angele was a bit speechless.
Angele partially deactivated the ability again and his right arm returned to its original shape.
*WOO*
A lava ball appeared above his palm and it was spinning. The golden lava was flowing through the cracks on the surface of the ball.
Angele raised his left hand and pointed at the lava ball.
*KA*
His left hand stabbed into the lava ball—it felt like touching some warm water. His hand was not damaged at all.
'Zero, what is my power level now?' Angele lowered his hands and questioned.
'Estimated power level: Rank 3 wizard. Your power level will be similar to a rank 4 wizard if you can increase your mentality,' Zero reported back.
The increase of his attributes brought his power level to the next rank.
Angele was certain that he could handle the spell damage from rank 3 wizards with his high attributes easily. It was the result of the merged bloodline, but it was just the basics of the secret technique.
'Eye Devil is in her sealed form… I wonder how strong her true form is… It'll be horrifying…' Angele knew his condition and his attributes were probably similar to a rank 4 wizard.
The rank 4 wizards who spend a lot of resources improving their physical bodies probably had similar attributes as Angele.
In another word, Angele would have trouble handling the mentality waves of the rank 4 wizards, but he could defend against their normal damage spells.
'I didn't expect the bloodline of the single-eyed giant to be so strong… Maybe I should use its Talent Ability more.' Angele raised his fists and he could feel the endless power that filled up his body.
'I'm still curious about Eye Devil and the other lords' true form…'
Chapter 384: The Past (1)
Translator: Leo Editor: Kurisu
Angele had a general idea about his power level after testing his abilities.
Before activating the Talent Abilities, he was one of the strongest rank 2 wizards; however, his power level was close to a rank 4 wizard with the new body.
If Eye Devil and the other lords were the elders with the sealed forms in the Nightmare Realm and they could invade the other realms, they must be much stronger than rank 4 wizards.
Angele recalled the day he attended Eye Devil's party—the monsters could easily deal more than 1000 degrees of damage and it was terrifying. He needed to advance to the next rank to have such power.
However, those monsters did not activate any of their abilities—the damage came from their force fields.
Angele could not imagine how strong those monsters would be if they actually used their abilities.
He lowered his head and looked at the black armor on his right hand. Angele held his right fist tight, excited for what he achieved. However, he realized he was still very weak when compared to those monsters.
'I need to become stronger before they found out the truth.'
Angele stood beside the green river quietly and thought for about half an hour. He turned around and walked to the mansion slowly.
'I need to solve the problems in the main world first before extracting more ancient bloodlines from the creatures in the Nightmare Realm.' There were many things he needed to study, such as the mysterious rune and the magic circle from the tomb.
The wizards in the central continent had no shortcuts to the higher ranks. They had to proceed slowly and steadily; the rare resources would not help them that much.
Angele had the help from Vivian, the biochip, and the ancient bloodlines. However, his progress was still slow.
Extracting the ancient bloodlines and adapting the Talent Abilities that came with the bloodlines was a much better method. Although his appearance would look terrifying, he was walking the same path as the ancient wizards.
***************************
In the main world.
In the reading room, rays of golden light shined through the gaps of the curtain.
A man in black robe slowly appeared on the red carpet. It was Angele—he just left the Nightmare Realm.
He was wearing a long black metal robe and he looked just like an ordinary human. Angele checked his clothes, looking a bit confused.
'My assumption was correct; my bloodline abilities were deactivated after I returned to this world. I can't activate them and my power level is the same as a strong rank 2 wizard. Also, I can't even activate my bloodline signets anymore, which means I'm slightly weaker than before.'
Angele's brow furrowed as he walked to the windows and dragged the curtain to the side.
He saw two maids and a Knight-level male guard chatting and laughing in the garden. They were hired by Lyn not so long ago; the maids were watering the plants.
The golden sunlight reflected on the surface of the rippling Ness River and there were several white birds slowly circling above the water.
Angele noticed something was going on in the forest on the other side of the river before he closed the curtain.
The width of the Ness River was more than 300 meters. There were several people wearing brown leather armor fighting with two men in black.
Angele rubbed the surface of his nails and started waiting.
Seconds later, he heard the footsteps outside the door.
*Knock Knock*
With a flick of Angele's finger, the black snake rune disappeared from the surface of the door and the door opened by itself.
Lyn slowly stepped into the room.
"Master, are you looking for me?" The girl spent a long time studying the drugs and plants after she was drugged the last time; she got some decent results, but her outfit was infused with the smell of herbs.
Lyn was wearing the short black skirt and pink tights with a pair of black silky gloves that were covered in mud.
Angele glanced at the girl and questioned, "Playing with your herbs again?"
Lyn nodded slightly. "Yeah, I failed to protect you as a guard the last time and it was you who solved the problem for me. I'm a Watcher but I was ashamed of what I have done. Don't worry, I won't be drugged again since my resistance is increased to a very high level, and…"
Angele waved his right hand and stopped Lyn. "Alright, enough. Come here. Do you know what's going on? It seems like some people are fighting over there."
Lyn closed the door and walked to Angele. She looked in the direction Angele was pointing at and saw two groups of people fighting.
The three in brown were on the left and the two in black were on the right.
"They're fighting in Goodnow Family's territory, but… Well, I think their patrols are fighting with some outsiders," Lyn responded in a light tone.
"Goodnow Family? It's a small family, right?" Angele had never heard about the family. All the large families had tried to invite him to the parties they held, but only the nobles with high-rank wizards in their families were allowed to send invitation letters to the mansion and he had never gotten anything from the Goodnow Family.
"Yeah, it's a small family. They don't even know that you live here and we didn't tell them anything when we purchased the mansion. The only thing they know was that this place is owned by a large noble family," Lyn quickly responded.
"Is that so?" Angele nodded as he watched the fight. The fight was ending, one was injured and one was killed. They both started retreating and the fire caused by the spells was extinguished by another group of people. However, the traces left by the fight could still be found in the area.
"Send someone to the Goodnow Family and ask the ones that were fighting to come see me," Angele stopped for a second and ordered.
"Do you really want to see them?" Lyn was a bit surprised, but she understood the situation immediately. "Sure, I'll send someone there now."
She turned around, left the room, and closed the door.
Angele stood by the window and saw a Knight in black armor jump on the black horse, then start moving to the other side of the Ness River right away.
The horse and the Knight disappeared from Angele's sight quickly. He knew that it would take at least one day for them to come back.
Angele looked at his left hand—there was an eye-shaped amethyst ring on his middle finger.
He rubbed the surface of the gem.
Blue light shined upon the gem and a ray of blue light was released. The light dropped on the windowsill in front of Angele quietly.
A row of text quickly appeared on the light screen.
"This is the intel center, please tell us your question."
"I want the event log of Elemental Hand," Angele spoke in a deep tone.
"Elemental Hand. Intel Level C. Access Granted."
*CHI*
Suddenly, rows of information appeared on the light screen, looking like a blue waterfall. There was so much information that it blurred in his sight for a second.
Blue light flashed in front of Angele—he recorded all the information using the biochip.
The information flow stopped after several seconds.
Angele rubbed the gem again and the color of the gem returned to purple.
The blue light screen slowly vanished into the air.
Angele closed his eyes and started thinking.
He filtered the information he acquired from the Dark Wizard Tower's intel center; two of the messages caught his attention.
The first one was about the Elemental Hand's army that was led by Vivian.
The first elder of the elder council joined the battle; he assisted Vivian and started pressuring their enemy. The alliance could not handle the pressure and started retreating, including the lords in the Thousand Waterfall City and the storm giant lord.
The second message was about the fairy realm. The portal Angele found the last time was not the only one—there were also several other portals in the Terry River area. Also, some of the wizards from the central continent council already started an investigation. The details of the investigation were not mentioned, but three of the portals had been sealed.
Those were the most important events for the Elemental Hand and it seemed like things were going well for the organization.
Angele started checking the communication runes after reading the messages.
Vivian sent several messages to Angele, asking him to keep practicing in the mansion; she would test him after the war ended.
Mincola also sent him several messages, saying that he had to stay in his family's territory for some time.
There were also messages from Seth. Nicole's situation was getting worse, so Morrian, Milan, and Seth all went to help her.
Angele checked all the messages quickly. He had not visited the Mermaid's Song for a while as the new department head for the Human Resource Department hadn't been assigned to the city yet. The elder council had no time to do that during the war, but things were going well for the city. Everything was well-organized by the other assistant.
The department did not need Angele's help so he decided not to visit the city.
Angele walked to the shelf after checking all the messages. He crouched and dragged a black box out.
*Crack*
The box was unlocked; inside it was a thick black book.
The book was half a meter long and wide. Two silver crescent moons were painted on the cover of the book.
Angele grabbed the book and put it on his knees. He wiped the dust off the cover of the book.
'The book of communication runes. It has been a while.' He shook his head slightly. It seemed like the book reminded him of something.
Angele opened the book and saw communication runes that were in different colors and shapes lined up on the page.
Most of the communication runes were no longer glowing; only a few of them were still surrounded by colorful light.
"So many people have passed away…" Angele sighed with mixed emotions.
Angele recorded all the communication runes he had in the book; the light of the runes would fade after their owners passed away.
Wizards could not store all the communication runes on their nails—that was the reason why the book of communication runes was created. Angele modified his book slightly; every time he received a new communication rune, the rune would be recorded in the book automatically and all the messages would be saved at the same time.
Chapter 385: The Past (2)
Translator: Leo Editor: Kurisu
Angele kept turning the pages.
The communication runes from the wizards of Elemental Hand and some apprentices were also in the book. Most of the runes in the second half of the book were from the wizards of the west coast.
Suddenly, his finger slowly stopped at a while glowing rune—it was Nancy's communication rune.
The rune looked like a white rose but its light was fading away, it seemed like the owner of the rune was dying.
Angele checked the glow of the rune carefully.
'The glow… She still tried to become a formal wizard but she failed several more times.' Her potential and life energy were probably wasted during the procedure.
Angele looked at the communication rune. He could see that the beautiful girl was slowly turning into an old woman with wrinkles all over her face.
'It's her own choice. I already did what I can.' Angele shook his head and started checking the other communication runes.
Suddenly, he stopped at a dark blue rune that had the shape of a centaur—the rune was surrounded by a purple glow.
The message echoed in his ears as he touched the rune with the right index finger.
"I'm sorry, Green. I'm not sure how many years it'll take for this message to be delivered to you. The situation here is getting worse and worse every day. Most of the signal obelisks were destroyed by the strong merfolk soldiers and I'm not sure if there'll be enough energy for the messages to be delivered to the central continent. I had to rely on some special method to send you the message. I've been working with your teacher in recent years and things are going well for me. However, I have one thing that I have to tell you." It was Isabel, her voice was so familiar.
"I'm sorry… Your father has already passed away. He became an adventurer several years ago as he said that he wanted to explore the world. Although we sent some people to protect him, his ship was destroyed by the storm when he was trying to travel across the Gem Sea. The whole ship broke into pieces; we tried to find them with the help of merfolk, but the sea had already become their grave…" Isabel sounded apologetic.
Angele knew that Isabel had already tried her best to show her emotion. She had never changed.
'Father…' Angele recalled the moment that he reincarnated to this world.
A familiar scene visualized in his sight. It felt like he was looking down through the window of his room in the castle. The Baron with long hair and mustache was sitting on a strong horse, taking off his gloves and smiling at Angele.
Angele stood up and sighed with mixed emotions.
He knew that this moment would come sooner or later. However, it still made him feel depressed when it came.
Angele was not the original Angele and he did not spend too much time with the Baron.
He stood beside the window and suddenly noticed that there were not many things or people connecting him with the west coast.
Cold beauty Isabel, mysterious Axis of Time, terrifying Ramsoda, endless Gem Sea, the Andes Alliance, the Anser Plain, and the perished Rudin Empire.
The faces of the people he knew and the things that happened in the past were going through his mind.
Angele just realized that he had visited so many places and met so many people.
He put his index finger on Isabel's communication rune.
"I've received the message," he spoke in a low voice.
The communication released some light blue glow, the message had been sent, but Angele was not sure if Isabel could receive it.
He took a deep breath and closed the book, putting it back into the box.
Angele's father had passed away and he never found out where his mother was. The only one that would take care of him like taking care of a family member was Vivian. He was not sure if he should thank Henn for her evil plan or not.
"It's probably what every wizard will go through in their lives…" He took a deep breath and stopped muttering, staring at the sky through the window.
**************************
In the Abyss Canyon.
On the yellow plain, the deep canyon looked like a long centipede lying quietly on the land, releasing chilling waves to all angles.
On the edge of the canyon, there was a white-robed person sitting quietly with his legs crossed.
The white-robed person was a young and beautiful woman; her right ear looked like the shape of a rabbit year, it was sharp and furry.
The golden sunlight landed on the woman and she looked like a white statue in the bright light.
*Twitter*
A black bird and a white bird landed on the woman's shoulders. They jumped and twittered; it seemed like they were not concerned about the presence of the woman.
Suddenly, the woman opened her eyes—there were two black vortexes spinning in her pupils.
"Finally," she muttered. "The death wave didn't remove all the traces you left on this land."
She slowly stood up and the two birds' bodies quickly turned white. Layers of blue ice climbed up their bodies within seconds.
*Pa*
The birds died and dropped to the ground.
The woman raised her right hand and released a ray of white light. The white ray stroke into the sky and turned into a standing light cylinder.
She just stood there and waited after sending the signal.
Some white smoke appeared in the sky and landed in front of the woman, turning into a man in a white robe.
"Master Erwin, you found some traces?" the man asked.
"What's the matter?" Erwin was not interested in his question.
The man nodded. "Two more rank 4 wizards from the underground world are attacking us and we need your help. They don't have the inheritor's magic circle."
"I don't work for free." Erwin's expression turned cold. "Tell him that I need three more years before I can find the one who killed my sister. Just leave me alone!"
"Three years?" The man was surprised. "Don't tell me you're going to…"
"You guessed it. I need to go down the canyon to find my sister's body." Erwin shook her hands, she was losing her patience. "I'll come back in three years."
"But, Master, the canyon is too dangerous, and—"
"Alright, you can leave now." Erwin waved her right hand and hit the man with a ray of white right. The man failed to finish his words and his body turned into white smoke, flying toward the sky.
Erwin walked to the edge of the canton and looked down. The vortexes in her eyes were spinning faster and faster.
****************************
The Nightmare Realm, in the arena of the mansion.
The orange light from the sun painted the whole arena in red.
The gentle wind blew over the land and it brought warmth to the area.
There were two people fighting against each other in the arena, it was two young girls with crossguard sword and a long dagger in their hands. They were trading attacks every second.
Angele stood beside the arena and watched the two girls fight.
Freia was wielding a crossguard sword and Orphie was using a long dagger.
Orphie was having a hard time defending against the incoming strikes and her tight white swordsman's suit was already damaged.
Freia had no trouble winning the practice match.
"Orphie, you need to practice more. I only used a third of my true power," Freia mocked Orphie as she performed the sword skill combo.
Orphie's face turned red and she only blocked half of the incoming strikes.
*CHI*
Orphie's belt was damaged by the sword again.
*Clap Clap*
Angele clapped his hands slightly.
"Alright, that's it. Freia, stop now."
Freia jumped backward and pointed at Angele with her sword.
"Green, why don't you come and help me improve my skills? If you lose the practice match against me, can you take a bath with me? Don't run away from me this time!" Her long black ponytail was dancing in the wind and her elastic skin looked pink under the light of the setting sun. The girl was young and full of energy.
Angele was a bit speechless.
"You're no a kid anymore and I won't take a bath with you. Come on, take the bath and we'll have the dinner."
Orphie blushed as she heard the conversation. "I'll go take the bath now." She walked away quickly.
She already knew that Freia did not treat Angele like her father after living with her in the mansion. Freia looked at Angele like a wife would look at her husband. It was like a romantic relationship with nothing to hide.
However, Orphie was still not sure if Angele was a human being. She did not think too much about it as she was safe in the mansion.
Freia still stood on the arena after Orphie left.
Freia drew a flower in the air with the tip of her sword. "Green, hurry! Are you afraid of me?"
Angele stepped on the platform and raised his right hand, creating a silver crossguard sword.
Freia slashed forward before Angele could react. The blade drew a silver string in the air as the girl was going for his throat.
*Clank*
Angele hit Freia's sword with his sword and leaned to the side. He suddenly charged forward and tried to grab Freia's shoulder. This combo could usually win the fight for him and Freia would go have the dinner without saying anything else.
However, Freia just let Angele grab her shoulder; she blocked Angele's sword and was still trying to hit him in the throat.
However, Angele's sword would hit her face before she could hit him. Freia did not look at the incoming sword, it almost looked like she was trying to trade her life with Angele.
"Now you're acting like a child." Angele was speechless, he slightly lowered his sword and blocked Freia's attack.
Angele's hand was still on Freia's right shoulder, however, Freia suddenly leaned back slightly and he could feel that he grabbed something soft.
He noticed that his hand landed on Freia's breast after she moved back slightly.
"Well…" Angele quickly moved his hand away. It seemed like what Freia did was intentional.
The two stood in the arena and the situation was awkward.
"Green, what do you think? It's larger than before, right?" Freia looked at Angele and asked. It seemed like she did not mind that Angele grabbed her breast.
She lived in the mansion for too long. Angele and his brother were the only two that could teach her about the things between man and woman. However, she never thought it was a big deal.
"Sometimes I grab them myself and it feels pretty good, but if I use too much strength, it'll…" Freia started explaining.
Angele had no idea what he should say. "Come on, stop. Go have dinner now. I brought Orphie to you because I want you to have someone to play with. If you don't listen to my words, I'll take Orphie away and you'll have no one to play with."
"Fine…" Freia rolled her eyes, it seemed like she got another idea so she did not argue with Angele. She jumped off the platform and returned the sword to the weapon shelf.
Chapter 386: Visit (1)
Translator: Leo Editor: Kurisu
Angele knew that Freia was planning something, but he was not concerned. He melted the long sword and absorbed it into his skin. The metal layer on his body was made with normal precious metals after the fight with Eye Devil and the magic resistance was much lower than before.
Without the magic resistance material from the claw warriors, there was not much he could do. Also, the claw warriors almost disappeared from this world and Angele was lucky that he had met several ones on the west coast. However, the wizard culture was much more developed in the central continent, and such materials would only be used for the gear specially crafted for wars. It was nearly impossible for organizations to share them with the members. Angele thought that the ones he met were trained by the owner of the mansion.
He could probably get some claws by asking Vivian, but the Elemental Hand was at war and he did not want to bother her with unimportant matters.
Anything could happen in the Nightmare Realm; he would find the items he needed sooner or later.
Angele took Freia to the dining hall and they started having dinner.
The only noise in the hall was made by knives and forks. The three did not say anything, they just focused on finishing the food.
"Orphie, come to my room after dinner," Angele suddenly spoke in a calm tone. "I mean, the reading room."
"Sure, master." Orphie sounded a bit surprised but her expression did not change. She knew the day would come—she found that the way Angele dealt with Freia was a bit strange and she thought that an "old monster" like Angele must have some weird hobby.
Freia acted like she did not hear the conversation and was just eating her food.
The white bread and meat corn soup were finished by her within seconds; she almost choked on the food, but she hated the black pepper steak and she did not even touch it.
"I'm full." She put down the silverware, pushed the chair away, and left the dining hall.
Angele glanced at Freia, and again, he knew that the girl was planning something. After finishing the dinner with Orphie, Angele turned the silverware into a large ball, which was absorbed by his skin. The leftovers were collected in a bowl, then frozen by the energy particles.
The silverware was controlled by the metal force field, but the remains of the food would just fall down.
Angele moved the plates over to the rubbish bin before turning them back to the metal liquid; the remains would drop into the bin easily.
He took Orphie to the second floor and entered the reading room after cleaning the table.
*Crack*
The door was locked by Angele and the black snake rune appeared on its surface.
"Alright, take a seat." A gentle smile appeared on Angele's face. Orphie was still glancing around and he sat down first on a chair beside the window.
Orphie nodded. "Thanks." She sat down on the opposite side. "What should I do?" Angele did not do anything to her in the last several days so she did not think that she was in danger.
"There's something I need to tell you." Angele cast an illusion spell on himself to cover his strange appearance after returning to the mansion as he did not want Freia to get scared.
He just looked like a normal human being at the moment.
"I think you know that the reason why I took you away from Eye Devil was not that I wanted to save you. You don't have anywhere else to go, so I took you back to my mansion. To be honest, I have several human friends and I don't want to eat you, but we're just strangers to each other and I don't want to give you the resources for free. That's the problem."
Orphie was wearing a white one piece and with a long blonde ponytail. She looked cute and pure.
She remained calm. "I can understand what you're worried about, what should I do to earn your trust? Or how should I pay you in return? You know, if you kick me out of the mansion, I'll die within minutes. There are no other choices for me to choose."
"I'm glad that you can understand." Angele smiled. "I just wanted you to help me with a small experiment.
"I'll do whatever you want me to." Orphie nodded.
Angele nodded; he looked satisfied. "Good, I like people that are willing to listen. You need to pay if you want anything, that's the truth of this world."
He stood up. "Let's get started now."
"As you wish." Orphie stood up as well.
Angele pointed at Orphie.
An invisible force slowly lifted Orphie up and helped her lay down in the air.
Angele waved his right hand.
Orphie's body was moved to the platform in the center of the room and lowered down.
Angele walked to the platform and gently removed all the clothes from Orphie's body.
The girl was trembling slightly but she tried her best to calm down. She never wore any clothes in the blood cell and she already got used to it, but she felt a bit uncomfortable being stared at by a male.
Orphie watched Angele remove her clothing and take out a blue test tube from the shelf. He slowly sprinkled the powder on the girl's stomach.
The powder landed on Orphie's skin; it looked like tiny ice cubes and was extremely cold. She could feel that the bottom half of her body became numb due to the coldness of the powder.
"What's this?" she could not help but ask. "It's freezing."
Angele responded as he sprinkled the powder carefully. "A powder that will keep you safe, you'll get used to it later."
Orphie bit her lips, her body was getting colder and colder. She could barely move her limbs and she started having trouble breathing.
Angele looked at the girl carefully.
He built a wheel-shaped magic circle on the girl��s stomach. Her skin was white and clean.
The blue powder was absorbed by the girl's skin quietly as it landed on her body. It looked like the magic circle became part of her body after everything was done.
"Don't worry, I won't hurt you… the only thing you need to do is relax, don't think about anything." Angele's gentle voice sounded warm and comfortable. It helped Orphie relax. There was a strange energy wave surrounding her body.
Angele was satisfied with the start of the experiment.
*Pa*
He flicked his finger.
The blue magic circle on Orphie's stomach started burning; the dark red flame brightened up the room slightly.
The girl's body was warmed up by the flame quickly.
Angele made several gestures in front of his chest and strings of red energy started gathering in the air. The energy strings thickened; they looked like countless red ribbons that were sinking into Orphie's stomach.
"Helinmu, Yasuweila, the moon of reproduction," Angele quickly chanted the incantation and created a long fire chain between his hands.
The flames on the chain slowly faded away, turning into countless red light dots that dropped on the magic circle.
Angele's expression slowly turned serious.
He waved his right hand and blood appeared on his right index finger. He quickly pressed it on the magic circle.
It looked like the red blood was sucked into the magic circle by something as the blood contacted her skin.
Angele slowly lowered his index finger and looked at the wound—it already stopped bleeding. His high Stamina helped him recover within seconds.
"Alright, you can just do your daily routine like usual, but you need to let me know if anything happens to your body." Angele looked at Orphie—the girl was still trying to figure out what happened.
"Understood." Orphie's brow furrowed and she slowly sat up. The girl was blushing and her skin was coated with a red glow.
She looked at the magic circle on her stomach—the circle only had two levels beside the complicated strings.
It was a circle and a triangle; the whole magic circle was simple, but there was a small red meat cell in the center of the circle, pumping. The thing looked a bit strange, but she could not feel any pain or itchiness.
"Alright, there's one thing I need to let you know about the experiment," Angele started explaining. "Your body was modified to fit the blood cell and you could no longer reproduce as a human being. You need to understand that if my experiment succeeded, you'll be able to reproduce again, so please be prepared for the possible changes."
Orphie was a bit surprised at first but she looked excited.
"Good, you can leave now." Angele waved his right hand.
"Yes, Master." Orphie grabbed her clothes and left the room without putting them on.
The door was slowly closed.
Angele stood in front of the platform, blue strings flashing in his eyes. No one knew what he was thinking. The glowing crystals on the wall were out of energy and the only source of light in the room were the burning torches.
The light from the flames shined on Angele's face as his expression changed several times.
'If I can succeed this time… With my blood, the reproduction ability of Orphie, and the inheritor's secret technique, I can probably validate my final assumption.'
He planted his own blood into Orphie's abdomen and raised the merged bloodline like a seed.
If he could succeed, he would be able to get his own inheritor—an inheritor with the merged ancient bloodline.
Although the inheritor would be weaker than him, the inheritor would still be able to develop its power in the Nightmare Realm.
The pure bloodlines extracted by the biochip were stronger than the lords in this realm—this was Angele's biggest secret, and something that he could rely on.
If he could improve the inheritor with the blood planting method, he only needed to pay a little to acquire a strong assistant.
That was probably the reason why the sealed forms wanted to produce their own inheritors.
Chapter 387: Visit (2)
Translator: Leo Editor: Kurisu
In the next ten days, Angele met the representatives from the Goodnow family and they told him the details about the areas near the mansion. He also asked the family to capture different insects and collect different plants for him. Angele would gift them magic stones for every new species they found.
He spent most of his free time in the Nightmare Realm with the crystal scorpion activated and absorbing the essence crystal he acquired from the blood pool that Eye Devil gifted him. Also, he was waiting for Orphie's body to change.
Sadly, the magic circle on Orphie's stomach shrank and weakened. She regained the ability to reproduce, but the seed failed to grow.
Angele checked Orphie's body and noticed that something was happening to the girl. He could see that the girl's eyes turned red—they looked identical to the color of his own eyes.
************************
One month later…
In the Nightmare Realm.
Angele looked at Orphie with his brow furrowed. The girl's skin was much smoother than before and it seemed like she was horny.
He rubbed the girl's arms slightly.
"Ugh!" Orphie bit her lips, her body trembled and her eyes rolled up; it seemed like she reached climax again. The girl's private part was wet.
"That's the change you noticed?" Angele lowered his hands and started thinking. "Although you can reproduce again, your body is so sensitive that you can barely… Sorry, it seems like something went wrong during the experiment, or maybe…"
He did not finish the sentence.
The bloodline of the scorpion woman was in the merged bloodline that was planted in Orphie's body; the scorpion woman was famous for her promiscuity. Orphie's condition was a consequence of the bloodline.
"Sorry, can you please help me… deal with my condition… It's fine if I can't completely recover from this, but my body is so sensitive that I can barely put on any clothes…" Orphie blushed and responded while breathing heavily.
"Sorry, but I can only try." Angele nodded apologetically.
He turned the dark red armband on his right arm slightly.
*CHI*
A ball of purple flame was released from the flame.
The fireball expanded and landed slowly on the surface of Orphie's body, sinking into her skin.
Orphie felt much better after the ball disappeared.
"I need to repeat this process once every half a year, you need to come and find me in time because your body���s sensitivity is lowered temporarily. It's like adding water to a balloon, but the balloon will explode half a year later and all the water will… Anyway, just make sure that you remember the date," Angele explained. "Also, I'll ask you one more time, do you really want to keep your body in this form?"
"Yes, and I thank you for recovering the reproduction ability for me, it has always been my dream. The only consequence is a sensitive body and I can live with that," Orphie responded in a serious tone.
Angele shrugged, he could not understand why bearing a child was so important to the girl.
"Alright, that's it for the day. You can go have some rest now." He suddenly turned around and looked out the window.
"Yes, Master." Orphie got up and looked at the wetted platform. She grabbed the clothes, slowly walked out of the room, and closed the door.
Angele waved his right hand and all the stains on the platform vaporized. It was a cleaning spell that was usually used to clean wizards' long robes, it was perfect for the occasion.
Angele slowly walked to the window after everything was clean. He could see that there was a man standing quietly in the forest.
The man was wearing a black hood. He raised his head after noticing that Angele was staring at him, and turned out to be a beautiful woman with her face hidden behind a purple mask.
Angele narrowed his eyes, opened the window, and jumped down.
*BAM*
He landed on the ground quietly and jumped forward. He turned into a black shadow, rushed through the barrier, and stopped in front of the woman.
"Hey, Phoenix, it has been a while." The woman had a gentle smile on her face. "Thank you for helping me during the auction, I was just passing by when I realized that you live here."
"Passing by?" Angele glanced around. He could see the traces of energy in the air that were left by Eye Devil. He also noticed the energy particles left by the human's magic card device—those energy particles were not infused with the bloodline power, they were just like the ones he could find in the main world.
"Who are you after?" he questioned in a low voice.
"Yeah, there were some insects trying to make trouble in my city, and I decided to send one of my doppelgangers here." Eye Devil did not hesitate to tell Angele that what he was seeing was just a doppelganger.
"Interesting, those insects are still trying to escape?" Angele was trying to guess why Eye Devil suddenly came to visit. He was wondering if Eye Devil was getting suspicious.
"Yeah, those insects are good at escaping, and one of them is related to the old church. Anyway, let's stop talking about those boring things. Also, why don't you show me around your territory? I think I treated you well back in my house." Eye Devil rolled her eyes and pursed her lips into a smile.
Angele was getting nervous, he had no excuse to ask Eye Devil to leave; however, Freia and Orphie would make her even more suspicious if she saw them.
He started thinking and he was trying to find an acceptable excuse.
"Huh? There's a human in your shelter? And a female one?" Eye Devil suddenly opened her mouth before Angele could say anything else. "Well, she does look beautiful."
Eye Devil's sight went over Angele and fell upon the mansion.
Angele turned his head around and he was surprised.
Freia was staring at them in front of the gate curiously.
"That's why you didn't eat your food at the party, huh? I didn't know you like… Don't worry, it'll be a secret between us." Eye Devil gave Angele a strange look. "I served you the best young girl I had that day…"
"Well, I was worried that you would devour her by accident. I started training her when she was young and I needed her for a special experiment."
"It won't happen." Eye Devil chuckled. "Also, you'll attack me if I do that, right? You're much stronger than before, I assume you're breaking your seal?"
"No, I'm still weaker than you." Angele smiled and shook his head. "Alright, please follow me."
"That took you a while to say that." Eye Devil sighed.
"Well, I apologize."
Angele noticed the woman's emotions were unstable, but he had no other choice but to invite her into the mansion.
Angele could return to the main world if anything went wrong, but Freia would be in trouble and that would be a problem.
Eye Devil entered the defensive barrier with Angele
Eye Devil looked around curiously. Freia watched Angele inviting a stranger into the mansion and walked to them. She jumped into Angele's arms.
"Who is she?" Freia glanced at Eye Devi as she hugged Angele.
Angele rubbed Freia's hair and spoke in a gentle tone, "Don't worry, she's a friend of mine, and she's just here to visit."
A gentle smile appeared on Eye Devil's face.
"What a cute girl! My name is Daisy and you can just call me that. Nice to meet you." She raised her right hand and there was a small blue fruit on her palm. The fruit looked like a walnut. "This is a small gift for you. An unpolluted blue apple."
"A blue apple! My name is Freia and Daisy, you're beautiful!" Freia's expression relaxed after seeing Eye Devil's smile and she grabbed the apple from Eye Devil's hand. "Thank you!"
Angele glared at the apple and patted Freia's back. "Alright, go to the garden with Orphie. We'll be having a short conversation."
"Sure." Freia nodded and jumped out of Angele's arms, walking to the garden.
Angele felt relieved as the girl disappeared from Eye Devil's sight.
"What a pure and cute girl! I can't resist her smile." Eye Devil looked at Angele.
'Well, because you want to eat her,' Angele thought, speechless.
"Alright, I'll show you around. I'm sorry that this place is much smaller than your city and I didn't prepare anything."
"It's fine, no worries." Eye Devil's eyes were surrounded by a purple glow. It seemed like she was planning something.
Orphie heard the noise as well, she was staring at Eye Devil in fear beside the door. She covered her mouth with both hands and tried her best to stay calm. However, she just watched Angele leading Eye Devil to the mansion.
She knew Eye Devil—it was the monster she saw in the blood cell, who was there just to check if the food was still fresh...
*******************************
Outside the mansion, three people walked out of the bushes slowly after Angele entered the mansion with Eye Devil.
"Scarferro, are you alright? How's your wound?" the leading one questioned the one behind him.
"I'm fine. I didn't know that the city was the territory of that monster. I miscalculated the whole thing," Scarferro responded in a deep tone as he held his right arm tightly.
"It was all my fault. I'm sorry." The last one was a female, she was wearing a leather armor that looked like a bikini with a long black robe. "If the monster hadn't met someone she knew, she'd have found us and forced us to activate the magic card device the teacher gave us." The woman sounded depressed.
"Also, it seems like there's another monster here, but I saw a girl by the gate when they were talking. We need to tell our teacher about the situation, the intel might be helpful to my father," the leader spoke in a low voice. "Alright, we need to leave before they find us."
"Sure," the other two people agreed.
The three jumped back into the bushes and concealed themselves in a black smoke screen that came out from nowhere. They started running in the opposite direction of the mansion.
Chapter 388: Fear (1)
Translator: Leo Editor: Kurisu
Angele and Eye Devil walked together along the hallway on the first floor.
The hallway was open; on the left, it led to the living room of the main building, and on the right was the Ness River.
The sun was setting and there was some thin mist above the surface of the river, like floating silk towels.
Angele was leading the way, glaring at the dark surface of Ness River.
"The river is great but it's the only attractive thing in my territory. I hope it doesn't disappoint you." He was checking Eye Devil's behavior constantly as he walked as he had to make sure that she was not trying to attack him.
Eye Devil followed after Angele with a smile on her face.
"I'm not disappointed at all. I like your place more than my own. It's nice and quiet."
"Well, it's nice you can say that." Angele shook his head and he was a bit speechless.
They walked past the pool with clear water.
"It's a pool that I built a while ago, I swim in it from time to time," Angele introduced.
"Interesting, a swimming pool, huh?" Eye Devil glanced at the pool curiously.
They left the pool area and arrived at the garden quickly.
"Alright, this is my garden and I have some rare plants here," Angele pointed at the garden.
Eye Devil did not seem interested.
Orphie and Freia were taking care of the sunflowers carefully, they were watering and pruning the flowers.
Eye Devil's sight fell upon Orphie.
"I have a lot of food like that in my city. Just tell me if you need more. I'll ship them to you."
"Well, if it's free." Angele smiled.
"It won't be free." Eye Devil rolled her eyes. "Alright, let's go." Suddenly, she stopped before leaving the garden. Eye Devil quickly turned around and stared at Orphie again.
"Huh? The power…?" Eye Devil looked surprised. "An inheritor? Wait!"
Angele was surprised but his expression did not change. He waited for Eye Devil to finish her words.
"The power is interesting. I think I detected the power from a scorpion king from it…" Eye Devil turned around and looked at Angele. "Phoenix, can you gift that pet to me? I'll send you twenty better ones later and you can do whatever you want to them. What do you think?"
"Sorry, this is a prototype and I still need it." Angele shook his head and declined the request. "Alright, let me explain." He planted the merged bloodline in Orphie's body not so long ago and Eye Devil would find out the truth just by doing some simple tests on the girl.
Eye Devil stared at Angele for several minutes and smiled. She did not say anything else.
"Let's go. I'll show you the other areas." Angele turned around and started walking again.
They passed through the garden and arrived at the arena.
"This is where I practice my skills, only physical skills, energy skills will probably destroy the platform. Also, I sometimes…" Angele was interrupted before he could finish the sentence.
"I'll give you 100 slaves for that piece of meat, what do you say?" Eye Devil did not give up.
Angele shrugged. "Well, I can't, sorry."
"200."
There was an apologetical smile on Angele's face.
"300! Plus a piece of high-quality noble meat!" Eye Devil's expression turned cold. "Phoenix, think twice before you answer me."
The smile disappeared from Angele's face as well, he stared at Eye Devil.
"Eye Devil, it's not about how many pieces of meat you can give me."
Eye Devil stood in the center of the hallway, invisible energy vortexes appeared around her body and the wind started blowing in the whole area.
Angele and Eye Devil stared at each other calmly, but no one moved. The atmosphere was getting heavier and heavier.
"Phoenix, don't be too greedy…" Eye Devil pursed her lips. "You better give me what I want…"
"I told you already, it's not about the price," Angele spoke in a deep voice. "Eye Devil, don't make this hard for both of us."
Eye Devil was still staring at Angele in the eyes.
Several minutes later.
She suddenly chuckled.
"Whatever, it���s just a piece of meat. We shall not be so hard on each other just for that. Not worth it."
Angele loosened his expression as the atmosphere lightened. "You're right. Alright, I have some other places that I want to you show you."
He turned around and started walking; however, he noticed the intense energy wave coming from behind immediately.
Angele had no time to think, he turned around and released several flame beads.
*BAM*
The black light and red light exploded at the same time but the hallway was not damaged. It almost looked like nothing happened, and the energy waves disappeared several seconds later.
Angele jumped back slightly and looked at Eye Devil.
"Really? Eye Devil."
Eye Devil stood there quietly and a sweet smile appeared on her face.
"It was just an accident." She did not look concerned. "Also, I wanted to know if your power has already recovered. You said that your physical form was still weak several days ago. However, I can see that you��re recovering just by looking at your reactions."
"Is that so?" Angele stared at her calmly.
"Come on, I'm not stupid. This is your territory…" Eye devil chuckled but Angele was still staring at her.
She finally gave up. "Alright, alright. I won't try to take it from you. I didn't know you would be so angry."
"It's great if you understand." Angele narrowed his eyes. "Alright, thanks for visiting me, but I won't walk you home, please be careful when you leave."
He was asking Eye Devil to leave.
"Are you sure you don't want to spend the night with me? I'll do anything for you as a compensation." Eye Devil rolled her purple eyes slightly and she was trying to seduce Angele. "Any position, any hole, also, you can do it with your true form."
Angele was not interested at all. "Thanks, but I'll pass. It's getting late, and I want to rest. Please."
Eye Devil sighed and she looked a bit sad. "Fine, I���ll visit you again later. Am I not attractive enough to you?" She turned around and her body quickly became a ball of purple flame.
The fist-sized flame flew through the defensive barriers with no problem and disappeared into the night sky.
Angele watched Eye Devil leave quietly.
Several minutes later.
"Ugh!"
He suddenly covered his mouth with both hands—blood was leaking through the gaps between his fingers.
"I was injured just by one strike?" Angele removed the blood from his hands. "Eye Devil is breaking the seal and even her doppelganger can damage me. I probably should've transformed…"
Angele remained silent after finishing the sentence. He looked at the direction that Eye Devil left and there were blue light dots flashing in front of his eyes.
********************************
Half a month later…
In the Sherry Forest of the main world.
It was early in the morning. The sunlight landed on the ground through the gaps between the tree leaves and white mist permeated the air in the forest.
A man wearing a long black robe was moving quickly between the trees, his footsteps a bit loud in the quiet forest.
The tall trees and the vines on the ground could not stop him from advancing; it seemed like the man was familiar with the environment here.
He slowly stopped on a cliff several minutes later. There was an enormous tree in front of him.
The tree trunk had a diameter of more than ten meters, the shadow of the tree hundreds of meters long. There were light dots from the sunlight blinking on the surface of the ground as there were still gaps between the tree leaves.
There were some dark green vines with white buds on the tree's trunk.
The black robe stepped forward and stood in front of the tree. He removed the hood but was still wearing a black helmet.
It was a normal metal helmet that had the texture of bronze. The helmet was just used to cover his face.
The man tapped on one of the white buds slightly.
*CHI*
The bud blossomed and it turned into an attractive white flower. An intense fragrance permeated the air as the flower blossomed. It was a mysterious smell that was a bit like the smell of an apple.
Strangely, there was a white human face in the center of the flower, about the size of a nail. The eyes on the face slowly opened and looked at the man in front of it.
"Green, you're here," the human face spoke in a deep tone.
The man in black was Angele. He returned to the main world to recover and noticed the message from the Dark Wizard Tower. It was about if he would become a core member of the organization.
Angele thought for a while and decided to answer the call; however, he had to sign the soul contract with the organization before he could become a core member. It was a new contract that was developed recently; the consequences would be terrifying if he broke the contract.
Dark Wizard Tower started recruiting core members right after finishing developing the contract and the organization was trying to turn its elite members into a strong force.
There were many elite members that were not sure if they should become core members of the organization due to the new soul contract. The elite members had high potential and most of them were already relatively strong when compared to normal members. If they could become core members of the organization after signing the contract, they would have to be loyal to the organization. It was a great way to create a strong force.
Angele knew that something big would happen to the Dark Wizard Tower right after reading the message.
Chapter 389: Fear (2)
Translator: Leo Editor: Kurisu
Angele had completed several missions from the Dark Wizard Tower over the last several years and already collected a lot of points, but he only spent them on necessary things like purchasing extremely rare materials.
Vivian could not acquire those materials for him, they were sold by the Dark Wizard Tower's members that explored the dangerous ruins.
Angele told Orphie and Freia that Eye Devil was a dangerous monster before leaving the Nightmare Realm. Although Freia found it hard to believe, she still nodded her head and agreed to what Angele just said. The girl did not witness their argument.
After everything was done, Angele took the blood essence crystal that was gifted to him by Eye Devil to the main world and absorbed its power every day. The crystal contained pure bloodline power and it could help Angele modify his body.
Dark Wizard Tower messaged him before he absorbed all the power from the crystal.
Angele calmed down and stood in front of the flower, raising his left hand. There was a ring with an eye-shaped amethyst on his left middle finger. "How many of them are here?"
Blue light flashed on the surface of the ring.
The human face glared at the ring.
"You think I don't trust you? You don't have to show the ring to me… There are about twenty people here and they're all elites in this area. Alright, get in now."
Angele smiled. "I showed you the ring because it's the rule." He lowered his hand. "Alright, I'll leave now, I'll talk to you later."
"Sure," the human face responded.
Angele walked past the tree, stopped by the edge of the cliff, and jumped down.
Down the cliff was an endless abyss; the only thing he could see was some thick black fog.
It was not the first time he traveled to the headquarters of the organization, but Angele still found this method inconvenient.
His body was falling down at full speed; the strong wind was blowing into his pants, sleeves, and collar. He could feel that the heat on the surface of his skin was being taken away.
*WOO*
The noise made by the wind was the only thing he could hear and his skin was getting wet.
The dark fog got thicker and thicker after he fell for a while—it almost completely blocked Angele's sight.
Angele could feel that the weightless feeling was getting weaker and weaker. Several minutes later, he stood on the dark cloud and it did not feel like he was still falling anymore. He could feel the texture of the cloud with his feet—it was soft but steady.
Raising his left hand, Angele released a ray of blue light from the amethyst ring on his left middle finger.
The blue ray stood in front of him like a blue stick, surrounded by blue light dots that looked like floating flower petals.
About half a minute later, the black fog around Angele slowly disappeared.
The environment around him had changed. There were white clouds floating in the bright blue sky. He was standing in a cylinder-shaped canyon with black cliffs on both sides.
Under his feet was a rectangular blue light screen, which looked like a floating tile that was preventing him from falling.
Angele could see a long spiral staircase created by blue light bricks in front of him; the staircase looked like a blue string leading to the entrance of a black city in the sky.
There were four white waterfalls around the city, their size varied. The water came from the tall towers in the sky, while the waterfalls were surrounded by mists. The noise they made was harsh on Angele's ears.
Angele looked down, under the translucent blue tiles, it was a white underground river. The water from the waterfalls dropped into the river and went into some tiny caves on the side.
He raised his head; there were already several people that arrived early and were climbing up the stairs.
Angele started moving as well. He stepped on the second blue light brick and made sure that it could handle his weight.
He shook his head slightly and started walking up the stairs as well.
*CHI CHI*
Angele heard some noise coming from behind and turned his head around. He noticed that a ball of black smoke appeared in the air and another person landed on the light bricks after the smoke disappeared.
It was a man wearing a long black coat, with thick brown fur around his collar. The man had a handsome face and his facial features were almost perfect. His skin was smoother than a woman's and his short red hair was waving in the gentle wind.
Also, the reversed Ω sign between the man's brow was quite eye-catching. The sign was red and there were red electric pulses around it.
The man had a pair of red eyes and he noticed Angele as well—they quickly exchanged eye contact.
"Greetings, I'm Bismarck from the Sky Lord Palace. It must be the fate, we both like red." There was a gentle smile on the man's handsome face. He raised his hand and looked at Angele. For some reason, the red hair that stuck on his forehead made him even more attractive.
Angele did not want to shake the man's hand. He started walking upstairs again. His long red hair and the long black robe flying in the wind. Angele could smell the sick smell of blood from the man named Bismarck.
Bismarck hesitated for a second and lowered his hand, it seemed like he was not ruffled.
The smell of the man almost made Angele puke; he noticed that as the man greeted him.
It was the smell of the bloodline—after he merged with the ancient bloodline and started refining the true form, his sense of the bloodlines was much keener than before. The bloodline did not only contain a man's gene, the soul sigil of the man could also be found in it.
'Sky Lord Palace? It's one of the three wizard lord palaces…' Angele had no intention to make friends with people from the wizard lord palaces. He already enraged the Lord of Shadow, if the Lord of Sky somehow got mad at him as well…
The three wizard lords hated each other, but they could easily kill a low-rank wizard like Angele.
'I didn't expect to see someone from the Sky Lord Palace here. I wonder how strong the Dark Wizard Tower's elite members are…' Angele raised his head and stared at the black city above.
The wizards that could enter this area all signed the new contract so Bismarck just simply told Angele who he was and who he was working for.
This was the headquarters of the Dark Wizard Tower, and the wizards could not leave the area without the permission of the organization; also, they could not send any messages to the people outside the headquarters.
Angele calmed down and kept stepping up the stairs. Bismarck followed behind him; it seemed like he was enjoying himself.
Two more wizards appeared on the light staircase after Bismarck. The first one was a bald female wizard that was wearing a leather armor suit that looked like a white bikini. The second one was a gray robe with the head of an eagle and the body of a human.
The woman and the eagle man did not say anything, they were just going upstairs quietly.
Angele finally reached the top of the staircase after about half an hour; it was the entrance to the black city.
The city looked like an enormous altar with stone staircases in the front and the back. The staircases led to the top level of the altar. There were black buildings on both sides of the staircases.
There were people walking on the empty grounds among the black buildings. Most of the people were wearing black crystal shoulder armor on their left shoulders, otherwise their outfits varied. Some of them were talking to each other.
However, most of them covered their faces with masks and they were looking at others carefully.
The entrance of the city was a large empty ground. A team of guards wearing black crystal armor was standing in front of the gate. All the guards had muscular bodies and their heads were covered by completely closed helmets. Angele also noticed the complicated magic engravings on the surface of their armor.
"Go to the first floor if you're wearing one piece of crystal armor. Go to the second floor if you're wearing two pieces of crystal armor," the leader of the guards spoke. He was talking about the crystal blade armor that was handed to all the elite members and should only be worn on shoulders.
There were about eight wizards at the entrance and Angele was one of them. Bismarck stood beside him—it seemed like he was interested in Angele.
There was a black leather scroll in the guard's hand. There were some words written on the scroll, but what caught people's attention was the large mouth in the center that was full of teeth.
A male wizard stepped forward and grabbed the black leather scroll. He read the contents carefully and chanted several simple incantations, pointing at the large mouth on the scroll. A white light dot was released from his finger tip and it sank into the large mouth quickly.
"Next." The guard took out another black leather scroll and looked at the second wizard that just stepped forward. "Ah, Sophia, long time no see." The guard's voice was gentle.
"It's you. Long time no see." The female wizard stepped forward and repeated what the last wizard just did. Another white light dot sank into the scroll's mouth. "I haven't seen you in years, I'll talk to you after this is done."
"Sure." The guard nodded. His voice was neutral. Angele was not sure if it was a woman or a man.
The wizards signed the contract one by one and Angele's turn had come.
He grabbed the black leather scroll and checked the contents. There was no trap or secret pattern; the words explained the rules clearly. It seemed like the masters of the Dark Wizard Tower were not trying to trick them.
Angele did what the others did and released a white light dot.
He sealed the scroll and started walking to the empty ground on the left of the first floor. There should be someone else waiting for him there.
"So it's Green. It's the name on your contract. I saw it." Bismarck's voice came from behind.
Angele's expression turned cold, he stopped and looked back.
Bismarck raised his right index finger, a glowing, red butterfly on his fingertip swinging its wings. "Well, it's an accident."
"Why did you peek at my contract?" Angele spoke in a cold tone.
Bismarck smiled and stared Angele in the eyes calmly. He suddenly winked at Angele.
'Ugh…' Angele could feel the goose bumps rising on his skin.
'Is this guy trying to seduce me?'
He wanted to puke again.
Bismarck was still winking at him and it was making Angele uncomfortable.
'Dumb*ss…' The man's behavior was giving him chills. Bismarck was more horrifying than the monsters on Eye Devil's party at the moment.
Angele tightened his collar as he suddenly felt cold. Angele turned around and walked to the servant that was waiting for him in the front quickly.
Chapter 390: Filtering (1)
Translator: Leo Editor: Frappe
There were only five servants working as attendants. These attendants looked like waiters and waitresses standing at the side.
Angele soon noticed — as he walked closer to them — that they were not living beings.
The attendants' mouths looked similar to the ones wooden puppets commonly had, and not the hint of the existence of a soul was there in their eyes.
'Wait… It's not that they look like wooden puppets, they are wooden puppets,' Angele thought of this as he focused his gaze on the representatives' body. He discovered to himself that their skin seemed to be as hard as wood while having the color of human flesh.
The attendant nearest at the front noticed that Angele was walking toward her, so she slightly moved her neck and rolled her soulless eyes, staring at Angele.
"Welcome to Sky City. I'm 'No. 241', at your service. Please follow me," the attendant who was wearing a long white dress had a monotonous voice.
Angele was about to return the greeting, but the attendant had already turned away and walked to a small building in the city. The entrance of this particular building was wide open, but inside was dark.
Only one of the puppets conversed with Angele, while the rest of them remained standing in their respective place as they awaited the arrival of the next guest. Another wooden puppet attendant walked out of a different building and took the place of the attendant formerly assigned there.
Angele turned to glance at Bismarck — the man was waving at him while smiling. Bismarck, too, was signing the contract.
Angele no longer bothered himself with the man, as he accompanied the wooden puppet attendant through the door on the left.
It was dark inside, though there were sun rays passing through the gaps between the window. The place was peculiarly hushed.
"Is this the new teleportation gateway? Is there anything you can tell me about this location?" Angele tried to ask the wooden puppet attendant leading the way.
Despite so, the wooden puppet attendant continued her way ahead, almost as if she did not hear his query.
"Sky City has gathered you here because we want to search for the elite of the elites among you. Since we are the administrator of this area, we are allowed to use any resource within our sovereignty. Not only that, we also can ask for the immediate presence of the organization's members if we do so please," the puppet attendant replied in a monotonous tone.
"Huh?" Angele felt intrigued, "How is it possible for you to ask the elites of the area to come here? It sounds like the organizational structure is quite simple."
"It isn't about the organizational structure. You must pay for the benefits we are providing you with, or else, you shall be exiled, and your memory shall be erased," the puppet attendant explained.
"Erase my memory? Ha," Angele sneered, but he did not say anything else.
The pair walked slowly through the dark, wooden building. Angele could not see anything around him. To him, it felt like walking into the endless abyss.
The wooden puppet then suddenly carried on with an explanation before Angele even asked any other question.
"The competition will be held across the five major divisions with one sole purpose — to find the elite of the elites. And you can kill your own opponent if you wish."
"I can kill my opponent?" Angele's eyes squinted, "What are you implying, then? That the organization thinks the benefits it provides to its elite members are good enough for them to fight to the death?"
"The winner shall become one of the division generals, and the top three participants shall be awarded with the magic circle legacy. Be reminded though, that, in reality, the participants will not die and lose their physical forms. The winner shall withal gain the right to participate in the secret meetings of the organization. I'm sure you will not be disappointed if you ever win in the competition," the wooden puppet attendant stopped her explanation right after.
Angele was a bit surprised.
Just the magic circle legacy alone would be an attractive reward. Certainly, Vivian's magic circle legacy was truly powerful, but she would not bequeath it to Angele unless she was about to die.
Angele knew that magic circle legacies could transform a weak wizard into a high-rank wizard. Fighting and winning against a possessor of a magic circle legacy was nigh impossible. After all, the power difference was too great.
Although he could only inherit one magic circle legacy, having one would still aid him significantly during crucial times in battles.
Angele no longer asked anything else after listening to her explanations. Dark Wizard Tower's reward would surely make any wizard that possessed no magic circle legacy fight to the death.
"The magic circle legacy was built by the Dark Wizard Tower, and there are two versions of it. The first version used an infusion model and the second used the semi-inheritance model. If you have another original magic circle legacy you need, you can just infuse it into the one you will win in the competition and alter it into a magic circle legacy set," the wooden puppet attendant added.
"A magic circle legacy set…" Angele was becoming thrilled. A magic circle legacy set was developed to aid wizards to surpass their limit in order to activate more than one legacy circle. The legacy set was much more difficult to build compared to the magic circle legacy itself. It too would require a vast amount of resources, but the result of gaining the ability to possess two magic circle legacies was well worth its price.
A legacy set required too many resources that the top brass of mid-sized organizations had no capability of building one. However, it could mainly assist a wizard to activate the infusion model or the semi-inheritance model while also keeping the possibility of acquiring yet another magic circle legacy, which was the reason Angele was excited.
Angele remained with the wooden puppet attendant as they slowly walked along, but he did not speak of anything else.
The darkness surrounding them slowly disappeared from their sight.
The tiny building made out of wood was no longer there. Instead, Angele could now once again see the blue sky, white clouds, and vibrant grass. The clouds were slowly passing across the endless sky.
Angele soon realized that the attendant had disappeared, and he was now standing on an empty ground located beside a waterfall.
His current location was surrounded by mountains. A green lake lay before him.
There was a twin waterfall from one of the mountains, separated by rocks halfway in the air. They looked like numerous white ribbons descending onto the river.
The noise created by the waterfall spread out across the valley.
Angele stood by the river and overlooked the other side. He saw that there were two wizards standing next to each other; they seemed to be friends.
The one on the left was adorned with a white cloak that completely did not expose his skin.
The other, seemingly a male too, was wearing a golden armor with luxurious design. He had short, blue hair, and half of his face was covered by blue fish scales. He carried a high-quality silver bow on his back.
The two immediately noticed Angele's presence when the latter looked at them. They became vigilant upon seeing Angele's behavior.
But Angele did not mind that. He took out a small green bottle from one of his pouches and opened it. Immediately, a ball of green smoke drifted out of it.
The green smoke formed into a hazy, human-like shadow, but it dissipated before it could solidify. It soon transformed into green particles that surrounded Angele's body.
Angele could feel himself becoming lighter and he slowly flew into the air.
He could now view the environment within and around valley clearly as his flight increased in altitude.
Outside the valley, there were rivers and mountains. The mountains were filled with vibrant, green plant life; the entire place was filled with vitality.
Angele's flight altitude continued to increase. He wanted to get a better look at the surroundings.
Yet at this moment, a deep, hoarse male voice echoed in his ears.
"There are five cores for the five divisions of the Sky City. You will only be able to leave the world rift if you can obtain a complete core. The number of core fragments you can obtain depends on your performance. That is how we award you. Please note that you only have three days left in the world rift."
'World rift?!'
Angele's expression changed. He did not expect the area he was in right now to be a collapsing fissure of the world.
No matter how powerful a wizard was, they would not be able to leave this place without knowing the teleportation coordinates.
At once, he took a glance at the pair of wizards on the ground. They looked surprised, and obviously, they should have heard the voice as well.
The voice spoke again, "Watch out for the cores."
A vibratory noise slowly resounded in the sky. That made him feel like the heaven and earth started to shake.
Angele quickly raised his head.
Five black stars soared through the endless blue sky and began their descent.
At the same time, he saw powerful wizards, varying in forms, appearing on the mountains on the far side. Just like him, those wizards were spectating the descent of these black stars.
The five stars that were surrounded by dark flames would soon strike the land.
Angele did not rush toward the closest star. Instead, he took out some tiny, colorful stones from one of his pouches while blue light flashed in his eyes. He ground the stones until it turned into powder and scattered them into the air.
The colorful powder was blown away by the wind. As Angele continued to watch, his expression became grim.
'They really did not lie. This is really a world rift. I didn't expect for Dark Wizard Tower to find a place like this… Wait… Five places like this… Damn.' Angele took a deep breath.
'I must go after the cores, or else, I won't be able to leave the rift.' He glanced at the two wizards near the river again and discovered that they, too, were looking at him. The three of them seemed to be having similar thoughts.
Angele turned around and directed the wind element to take him to the closest star.
The five stars were becoming closer and closer to the ground.
*BOOM*
The earth started shaking for a while.
The closest star descended onto a long river that was not so far away from Angele. He could even see the mud splashing into the air.
Angele remained floating in the air. He could see wizards jump out of the mountains and make a beeline for the star as fast as they could muster.
The scene looked like dozens of colorful ants moving toward an enormous black hole. Meanwhile, some of them were flying toward the star just like Angele.
Angele stopped wasting his time. As he headed straight for the star, he saw a ray of black light flash in the deep crater it created.
*CHI CHI CHI*
Within the deep crater, a black light-ball exploded, turning into numerous pieces that flew toward all angles like raindrops.
The black cores turned into countless black fragments that were drawing strings in the air.