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Chapter 65: The Journey (2)
Translator: Leo Editor: DarkGem/Frappe
Angele turned his head around and peeked through the gaps in the trees. Two men wearing brown leather armor were grilling meat around the campfire. They also had a pot of white soup sitting by the side. Angele could smell the fragrance of the mushrooms from hundred meters away. As the two men heard the noises produced by the horses, they looked over to check.
'They're also leaving the school,' Angele assumed. He had met many wizard apprentices like then along the way, but he never greeted anyone of them. All of them had different destinations and they didn't know each other. Trusting others was a pointless task to them.
Angele didn't stop as he continued to advance through the path slowly. He wanted to let the horses rest a bit. After a while, he increased the speed of the horses but suddenly heard someone coming toward him.
Angele lowered his body on the back of his horse and looked at the road in front of him. A young man wearing a white leather armor mounted on a brown horse appeared. After seeing Angele, he became surprised but tried to hide his surprised by changing his expression before slowing down. Angele slowed down as well.
"Could you tell me how far the Nick Dock is from here?" the man asked.
"With your speed, you'll arrive in 5 or 6 days," Angele answered as he smiled. The man likewise smiled and nodded. Both of them started urging their horses to speed up again.
Suddenly, Angele drew his sword. The sound of the sword being unsheathed scared the horses. Angele didn't hesitate to slash his sword toward the man, which caused the latter to fall to the ground and die in a second. Angele had cut his stomach open, dyeing the mud on the ground with blood.
Angele looked at the body for a while and scrounged through it. He then turned back and left the places as fast as possible. He disappeared in the rain quickly.
With a pale face, Angele put his crossguard sword back into the sheath and reached toward his back with his hand. He could feel the bleeding hole there. Angele took out a Hemostasis Potion and removed the wooden plug off the tube. He poured some onto his palm and applied it on the wound.
Green steam rose out of it as the wound absorbed the fluid.
"That guy was a rank 3 wizard apprentice. If I didn't hear him chanting, I'd be dead already," Angele murmured. He still felt shocked as he tried recalling the appearance of the wizard apprentice he just killed. The wizard apprentice was wearing a white leather armor suit that had an insignia of a silver ring.
'It was a wizard apprentice of the Northland Alliance. I didn't know they were so close. It's likely that they are trying to surround the college. I need to leave,' Angele thought. He bit his lips and shook the reins.
"Giddy up!" Angele yelled. The horse neighed and began galloping faster.
The corpse of the man in a white armor suit was split in half and was lying on the muddy ground. The brown horse circled the corpse for a while before it left the place, heading to a certain location. The rain was becoming heavier. Around 20 minutes later, a man in a white robe appeared from the forest.
The man seemed old and had no expression on his face. He walked toward the body and squatted by its side. He dipped his finger into the blood and put it on his tongue. He turned and stared at the route that led to the Ramsoda Empire.
The man looked slightly disappointed, but he didn't speak, only standing up and wiping his hands.
Angele was breathing heavily. He lowered his body on the back of his horse. He slowed down before stopping by the roadside after half an hour. He led the two horses into the forest and tied them to a tree. Angele sat down and applied some pressure to the wound using his hands.
He just killed an enemy with but a mere second, but it wasn't as easy as it seemed. If he had hesitated for even half a second, he would've been the one to die.
'Zero, did you identify which spell the man used?' Angele leaned against a tree before asking.
'The possibility of the spell being Launch Bolt is 92.7%. The weapon he used was a metal needle,' Zero reported.
'Launch bolt…' Angele bitterly smiled as he checked the wound. It had already stopped bleeding a while ago. The Hemostasis Potion was a great help, but he needed to take out the needle out of the wound. Angele took off his clothes and began checking his wound. With a dagger in hand, he tried to use it to search for the needle.
'Zero, can you help me see my wound better?' Angele asked. Zero quickly showed his wound as a hologram in front of his sight, which helped Angele find the needle's location within a short span of time. The black, thin needle nearly penetrated his stomach.
Angele bore the pain, cut the wound open, and used his fingers to pull out the needle. He once again applied some of the potion to the wound right after, and it stopped bleeding right after the fluid was absorbed.
Angele's hand was drenched with his own blood as he grasped the needle he had just pulled out.
'Zero, can you identify its components?' Angele asked.
'Analyzing… Material is unknown. It's hard and highly conductive. No information on it can be found in the database,' Zero reported.
'I should've searched his body… but I had to play safe,' Angele thought as he shook his head in disappointment.
Angele rested for a while. He took some meat jerky and dried veggies out of the bag and ate them with the water he had. He also fed the horses with the horse beans. He didn't wish to tarry for too long, so he left after feeding the horses.
For centuries, the Ramsoda College and the Northland Alliance had been mortal enemies, but no one remembered the cause for their enmity. The Northland Alliance started the war, yet Angele still had no grasp of the whole picture. He never even figured out why Manas betrayed the school. The man Angele had killed started casting a spell after realizing Angele was a wizard apprentice from Ramsoda College. He didn't even hesitate.
'It's sad how I'm not allowed to look at classified information in the library as a wizard apprentice,' Angele thought.
Angele knew there were 5 different stages and 3 different ranks for wizard apprentices, but he wasn't sure how wizards were ranked. He knew that any wizard was much stronger than a wizard apprentice. He had already seen wizards battle but didn't know the strength hierarchy.
The wizard apprentices' stage was determined by the abilities they have while the ranks determine the strength and power of a wizard apprentice.
Rank 1 wizard apprentices belonged to the weakest, merely having a higher mentality and better spell resistance than normal people. Knight-level warriors might even be stronger than them.
Rank 2 wizard apprentices were much stronger than rank 1s. They had energy particles inside their bodies, which could help in strengthening themselves. They had also learned basic spells and could easily contend against top knights.
Rank 3 wizard apprentices were the best wizard apprentices. They knew about 5 spells and were capable of using energy particles in blocking incoming spells or physical attacks. Rank 3 wizard apprentices were also capable of improving spell incantations, making them faster to cast. Wizard apprentices rated as rank 3 vastly outstrip others' strength as they only required seconds of time to slay their opponents with various spells. If they knew physical skills, they could use buff spells and make themselves invincible during battles.
The man Angele met used improved incantation. When Angele heard him chant, Angele drew his sword right away. Angele was already a top-level knight before becoming a wizard apprentice, so he was still a bit faster than his opponent. If he had hesitated, giving the man time to use more spells, he would be dead within seconds.
Every wizard apprentice had their own combination spells. There were a countless number of spells in the world; the Ramsoda College had at least a hundred. Strong spells were usually very difficult to learn, so wizard apprentices would instead combine basic spells to make their combination attack stronger. Wizard organizations were also creating new spells, so it was nearly impossible for a person to recognize every spell.
Angele thought for a while before stopping again. He set up a tent by the tree quickly and covered it with the linen clothes that wrapped the bags. He had gotten all of these from Ansett's family, yet he didn't expect to use them so soon.
He put more leaves on the branches above to block the rain and he tied the horses to the trunk under the tree. Angele took the bags off the horses and put them inside the gray tent. The downpour of rain was becoming heavier and heavier.
Angele sat inside the tent with his legs crossed while peeking outside through the small window. The wind was blowing across the tree, causing the branches to shake. No one else was around. It was dark, cold, and silent.
Angele suddenly thought of his father. He knew the baron was already out for a mission on the Anser Plain before he embarked on the ship. Angele never heard anything from him after. He started thinking about everyone he knew as it was getting darker and darker outside.
He wondered what made Manas decide to betray the school, and also thought of Ansett, who returned to her family after he left the school.
'Master Liliana, Yuri, Nancy…' Angele didn't know why, but he kept thinking about everyone he knew. He didn't know what lied ahead of him and when he would be able to settle. For the first time, Angele felt loneliness and isolation spreading deep in his heart.
'Damn rain…' he thought.
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Chapter 66: Encounter (1)
Translator: Leo Editor: DarkGem/Frappe
Angele finally stopped thinking after a while, then he rubbed his temples and closed his eyes. The raindrops kept hitting the tent such that he could only barely hear the horses neighing. It was dark inside the tent. Angele calmed down and started to meditate. He was breathing rhythmically.
'Warning! Warning!' Zero suddenly reported. Angele was alerted when he felt his own wound itching.
'Infection?' Angele opened his eyes and looked at the wound.
He saw that there were still leftover fluids of the potion on it. The wound wasn't bleeding, but the area around the wound looked dark red.
'How should I deal with it?' Angele asked calmly.
'Analyzing…' Zero reported.
'Required materials: Golden Flower, 15 grams. Single-eyed Deer's eyes, 180 grams. The Bighead Fish, 520 grams…' Zero kept listing the necessary ingredients of the medicine that could stop the infection, but Angele looked disappointed.
'Where can I find all those random things in a forest?' Angele checked his wound again and saw some tiny stones growing rapidly around the wound. They were about the size of sesames; some were white and some were black. The infection was getting worse every second.
The tiny stones almost covered the wound. It looked quite grotesquely disgusting that Angele didn't even want to stare at it.
'I need to do something.' Angele bit his lips and started to pack up. He needed to get all those materials quickly. He had no idea what would happen if the infection wasn't cured.
Five days later.
It was noon.
Two robust horses were slowly advancing between the trees along a path. Angele, who was still in his tight hunting suit, was lying on the back of the first horse, but he was in low spirits. It was the fifth day since he had been inflicted with an infected wound. His face was pale and he was exhausted to the point of barely having any strength to control his horse.
"At least I found something to slow down the infection, but I still need a cure," he murmured. Angele had covered the wound with a handful of a black substance, preventing the tiny stones to spread outside the covered area.
Angele got off the horse after a while and decided to take a rest. He led the horses to a tree, then sat on the grass as he grabbed some food and started eating.
'How strong those bacteria are… They're much stronger than the ones on Earth, at least,' Angele thought as he drank some water from his canteen. He started to miss the world that had all the antibiotics people needed.
"I think I already crossed the border, so I should be in the Ramsoda Empire now. The map no longer has details of it; I can't rely on it anymore. I really want to know when I'll reach the closest town," Angele muttered. He stared ahead, but he could only see the sea of trees and the road between them.
Angele turned his head and saw a twisted path through the gaps in the bushes, yet he couldn't see the end of it.
The trees suddenly veiled itself within the mist, and at the same time, Angele's vision became fuzzy.
Noises of hooves stomping on the ground echoed within the forest as two white large carriages appeared from the thick fog. Each carriage had two white horses in front. On one of the two carriages, there was a middle-aged coachman who was at his mid-forties. He was a pudgy man who wore a gray hat on his head. The man was holding the reins, skillfully showing his control on the carriage.
The two carriages were painted in white, but some painted parts were peeling which revealed the dark-red wood.
"Father, how long until we reach Lennon City?" a girl from the leading carriage asked. Her voice seemed to belong to a young girl.
"Ten more days, maybe? We're half-way there, why do you ask?" a man answered.
"Ten more days?! Really…" The girl sounded disappointed.
"Yea. Our territory is far from Lennon City. There's nothing we can do about it," the man said.
"But we can…" The girl was trying to say something, but she was interrupted by the coachman.
"Milord, I can see a young man lying on the ground. I think he's dying," the coachman yelled.
"A young man? Where?" the man asked, opening the window to take a look. The man inside the carriage wore a white noble suit. He looked kind and respectable.
"Right there," the coachman said as he pointed to the left. The man turned his gaze at the direction the coachman was pointing at and saw a young man lying on the ground beside two black horses.
"What happened? Mark?" a lady asked.
"We saw a young man lying on the ground. He looked unwell," the man named Mark answered.
"A young man? Let me see!" the girl yelled.
"Is he from our territory? I haven't seen people from other countries in a while," she continued.
"Stop! Let's go and help him!" the girl kept yelling. The two carriages slowed down. A sinewy man in black plate armor got off the second carriage and walked toward the first carriage. He helped the girl get off the carriage. The girl was wearing a white one piece and had a pretty-looking face.
"Dunleavy, can you go with me?" The girl's skin was white and her blonde hair looked silky smooth, as though she was someone who came from a fairy tale.
"Sure," the man named Dunleavy replied. With a seemingly heavy beard, he began walking toward the unconscious young man while holding the left hand of the girl.
"Dunleavy, stay alert," the nobleman said. He helped the beautiful noble lady to get off the carriage.
"No worries, my lord." Dunleavy nodded.
They walked toward the young man with quick steps. As they arrived near to him, Dunleavy lowered his body to check on the young man and saw the wound on the young man's waist; it had a black color and produced an awful stench.
"He has an infected injury," Dunleavy said in a grave tone.
"Is he alright?" the blonde girl curiously asked after she jogged toward Dunleavy. Her appearance was akin to a princess's.
"I thought people scream after getting hurt. Why isn't he screaming?" the girl said as she tried pushing the unconscious young man.
"His wound is infected. I don't think he's conscious. His breathing is weak, and he's dying," Dunleavy smiled before explaining.
"He's dying?" With a nervous face, the girl asked.
"Yes," Dunleavy replied.
"We need to help him! We're close to Lennon City, anyway," the girl said.
"Well… I'm afraid we can't… Ask your father," Dunleavy said. The nobleman was already slowly heading in their direction with his wife.
"We've no idea who this man is. If he's a spy, we'll be in trouble," the man said with a soft-spoken voice.
"Also, he's injured. Whoever injured him is probably still looking for him. If we help him, we'll become the targets instead," he continued.
"But Father…" The girl tried to say something.
"No means no!" the man said.
"Get back inside the carriage, Avril!" He was nearly yelling.
"But Father, what if he's a prince of another country? If we save him, he will… he will…" the girl replied.
"You told me a lot of stories like that! That's how princes meet their lovers!" she yelled.
"Well… stories aren't real." The man looked speechless.
"Avril, listen to your father, get back inside the carriage. We need to hurry." The lady stepped forward to intervene.
"No!" Avril refused to move.
"I can guarantee you that this young man isn't a prince. Let's go," the nobleman said.
"If you don't help him, I'll stay here forever!" the girl yelled as she stared at the other three.
Ten minutes later…
There were two black horses following the white carriages in the back.
"Where am I…?" Angele opened his eyes slowly and looked around. He was inside a carriage, and two swordsmen in black plate armor suits were sitting right beside him. Avril was sitting beside one of the swordsmen, looking at Angele curiously.
"We saw you unconscious near a bush, so I saved you," Avril said, her face showing a 'thank me already' expression.
"Really? Thank you," Angele said after he smiled. In actuality, he was conscious the whole time and could still see and hear things clearly. However, he was too weak to do anything. He wanted to continue traveling, but he caught a fever so he decided to lie down for a while. Angele wanted to move after he woke up, but his fever became worse and his wound began aching. He knew that two carriages were coming and even heard everything those people said, yet he really couldn't stand up nor could he move his lips at that time.
Angele was uncertain about what caused the fever. It could be the infection, but it could also be the weather. Although he had the chip, Angele needed to search for the medicine by himself. He was lucky that someone stopped to help him.
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Chapter 67: Encounter (2)
Translator: Leo Editor: DarkGem/Frappe
Angele had been lying down in a relatively busy route and seeing several other carriages passing by, yet no one had stopped to help him. He never expected people to stop and help a total stranger like him until Avril's group came. The girl reacted happily after seeing Angele wake up
"Actually, other people had seen me lying there but none stopped for me. Only a lovely princess like you would help a stranger," Angele smiled as he said this. The girl looked pleased after hearing him say that.
"I only did what I thought I should do…" With a blushing face, she spoke. Angele conversed with the young girl for a while. She was about 11 or 12 years old. While chatting with Angele, she noticed that he was still too weak.
"You're hurt and your wound is infected. Also, your fever isn't gone yet, you better get some rest. We can talk later," Avril kindly said, and then she asked the two swordsmen to leave the carriage. She wanted to make sure Angele could rest well.
The carriage fell silent after Avril closed the door. Angele lied down on the bed with a very tired face.
'Check my situation," Angele inhaled once, and he asked.
'You're infected with unknown bacteria. The infection is controlled by an effective drug. You caught an unknown flu and your body is weak. You need about 5 days and 14 hours to recover,' Zero reported.
'When can I at least be able to move?' Angele asked something that was a significant issue to him. He needed to have the capability to react when threats approach. At this point, he was too weak to do anything. It was even more impossible for him to pick up any weapon. Angele felt so helpless because the infection and the fever made him weaker than a normal person.
'If you consume enough food and have enough rest, it will take 41 hours and 23 minutes,' Zero reported.
'That's a long time…' Angele sighed in disappointment.
'One hit from a rank 3 wizard apprentice and I nearly lost my life. I need to become stronger…' Angele thought.
After Avril's carriages left.
A young female deer slowly walked toward the place Angele had rested on and lowered its head to inhale Angele's scent. A white owl flew toward the deer and stood on a branch by the side. Its whole body was white, yet its eyes were deep and dark.
"Wizard Renee, this is the end of the trail. The Tracking won't work anymore," the owl began talking with the voice of an old man. The deer walked around the place for a while before it raised its head to look at the owl.
"Based on the scent, he's a fleeing wizard apprentice of Ramsoda College. I think he was just lucky. Otherwise, there's no way he could kill Bahamut. If we can't track him anymore, there's nothing we can do. Bahamut's death won't affect anything, anyway," the deer began talking as well.
"We need to stop focusing on matters that aren't important," the owl said.
"It isn't the time to break the Treaty of Grimgar yet. Catherine and her crew already arrived at the destination. We mustn't let Ramsoda's main force live," it continued.
"Waki sent a message to us from Acrylic. It says Liliado is making a new Rift," the deer said.
"Yea, we need to help the Northland Alliance to finish the job quickly. I think Liliado already noticed the situation. Santiago also sent some of their wizards here," the owl said.
"We'll get the Shadow Pearl this time! No matter how many opponents we have!" The deer's eyes gleamed.
The two moons quietly hung over the night sky. The clouds were slowly moving along the sky and there were several visible stars beside them. Angele was still lying on the bed, slowly eating his meat jerky while drinking some water.
He could hear the crackling noise created by the campfire outside and could see the fire through the window. Angele smelled the fragrance of meat stew being cooked. His gaze fell onto the meat jerky in his hand, but he decided not to ask for food. The only one who treated him well in the group was Avril.
Others were still against letting Angele stay with their group. They acted cold to him, and Angele knew the reason why as he overheard some of their gossips. If Avril hadn't insisted on using the expensive Anti-Infection Drug on him, he wouldn't have recovered quickly. He was supposed to be dropped off by the road after he woke up.
Outside the carriage, a swordsman who had been sitting near the campfire suddenly stood up.
"Hey, Gandhi, where are you going?" a man asked.
"It's almost my turn to patrol." Gandhi patted the long sword hanging by his waist and smiled.
"Don't go too far," Dunleavy said. He was sitting by the campfire and applying oil to his crossguard sword.
Gandhi walked toward the back of the carriage while looking at the campfire and the carriages to make sure no one noticed him. He slowed down his footsteps and walked around before approaching the two strong, black horses. His face showed a jubilant reaction after seeing the horses carrying several pieces of luggage, thinking that there might be some valuable items inside.
Gandhi checked the bags and saw a smaller but more delicate one. It was the bag that contained Angele's most important items. Inside the bag, there was the red pearl, Hemostasis Potions, the first Wizardry book he received, and the Black Lead Potion. At this point in time, the Black Lead Potion was most likely the most important item to him.
Gandhi rubbed on the small bag laughing.
"Found it!" he muttered in a low voice.
Inside the first carriage.
"Father, I want to stroll around," Avril said. She was trying to tie a ponytail, so she was looking for the headband on the table.
"Stay in the carriage. Don't go anywhere," the nobleman looked at her, and spoke with a silvery voice.
"I'll be back in 10 minutes." However, Avril didn't seem to care. As she found the black headband, she quickly tied her hair into a ponytail and jumped off the carriage.
"Avril…" the nobleman said as he looked at his wife. Their daughter was giving them headaches.
Avril saw people gathering around the campfire talking, so she wanted to join the conversation. But suddenly, she stopped as she thought of Angele who was about 15 years old and was also saved by her not so long ago.
"He isn't so handsome, but he looks smart," she said.
"It's my first time leaving home. I feel like I'm like the princesses in stories." She was in a good mood, so she began singing random songs. Avril turned and walked to the second carriage quickly. Suddenly, she saw someone sneaking around the two black horses, not knowing what the man was doing.
"Gandhi?" Avril recognized the man right away.
"What are you doing!" she yelled.
Gandhi was scared witless after hearing someone called his name. He turned around and saw Avril walking toward him. His face became pale since he knew what would happen if the lord were to find out that he was stealing. Avril had realized what Gandhi was trying to do, so her expression turned cold.
"Gandhi, do you know what you're doing?" she asked.
"I'm just lollygagging." Gandhi tried his best to smile.
"Whatever. Why don't you stay close to the camp instead of wandering around?" Avril smiled.
"I won't report you to my father if you leave now," she continued.
"Thanks… I'm leaving." Gandhi hadn't opened the bag yet. He smiled and left right away.
Avril organized the bags on the horses and walked toward the second carriage.
Angele knew Gandhi was trying to steal his items. He had heard everything, but he wasn't in the state to move. He needed to wait two days in order to secure his valuable possessions. It would've been too late if Avril didn't stop Gandhi.
"How do you feel?" Avril opened the door and got into the carriage.
"Pretty good actually, thanks to you." Angele liked the kind girl, so he wanted to thank her for everything she did for him.
"Can you tell me your full name?" I am Angele, Angele Rio," Angele said.
"My name is Avril Zolota Hasrim. What's your middle name?" the girl asked curiously.
"We don't have middle names. It's the tradition of my homeland." Angele said while shrugging his shoulder. That was one of the minor movements he could still do.
"I thought you were from Ramsoda?" Avril asked.
"No, I'm from the other side of the sea. Where are you heading to?" Angele smiled.
"Lennon City, we need to bring my grandpa back to our territory. He's ill and it's getting worse," Avril answered with a sad expression, not hiding anything from him. They chatted for a while. Angele told her that he got lost and got injured by bandits. He said he was also heading to Lennon City and even told her interesting stories about his homeland. They enjoyed their chat.
Avril wished to stay longer with Angele, but someone was calling her from outside the carriage, so she had to leave. Angele finally had the chance to meditate. It was imperative that he meditate every day and couldn't let others know what he was doing.
The good thing was, he didn't have to be in a certain position to meditate. He could just do it while lying on the bed, sufficient for others to think he was merely resting. He wasn't sure what the locals thought about wizards, especially when he was from the Ramsoda College that was famous for Necromancy. For now, he decided not to tell anyone that he was a wizard apprentice since he still needed to recover from the injury.
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Chapter 68: Dragon Scale Flower (1)
Translator: Leo Editor: DarkGem/Frappe
By the end of the forest, there were two tall black bunkers sitting on both sides of the main road and endless black city walls were connected to them. A large wooden door was opened between the two bunkers, several guards in white leather suit patrolling around it. Some of them were questioning the coachmen on the carriages that were trying to enter the door. The guards' iron helmets looked like hats, most of them looked a bit chubby, and they all had the goatee on their chins. There were V-shaped red signs marked on their chest pieces, and none of them looked like experienced fighters.
Two large carriages were waiting to enter the door while slowly moving forward. A cute blonde girl stuck her head out of the first carriage's window, looking around curiously. In the second carriage, Angele was peeking through the window with no expression on his face.
He was recovering well after resting for several days. His attributes were climbing back to normal, and he felt much better. Angele could finally pick up weapons and he could finally protect himself. He was now in a much lighter mood, but he still needed some time until he could do whatever he wanted.
Several swordsmen were following the carriages by the side and Dunleavy was one of them. The guards saw the noble insignia on the carriage, so they just let them through, not even checking with the coachman.
The carriages entered the outer area of Lennon City without issues. Many paths laid between the trees. Angele could see pedestrians and other carriages on the road. They continued along and Angele began seeing houses and mansions.
He saw a small river running down the roadside and a wooden waterwheel moving slowly on the other side. There were people carrying water buckets back to their houses and women washing clothes by the river. Several farmers were working hard on the cropland. It was noon and the sunlight was strong enough to make everything look golden.
Angele sat on a chair and looked out the window, feeling pleased with the scenery.
"Peaceful, eh?" Dunleavy asked, walking by the second carriage with his greatsword on his shoulder.
"Yea, it's a different world for me." Angele nodded.
"It's great," he continued.
"Lennon City is the safest city in the territory and Lord Melos is very kind. I've always wanted to settle down here," Dunleavy said.
Angele nodded his head and looked ahead. There were several kids playing with the water by the river, and he could hear them laughing.
"It's a peaceful place. I think I'll just stay here." Angele smiled.
"Really?" Dunleavy looked at him in confusion.
"Well, it's pretty hard to get a residential permit here," he said. Dunleavy wasn't sure if the young man impulsively decided just now.
"It's fine. It being hard doesn't mean it's impossible, right?" Angele shook his head before speaking. There were 20 provinces in the Ramsoda Empire. Angele thought Lennon City was great. This was the first city he visited in this country, and he liked it a lot so he decided right away. In this place, no one knew who he was, and it would take him only half a month to reach the harbor. Wizards would give their utmost not to hurt civilians, so they wouldn't fight in such a peaceful city.
After Angele told Dunleavy of his plan, the latter caught up with the first carriage and told the owner. The carriages suddenly stopped and Avril's family quickly got off the carriage. Angele did the same.
"Angele, right?" The nobleman smiled.
"You decided to settle down here?" he asked.
"Yes. The environment here is great and I like it a lot," Angele bowed as he answered. They saved him, so he wanted to show them his gratefulness.
"I think you know how to protect yourself right? What's your actual plan?" the nobleman asked.
"Yes, I can protect myself. I was just traveling around and I was attacked by the bandits on the way. It's my first time in Lennon City, but I think it's a great place for me to settle down for now," Angele replied.
"Since you have made your decision, I think you wouldn't mind dropping you off here," the man nodded before he said.
"Thank you for saving me. If there's anything I can…" Angele planning on returning the favor, but the man didn't let him finish speaking.
"It's fine. We don't want anything from you," he said before returning to their own carriage. Avril followed him from behind with a disappointed face.
"Thank you! For everything you did for me." Angele bowed again. He knew that if it wasn't Avril, the nobleman wouldn't stop and help him. He really wanted to do something for them, but it seemed like they didn't care. Angele waited by the side and shook his head. The guards brought him his black horses, and Angele held the reins in his hand.
He understood why the nobleman wanted to stay away from him. He was a total stranger and the nobleman probably knew that he was lying about the bandits. The nobleman still didn't want to become the target of whoever was tracking Angele down. Avril had a disappointed look on her face. Angele guessed that she had tried convincing her parents to let Angele stay with them but she failed.
The nobleman helped Angele, but he didn't want anything in return because he didn't care. He thought the less relationship he had with Angele, the safer his family would be. Angele watched the carriages leaving, only stopping after another team of merchants walked pass him.
He had prepared some valuable items that he was going to give to Avril, but they left so quickly that he didn't get the chance to give it. Angele stood on the grass by the side. He heard horses neighing, wheels rolling, and people chatting. He felt everything was so real. He took a breath once, inhaling the fresh air.
There were several white flowers mixed in the grass and several insects moving around. Angele raised his head and looked ahead. The road seemed endless; there were many farmlands and ranches around. The wind was gentle, causing Angele to feel refreshed.
'Zero, check my body condition,' Angele asked.
'Analyzing… Angele Rio: Strength 2.9. Agility 4.1. Stamina 3.9. Mentality 3.8. Mana 3. Status: Healthy,' Zero reported.
'Good, I recovered a lot…' Angele thought smilingly.
'Great, my mentality also increased. Haven't checked it for a while.' He was satisfied with the result. Angele's mentality was 3.5 before, and it took him about ten days to increase it to 3.8. An average rank 2 wizard apprentice would need 20 days to achieve it. If Angele could continue to increase his mentality like this, he would reach rank 3 in a year. He could feel the change brought by increasing the mentality. He could sense things better than before.
'I need to find a place to live. Although wizard resources are hard to find, the chip can help me build a new database. I can make some basic medicines to make a living here. Also, I can try to look for new materials as substitutes so that I can reach rank 3 much faster.' Angele planned as he kept moving forward on the road.
More and more houses appeared by the roadside as Angele advanced further into the city. There were also more pedestrians and the road was much better than the outer areas of the city which was pretty much just mud. Angele entered the downtown area with his horses.
The street was busy and most of the people around were wearing gray-white clothes. Some women were checking around the vendors with large buckets hanging on their arms. Every building was medieval-style, either having white or gray color.
Two drunk men were drinking by the entrance of a pub Angele passed by, barely could understand what they were saying. Angele walked down the street slowly fully geared. The people around him tried to stay away from him after seeing what he was carrying.
The street was wide and Angele kept checking around different stores. He saw bakeries, pubs, cloth shops, spice shops, drug stores, grocery stores, and crepe stands. It was the most advanced city Angele had ever been to. It was better than Marua Harbor because everything was well-organized here. The place was busy but people were following the rules.
Angele found what he was looking for quickly as he entered an alley. It was dark and quiet, but the air here smelled sour. Angele saw a middle-aged woman asking two young men to carry wooden barrels out of her shop. There was a paper pinned on the board of the store that read 'Shop for Sale'.
"Excuse me, are you the owner? Is the shop for sale?" Angele asked. The woman heard Angele asking and walked toward him.
"I am. Are you interested?" she smiled as she asked.
"I almost cleaned it up. You just need to pay me the money, show me your identity card, and sign the contract. After signing the contract, the shop will be all yours," she continued.
"Identity card?" Angele scrunched his eyebrows.
"I just got here, where can I get it?" Angele asked. He had enough money; he learned that the magic stone was actually a commodity that could be used everywhere. He acquired this information on his way here. Initially, he had thought that he wouldn't be able to use the magic stones after he left the school. Angele also learned that one magic stone could be exchanged for a lot of money. Avril told him about the exchange rate and what a magic stone could get him. Its value was very high.
"That could be an issue…" the owner said. She suddenly saw the black magic stone in Angele's hand and stopped for a second.
"But for a rich guy like you, it would not be a lot of trouble," she continued.
"Good." Angele smiled. It seemed that his plan would work.
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Chapter 69: Dragon Scale Flower (2)
Translator: Leo Editor: DarkGem/Frappe
The owner only wanted a fragment of a regular magic stone. However, Angele didn't know that magic stones could be broken into pieces. She then asked for Angele's information and quickly ran out of the shop. Half an hour later, the owner returned with an identity card and a commercial lease agreement in her hands.
She handed the card over to Angele and asked him to sign the contract. The owner left with her crew after everything was done as though she didn't want to stay here any longer. Angele wasn't sure if he was ripped off, but he was surprised that he could get the identity card so easily.
Dunleavy told him that a residential permit was hard to get and the identity card that would grant him the right to be a resident here according to the shop owner. Angele knew the magic stone had a high value, but he didn't expect to get the identity card and the shop with just one piece of the regular magic stone.
Angele put the card and the contract into his bag, and he checked around the shop again. He decided to do some cleaning and he wanted to close the door. Suddenly, he heard people walking towards his shop.
"Get out," a man yelled. Angele raised his head and saw five strong men standing by the door. They had daggers or axes in their hands, and they were covered in sweat and awful smell.
"Who are you?" Angele scrunched his eyebrows, and he asked.
"You're the new owner?" The man stepped forward before he asked. His skin was darker and there was a scar on his face. The guy looked tough especially when he kept swinging his axe with his hand.
"Yea." Angele nodded.
"Good. Do you know the rules?" the man asked.
"Rules? What rules?" Angele scrunched his eyebrows before asking.
"Twenty gold coins per month and the bad guys will leave your shop alone," the man stepped into the shop as he said.
"Twenty gold coins? Fine." Angele nodded. He was still a stranger to the place, so he wanted to stay out of trouble. He still needed time to adapt to the new environment.
"Also, since you're new here, we need to charge you a little extra. It will be a one-time fee. 2000 gold coins." The man got greedier after seeing Angele agreeing to pay 20 gold coins each month without hesitation.
"2000?" Angele asked with a disappointed face.
"Yea. Why? You don't want to mess with us." The man raised his axe and waved it in the air. The other men started to laugh, staring at Angele in mockery.
"Young man, pay the money and we'll protect you from any trouble, but if you don't…"
"Heh, hurry up!"
"I saw your sword, but you don't look like a swordsman at all," they started to yell. 20 gold coins was fine, but 2000 gold coins would be a huge amount to anyone. Those thugs wanted to blackmail him. Angele looked outside through the showcase, unable to see anyone walking by.
"I suggest you guys leave right now and I will forget what happened." Angele stared at them and said with a deep voice.
The leader hadn't expected Angele to threaten them. He looked at the sword that was hanging by Angele's waist carefully and realized the young man probably knew how to fight. The leader saw Angele's sheath that had some blood stain on it, which made his expression change.
"You little punk! How dare you try to threaten us! Do you know we're with Roddie's Sword?"
"Let's f*ck him up!"
"We need to let him know who the real boss is!" The other thugs didn't see their leader's expression, only continuously yelling.
Angele suddenly stepped forward and grabbed someone's neck. He then threw him toward the wall, which made the man faint right after hitting the wall. The other thugs were still wondering what just happened. One of their members was taken out within a second and the only thing they saw was Angele putting his hand around the fainted man's neck.
Angele had the speed of a knight, so these thugs stood no chance against him. He wasted no time and put down the other four men left. They rolled around grimacing in pain.
"Give me all your money," Angele talked to the leader. Angele was trying to stay out of trouble, but since he already beat them up, he decided to collect some pocket money.
"How dare you! You know we're with Roddie's Sword, right?" the leader said as he glared at Angele.
"Well, I don't care. You know you won't win a fight against me." Angele said with a mocking tone as he kicked the leader's waist.
The leader winced in pain as he rolled around. Angele grabbed the black leather pouch that the leader dropped on the ground. There were about 40 gold coins, some silver coins, and some random items inside it. There were also two egg-sized yellow balls which looked strange.
Angele thought they were made from mud and also noticed that the weight of the gold coins here was lower than where he came from. He grabbed one of the yellow balls and squeezed it with his fingers.
'Umm?' Angele found something strange about it. The ball had a smooth surface and he could smell the fragrance of herbs from it. It was surprisingly tough, but he got more surprised after figuring out what it was made from.
'It can't be…' Angele thought.
'Zero, compare the fragrance to the one in the database,' Angele asked.
'Comparing,' Zero reported.
'Comparing results: Rubra 94%. Viper Skin Grass 79%. Dragon Scale Flower 71%. Lizard Flower 13%.' It took Zero several minutes to search the database.
'I knew it… If it really contains Dragon Scale Flower, it must be the real Rubra. Those balls are Rubra, and I can use them to increase my Mentality. Also, if there were Dragon Scale Flowers growing around the city, I will be able to make them by myself,' Angele smiled after thinking of this.
The leader was lying on the ground, glaring at Angele with hatred, but Angele found him likable after finding the information he needed from the pouch.
"Where did you find this?" Angele asked as he hid his excitement in his mind.
"If you touch my boss again, I will…" a thug lying beside his leader yelled. Angele didn't want to waste any time, so he kicked the thug in the head. The thug flew out of the door and stopped moving after hitting the ground. Blood was coming out of his head. No one knew if he was dead or alive.
The others were silent after seeing what Angele just did, while the leader looked scared.
"One of my men stole a bag of goods and this was one of the items I found inside the bag." The leader looked at the Rubra as he said.
"Did you see a flower that has white petals and black pistils?" Angele asked.
"Yes! I did!" The leader nodded his head rapidly.
"Give it to me." Angele was really excited, but he tried not to show what he was feeling on his face.
"I don't have it with me… I left it at home," the leader said.
"Get up everyone. Take me to your home." Angele looked around. He wanted to make sure no one escaped. Angele wasn't sure what exactly Roddie's Sword was, but if one of them called for reinforcements, he could be in trouble.
If he could find the Dragon Scale Flowers, he would be able to craft the Rubra. The Dragon Scale Flowers were the rarest material, but the rest weren't hard to find. A good amount of Rubra could help reduce the time he needed to reach rank 3 by half and the Rubra would still be helpful even after reaching rank 3.
Angele saw the Dragon Scale Flower once when he was still in the school because one of the masters showed it to them in a class. Otherwise, he wouldn't have it in the database. Zero recorded the Flower's properties when Angele saw it in class.
The thugs got up from the ground and one of them grabbed the unconscious on the ground. Angele took his most important bag with him and followed the leader into the deeper alley.
They spent about half an hour in the alley and finally arrived at the leader's home.
"We are here," the leader said in a light tone. There were barely any people around, but Angele could see prostitutes with heavy make-ups walking around and he also heard drunken people singing random songs. The ground here was covered with dirt and it was very sticky. The place really stank.
"Move, everyone." Angele stared at the leader and the other thugs followed them into a small building. The leader grabbed a small bag from his disorganized bedroom and took out a flower that had white petals and black pistils.
"That's the one!" Angele yelled.
"That's… what you want?" The leader started at Angele.
"Give it to me," Angele said.
The leader suddenly looked behind Angele. His eyes were wide open and had a horrified expression on the face. Angele was so excited that he forgot Zero to report if anyone appeared behind him, so he just turned back to check. It was too late when he realized what the leader was trying to do.
The man threw the flower into his mouth and swallowed the whole thing. He had a smile on his face as though he was proud of what he just did.
"F*ck you!" the leader swore and stepped back.
"Kandra, kill him!" he yelled.
A man jumped into the bedroom from the window, trying to attack Angele. Angele saw the flower was gone. He felt the blood rushing into his head, turning his excitement into pure rage.
"No! My flower! You will pay for this! You filthy insect!" Angele felt his temples boiling from the blood.
"How dare you!" he yelled.
Angele had never been so enraged. Even the wizards thought the flower was rare as one Dragon Scale Follow could be made into a great amount of Rubra. It would cost Angele more than a thousand regular magic stones to get it, yet the thug merely ate it in front of him.
Anger boiled deep in Angele, not expecting a thug to have the guts to do something like this. Also, Zero didn't detect the guy who just jumped into the bedroom. He must've hidden extremely well.
"You are going to die!" Angele screamed, and his voice echoed.
'Elimination plan initiated. Sensory integration enhanced. Targets locked,' Zero reported. Angele's eyes started to shine, and the blue flashes produced lit up the whole room.
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Chapter 70: Settling Down (1)
Translator: Leo Editor: DarkGem/Frappe
Angele's blood was boiling; he drew the sword and slashed forward with great force.
DANG*
The man's dagger blocked Angele's attack. The noises created by the clashing of weapons echoed in the room.
Angele yelled and applied more force to his sword; the dagger was pushed back to the man's face. Suddenly, a stream of blood appeared in the air and the man's head was cut open. The man dropped his dagger and Angele slashed down with his sword. He could feel the sensation of cutting the man's body open, and the noise sounded a bit horrifying.
The leader thought his plan worked, only standing there and laughing, but after seeing what Angele just did, his expression changed and he decided to run. However, he suddenly lost his balance when he turned back. His legs were aching.
"Ah! My legs!" the leader screamed in pain and he fell to the ground. There were lines of blood coming out of his ankles slowly. Angele kicked him in the waist again.
The man with a dagger dropped to the ground and the stench of blood permeated all over the room. The man didn't suffer for too long, dying after several seconds.
"Even Kandlean can't fight him…" one thug said with a shaky voice. Angele didn't say anything, only turning around and stepping forward. He cut the two thugs' necks open before they could escape, causing them to just fall to the ground and die.
"You don't run after destroying my Dragon Scale Flower!" Angele's eyes were still shining and his blood vessels were visible around his temples. The blue light coming out of his eyes made him look horrifying. Two thugs outside the door knew that things went wrong, quickly putting down the injured thug and deciding to run. Angele grabbed the daggers the dead thugs dropped to the ground right away.
'Target locked. Adjusting force. Adjusting parabola,' Zero reported. Angele could see two blue points marked on the escaping thugs with in front of him.
'Done,' Zero reported. Angele threw the two daggers toward the thugs.
The daggers flew through the air and pierced the two thugs' back. They screamed as they fell to the ground. Their bodies were twitching after Angele had aimed for their vertebras. Even if they survived, they would be paralyzed for the rest of their lives.
Angele turned back and finished the unconscious thug off with his sword. Angele then glared at the leader that was lying on the ground and pointed at his neck with his sword. The blood on Angele's sword kept dripping onto the leader's neck.
"No! No! No! You need me! Don't!" the leaders yelled. His tears mixed with the snot were running down his face.
"You want the Dragon Scale Flower, right? The one I ate was fake! It was a fake!" he kept yelling.
"What?" Angele was still pointing his sword at the leader.
"It's fake?" He grabbed the leader's neck before he asked.
"Say that again?" Angele glared at him.
"I'm a member of the Snake of the Sand Forest, so you… you should let me live!" the leader stuttered. He could see the blue light coming out of Angele's eyes, causing him to nearly piss his pants. Angele leaned toward the leader and he didn't smell the fragrance of the Dragon Scale Flower. The flower the man ate was probably something else as he probably just tried to lure Angele into an ambush.
Angele calmed down a bit and pulled the leader up.
"Where's the real Dragon Scale Flower?" Angele asked.
"And what's the Snake of the Sand Forest?" He added.
"Master Wizard, we're just low-ranked members of the organization. The flower I just ate isn't the real Dragon Scale Flower. It's something that we use to trick the buyers. We don't have any Dragon Scale Flowers at all. The Snake of the Sand Forest is the name of our organization. I know nothing else…" the leader explained quickly. He was still staring fearfully at Angele's sword. There was still something suspicious, but Angele knew most of his words were true.
The Dragon Scale Flower was a well-known treasure and most nobles knew about it. Angele knew he wouldn't be so lucky, but he wondered why he got so angry after seeing the man eating the flower. He felt that he was too greedy, so he decided to be more careful next time.
"Do you know where I can find the real Dragon Scale Flower?" Angele asked in a low voice.
"I'm just collecting the protection racket and I really know nothing about it…" The man was sweating that Angele could see beads of sweat running down his face. The man knew that if he couldn't make Angele satisfied, he would become a dead body just like the others. He decided to at least give something else to Angele.
"Also, Master Wizard, I still have the fake flower I ate. Would you like some of that?" the leader asked.
"You still have those?" Angele asked.
"It's right here, in the storage chest." The leader was not lying.
Angele looked around. There was a broken wooden bed in the room; the floor was dark and wet with blood all over it. He could see spider webs in the corner and could smell the horrid stench. Angele found a gray iron chest filled with the fake Dragon Scale Flowers by the window. He grabbed one of the flowers; the flower was soft and it had a good fragrance. The pistil was black and the petals were white, but its shape was a bit different from the real Dragon Scale Flowers.
The Dragon Scale Flowers had sharp edges on its petals, while this one had round petals. If Angele didn't take a closer look, he wouldn't notice the difference.
"It's fake…" Angele felt a bit disappointed. He couldn't imagine how much progress he could make if the chest was filled with real Dragon Scale Flowers.
'Searching the database… Similar match: Lizard Flower,' Zero reported. Angele put his hands into the chest and he confirmed that it only had Lizard Flowers in it. He looked disappointed.
Angele stood up and left the bedroom. The leader was still lying on the ground and he looked scared. Angele walked toward the man that jumped into the room through the window. He finally knew what the man looked like.
The man was wearing a black suit. His face was covered with a black facemask. He was bald and his skin had a weird skin tone. It was green mixed with gray, and the green parts looked like mold. Angele almost sliced his head off, and the man also received a deep wound on his chest.
Angele scrunched his eyebrows and searched the body. He found a small leather pouch tied to the man's waist, seemingly full. Angele took it down and opened it. There were some gold coins and silver coins. Angele also found a piece of paper inside, and there were several words written in Anmag on it.
'18th… Afternoon… Restfor… When the Hallows of the Sun disappear…' Angele read the paper, finding out that it looked like some sort of plan. There was a red dagger mark below the words.
"It looks like they're trying to kill someone else with this plan. The ambush is set for someone else, yet the leader had to use it on me. That's why they didn't say anything about the fake flower on the way," Angele said while reading the plan.
'The Lizard Flowers and the Dragon Scale Flowers looks very similar, but Lizard Flowers are just flowers, while the Dragon Scale Flowers were great materials for Wizards. The fragrance of the yellow balls is probably created by some spice master. I should have used the chip to scan the flower when I saw it.' Angele thought. He stood up with a disappointed look on his face.
"This is just part of the plan, right?" Angele turned back and asked the leader.
"Yes… There were ten more ambushes set up in different areas of the city, and that's all I know. I didn't know you are a wizard." he said.
"So you're just looking for people who are rich enough to buy the Dragon Scale Flowers and lure them to the ambush?" Angele threw the paper on the floor, and he asked.
"You're right. I thought you were just a rich traveler…" The leader regretted what he did.
"I don't really care about you. I just want to know where the real Dragon Scale Flower is, and why the man in black could stay undetected," Angele said with a cold smile on his face.
Ten minutes later…
Angele walked out of the alley and he could see no one around. People probably ran away after hearing the commotion. Angele looked at the item in his hand in satisfaction. It was a small scroll that the leader had given to Angele before he died. It was the secret skill of the assassin's guild 'Snake of the Sand Forest', and this was the skill the man in black used, even Angele could not detect his presence.
'The plan was made by the Snake of the Sand Forest, and it has nothing to do with me. Though I didn't get the Dragon Scale Flower this time, I still obtained the secret skill,' Angele thought as he put the scroll back into his pouch carefully.
'Warning! A large group of people is approaching. Please stay alert. 150 meters…148 meters…145 meters…' Zero warned. Angele looked around, walked into an alley and disappeared.
Ten seconds later, a group of guards gathered around the building, and they were wearing white leather armor suits. Most of them were overweight, only moving slowly with the heavy armor suits. It seemed that only the two leading men in the team were capable of fighting.
"That's the place," a man with a war hammer said with a light voice.
"But someone already took care of the problem." He kicked one of the bodies on the ground hard, causing the blood to be spilled everywhere.
"Let's check the place," one of the leaders walked inside, and he said.
"Follow me!" he yelled.
Several minutes later, the two leaders stood around the body of the assassin. They had serious expressions on their faces.
"It's a member of the Snake of Sand Forest. Furthermore, he's a Black-Mask Assassin. It looks like they messed with the wrong guy," one of the leaders said.
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Chapter 71: Settling Down (2)
Translator: Leo Editor: DarkGem/Frappe
"There aren't that many people who can survive the ambush of a Black-Mask Assassin. I can also sense a mysterious power around here," the other man spoke in a low voice. He took off his helmet, showing a blue face. The man had fin-like ears, blue skin, and white pupils — clearly not a human being.
"You Merfolk are so sensitive to mysterious powers. Since you mentioned it, the Snake of Sand Dust must be dealing with a…" The other man didn't finish his sentence, but his reaction was etched with fear.
"You're right. The first time I encountered such mysterious power was around 13 years ago. I can still recall it." The merman nodded with a serious face.
"I suggest we leave this master alone…" he continued.
"I will report the situation to the Senior Officer," the other man said.
"It's been so long since I last discovered this mysterious power," the merman stood up, and he said.
"Let's move. We still have work to do. Take several guards with you and report our findings to the senior officer," he said.
Angele had been hiding in the shadows behind the building all along. After a few moments, he heard the guards leaving.
"Merfolk could be a problem…" Angele murmured as he scrunched his eyebrows.
'But they didn't seem to care about the guys I killed. What's more, it looks they fear the power of wizards,' Angele thought. He lowered his footsteps and walked out of the alley.
He followed the way he came from, quickly reaching his newly-bought shop. No one else was around, but he could still see the leftover footprints of the thugs. Someone had stolen his horses. However, Angele took everything important before leaving, so he didn't care about it anymore.
Angele walked into the shop, put down the bows and quivers, and his bag. Before leaving, he locked the door. Angele had taken a decent amount of coins from the thugs. His dried food rations were gone, so he had to buy something to eat.
He found a pie store by the street, which had a sign outside that had 'Darling's Pie House' written on it. Angele carried his sword on his back as he walked into the store. The store had white counters, and there were about 7 to 8 tables arranged in a neat manner, showing a clean and well-organized store. Several workers were handing packed pies purchased by customers on the line.
Angele could smell the delectable scent of a freshly baked meat pie, making him salivate from hunger. He inhaled once, relishing the smell before sitting at an empty table. Albeit busy, the place wasn't crowded; several waiters and waitresses were entertaining the customers.
"Hello, what would you like to order?" A waitress saw Angele sitting down, so she came over to take his order. She wiped her hands on her white apron.
"What do you have?" Angele asked.
"Our signature dish is the Scallion Meat Pie. We also have the Sesame Sweet Bread, Deep Fried Doughs, and the Vegetable Pies," the waitress said, her voice crisp.
"Can I have a Scallion Meat pie, please? How much is that?" Angele asked.
"Two silver coins," the waitress replied. Angele took out two silver coins from his leather pouch and handed it to the waitress as payment. It took about 10 minutes for the dish to arrive. The meat pie had a golden crispy exterior; the minced meat and scallion were mixed up inside its filling. Angele sliced it into pieces and put some into his mouth with a fork. The texture was great, the pastry layer was crispy, and the fillings were savory: not greasy and not too salty. The wholesome and succulent taste instantly turned Angele into a fan of the meat pie.
He ordered another portion after he finished eating it and even quickly finished the second serving. Angele stood up and walked toward the counter. Lunchtime had already passed, so there weren't that many customers at present.
"How can I help you, Sir?" a clerk asked.
"Do you deliver? Can I have meat pies delivered to me every day? I'll give you the time and location," Angele asked.
"Sure, we can do that," the clerk replied.
"Also, bring a glass of milk and some juice, too," Angele added.
Twenty minutes later.
Angele didn't need to worry about purchasing food every day after placing orders at the pie store. He returned to his newly-bought shop again, and then he decided to start meditating after closing the door. His shop was still empty, without any merchandise to sell. Angele didn't bother with it for now. He just sat on the floor with his legs crossed and began to meditate. Angele was a knight-level warrior, and as long as the environment wasn't too bad, he would be able to meditate.
The infection which inflicted him along the way was most likely due to the black needle. Otherwise, he wouldn't be infected so easily. However, there was no data about the black needle found in the chip's database, so he had no way to test it. He needed several types of equipment for him to obtain data on the black needle, but he was out in the wild with no ways of having access to a full set of equipment.
After about an hour of meditation, Angele stored the Stun Spell in the chip and decided to go shopping. He wanted to buy a bed, some basic furniture, and some daily supplies. Also, Angele wanted some new clothes and boots.
It seemed he needed to be a noble at this place for him to purchase and wear colorful clothes. Angele could prove he was a noble, so this wasn't a problem to him.
In the next half-month, Angele lived in his shop, and the only thing he did besides sleeping and eating was meditating. The only times he'd go out was for shopping, which was merely for several instances. At present, Angele finally had the time to study the information stored on the chip. He had also tried to learn the secret skill of the Snake of Sand Forest. Angele thought it was worth it considering how it helped the assassin stay undetected within the radius of the chip.
Angele already learned the basics of the Hand of Exhaustion, and he needed a huge amount of mentality for the chip to improve the spell. He had no way of increasing his mentality at this point, so he decided to take it slow.
Tap tap tap*
Someone knocked on the door while Angele was training his sword skills. Only after wiping the sweat off his face did he open the door. A 10-year-old girl with a ponytail and was wearing a polka dot apron and a white headband was standing by the door with a black metal box in her hands.
"Mr. Angele, here's your pie," the girl politely said.
"You can leave it on the table." Angele turned back and walked to the backyard since he wanted to train in the basic sword skill set. The backyard had plenty of space for him to work around, and there was a well in the middle if he became thirsty.
Angele held his crossguard sword, training his front slash, vertical slash, and horizontal slash. He kept training in these three basic slashes with a speed so fast there was barely any noise generated in the moving sword. It was as though a silver triangle's conception was made possible because of the sword moves.
"You're not leaving?" Angele suddenly sheathed his sword, turned around and looked at the door. The girl was peeking through the gap with a face filled with interest in sword skills. The girl's face turned pale after noticing Angele's gaze.
"I am very sorry." She stepped forward and bowed to Angele.
"Mr. Angele, I was just wondering what you were doing…" she said in a wobbly voice. Angele looked at the girl. Her height was average for her age, and she was a bit too thin as though she was malnourished. The girl was the one who had been delivering food for Angele every day. She was very polite, never late, and always showed respect to Angele. Angele liked her attitude — he thought people must be humble and hardworking in becoming successful in life.
"It's fine. I'm not mad. Do you like swords?" He walked toward the girl slowly, and he asked in a manner that wouldn't scare her.
"Yes, Sir. I am just… curious. Please forgive me for walking into your backyard without permission!" The girl bowed again, apologizing nervously.
"You are lucky, girl. I'm in a good mood today. What's your name?" Angele asked. His understanding of the secret skill of the Snake of the Sand Forest was close to perfection, so he was currently feeling enraptured.
"Tia. My name is Tia," the girl answered right away.
"Next time you deliver the food, you can stay here and watch me train." Angele knew Tia wasn't merely curious; she also had the desire to learn. Angele had seen her expression and realized that for a long time, she must've wanted to learn the sword. Angele didn't care if others were to attempt to copy his sword skill set as he wasn't a phony noble like others. Instead, he would love it if he could give others the chance to control their destinies. Tia looked extremely excited upon hearing Angele's words. She was so happy that she forgot to thank Angele. She merely stood there, not knowing what she should say.
"Okay, watch my movements carefully," Angele said. He walked back to the backyard and started to teach Tia the fundamentals. Angele had always thought that fundamental was important. Although fundamentals were easy to understand, mastering it was too difficult.
For generations, humans had dedicated their whole lives just to improve the fundamentals. One had to master the basics first before one could learn anything else. If one didn't pay too much attention to the basics, one's bones could break, and one's joints would suffer, resulting in a lifetime impairment.
This world was completely different to Earth. The weapons Angele saw were all far superior to Earth's counterparts. The swords, bows, and crossbows were too heavy, and their damage output was nearing the extremity. If he could wield a 50-pound sword in the same speed and agility as he could with a 20-pound sword, he would be far stronger. The only problem Angele had was that he needed to spend more time training.
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Chapter 72: Invitation (1)
Translator: Leo Editor: DarkGem/Frappe
Half an hour passed.
Angele showed Tia several different basic sword maneuvers and thought it was enough for the day. He returned the sword to its sheath carefully before he gazed at the sky. It was covered with billowing clouds as though a storm was coming.
A chilling wind blew into the backyard, deprived of the sun's warmth, as darkness took over. The weather had been scorching hot in the past several days, yet now all the heat was gone. Angele walked toward the well, put down his sword, and wiped the sweat off his face with a black towel.
"Why are you still here? Go home and think about what you learned today," Angele turned back, and he said. Tia was still standing by the door filled with disbelief from Angele letting her stay. She nodded after she heard what Angele said, her face filled with happiness.
"Yes, Master. Thank you very much! I'm leaving now!" Tia said. As she turned to leave, her path was blocked by several strong men. Two men in plate armor suits pushed Tia away and stared at Angele.
"Excuse me. Are you Angele Rio?" one of the men asked.
"Who let you in?" Angele asked with a grim tone.
"I'm a noble, still, and you're on my private property. I didn't know the guards of Lennon City were this insolent," he continued.
"We're just doing our job. I don't think it's appropriate for you to accuse of us being rude!" the other man replied with a deep voice.
"Scum." Angele had a cold expression on his face.
"Say that again, and I'll make you pay for your arrogance!" the first man yelled, his hands placed on the handle of his sword.
"Try me, scum." Angele grasped his crossguard sword, taunting the guard mockingly.
"Come on, Morph. We're still on a mission!" One of the men stopped the guard named Morph as he calmed Morph down.
"We apologize for trespassing in your backyard without permitted entry, it's our fault," the man turned around, and he said as he bowed slightly to Angele.
"We are the City Guards. We're here to check your residential permit. We do this occasionally, so please be considerate. If you show us the permit, it would be nice," the man said.
"Yea, that's the attitude I like. However, you still violated my privacy, causing my mood to worsen now, so I don't want to show you my permit. You may leave now," Angele calmed down a bit, and he said.
"You!" Morph glared at Angele in anger, intent on drawing his sword.
"Morph!" The man stopped Morph again.
"Calm down! You'll be punished again if you keep acting like this!" the man yelled.
"Don't worry. I think you already did your job here," Angele said in a low voice as he looked at the two guards. Suddenly, they heard people in heavy armor marching into the backyard.
"Get out of my way, son." The two guards were pushed away by a huge swordsman.
"I…!" Morph got mad again, but the other guard pulled him back.
"This is the place." A group of heavily armored swordsmen marched into the backyard. Their leader was a person that had a black feather on his helmet. He didn't seem to care about the guards he pushed aside just now.
"Sorry, Master Angele. We saw the door already opened, and we could hear people arguing inside, so we entered to see if there was anything we can help you with." The leader bowed, his tone sounded like he respected Angele a lot.
"You're too slow." Angele shook his head, put down the black towel, and walked toward the door with the crossguard sword in his hand.
"Get out of here. I need to change," Angele said.
"You!" Morph was still infuriated. He had just been pushed aside by the leader of this group of heavy armored swordsmen, but he knew that Angele and the swordsmen probably had a higher stature than the City Guards. The other guard knew that there was nothing they could do, and instead just tried his best to calm Morph down.
These heavy armored swordsmen were the guards of the Lord Mayor of Lennon's mansion. The leader was named Gerac, a knight-level warrior. He guarded the city's entrance for five minutes alone during the War of Andrew. Thousands of enemies invaded the city, yet not even one of them was able to enter the city. Gerac killed countless enemies, and the slain corpses stockpiled until it nearly blocked the entrance.
The citizens called Gerac 'The Tiger of Lennon', so the City Guards decided not to cross with Angele after witnessing Gerac showing respect to this noble who had just arrived in this city not too long ago.
Gerac yelled; the guards quickly left the backyard one by one. Tia was the only one who remained in the place. Angele looked at the girl and saw her pale face. It seemed that she was scared witless by what just happened.
"Well, it looks like they misunderstood our relationship," Angele said. Tia looked at him in confusion, unable to make heads or tails of what Angele was saying.
"It could be a good thing for you." Angele didn't explain, only walking into his room and closing the door.
"Master Angele… He must be someone influential…" Tia stood in the backyard alone, not knowing what to do. She was just a girl who had a very frail body and an average-looking appearance. Tia didn't think Angele would become interested in her.
Tia knew that Angele didn't want anything from her as he was merely teaching her basic sword moves. Because of that, she felt very grateful to him. Her father was a drunkard, while her mother disappeared during childhood. Tia had known that she needed to do everything by herself since she was very young, that no one would be there for her if anything were to happen to her. One day, when she was nine, her father left the house and never came back.
She lost her home and lived on the streets for a while before she gained a job at the pie store. She only wanted food and shelter, so the owner never paid her actual money as her wage. Every day, she needed to work more than 12 hours, and if she ever made any mistakes, the owner would beat her up.
Still, Tia endured every pain she suffered. During work time, she would listen to the customers' conversations as her hobby. She learned that people feared the ones who carried weapons and knew that people who could fight would at least be able to protect themselves.
Tia dearly wished to become someone who could use weapons one day, so she tried training in the sword using tree branches whenever she had spare time. However, due to her lack of knowledge in wielding swords, her right hand got injured.
Angele corrected her moves, thus preventing her from damaging her right arm's muscles. If she hadn't met Angele, it would lead to her right arm becoming completely disabled one day. She wanted to gain power, so she trained every day no matter how hard her situation was.
Angele realized her right hand was in pain when he saw her the first time, but he never thought that the girl had been learning to use a sword without teaching her. He liked the girl's unyielding nature. After all, Tia wanted to become stronger, and she tried to reach her goal as if nothing could deter her. Angele thought that even if she couldn't become a knight, she would still become a great warrior.
Angele wanted the guards to have misconceptions about his relationship with Tia because he knew it was better for her. No matter what Gerac thought of their relationship, it would make people treat her better. However, Angele didn't want anything in exchange; he merely wanted to do something for her.
It wasn't a big deal to Angele, but what he had done would drastically change the girl's life.
Half an hour later.
Angele had his clothes changed and all the valuable items kept inside his pouch. He was wearing a white suit with his sword tied to his waist. Angele walked out of his room and saw Tia standing in the middle of the shop; it looked like she didn't know what to do.
"Well, if you're not leaving, you better practice what I just taught you. I'll be back by nighttime," Angele said.
"I will, Master Angele," Tia said as she bowed to Angele. His words uplifted her mood.
Angele was planning on taking her in as a disciple. He discovered that she had the potential to become a knight upon analyzing her attributes with the chip. Though the chances were at a low point, she had better talent than Angele. Angele wanted to pass down his sword skills and archery, and he also needed some people to help him out while living in the city. He needed people he could trust and people who would obey his bidding. Angele could do everything by himself, but he wanted to spend more time studying and experimenting.
Tia was still young, but she was already hardworking, and she had a great potential. Angele had some spare time to spend. It would be nice if the girl became a knight, but it was alright if she didn't. Angele planned on just doing whatever he wanted.
"Let's go," Angele walked toward Gerac, and he said after.
"The Lord is awaiting you in his mansion," Gerac said politely. Angele knew the Lord was going to make a move after discovering the mysterious power Angele had. There was a black carriage waiting near the entrance of the store. It had a 'white bird and sunflower' insignia. The sunflower looked like jimsonweed, but it had a golden hue. Surrounded by the flowers was the white bird at flight.
Angele was surprised that the Lord himself had invited him to the mansion. It looked like they paid much attention to the mysterious power they discovered. Angele rode on the carriage and closed the door. The carriage started to move forward at a slow pace, escorted by the heavy armored swordsmen beside the carriage.
They left the alley right away. When Angele peeked outside the window, he saw the street bustling with activity.
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Chapter 73: Invitation (2)
Translator: Leo Editor: DarkGem/Frappe
After the peak hour, the street had gotten much quieter, proven by how there were merely several noble carriages traveling along the way. Angele began to hear thunder rumbling from the sky as the clouds became much thicker; the street became darker as shadows loomed over the surroundings. It was as if nighttime descended, yet it was still noon.
The wind that had its temperature dropped screamed as it blew into Angele's carriage through the window. Angele slightly pulled up his collar to combat the chill; to no avail, however. It was because Angele was wearing a high neck collar luxury suit, which had silver flowers embroidered on the edge of the collar. If it wasn't for the night banquet he was going to attend, Angele wouldn't wear such impractical clothes.
Angele's white, high-neck collar suit looked a bit like a commander's suit but with fewer decorations. This suit he was wearing was similarly one commonly used by swordsmen.
The carriage kept advancing for another half an hour in peace only to be disturbed by a roaring sound. Angele heard this sound drawing near. He looked out through the window and found himself going uphill along a mountain path.
Angele glanced around. At the opposite side, there were mountains, and as he looked down, he found a river leading to a large waterfall at its end. This waterfall was the source of the sound Angele heard earlier. Large pieces of wet stones shined below.
The carriage he was on was advancing on the twisted hill road, which was beside the waterfall.
"We're almost there!" Gerac yelled outside. The noise created by the waterfall had almost muffled his voice completely, so he had to increase the volume of his voice to let everyone hear what he said. Angele nodded, pulling down the curtain to keep his suit from getting wet. Angele now missed his gray robe allocated by the college. The robe had a spell enchant, which maintained a new look and cleanliness. Thus, he never needed to wash it. Ever since he arrived at Lennon City, he hadn't heard any news about the school's situation at all.
"I'm already 16…" Angele closed his eyes and sighed. Many things had happened to him since he reincarnated into this world. He knew he needed to think twice before making decisions, but there were still some decisions he regretted. Angele inhaled the cold and humid air, making him feel refreshed. He stopped thinking about the past.
The carriage quickly arrived at the hilltop. A large, gray castle sat atop the hill surrounded by tall, thick walls. There was a large gate upon the castle walls, which was the only entrance to the castle. The carriage and the escorts stopped when they reached the gate. Angele opened the door and got off the carriage.
Angele hadn't had a haircut for a while, so his long hair flew about in the air as the wind blew. With him wearing a white suit that showed his robust body and his long hair, it gave off a wild yet gentle impression.
"I'll notify them of our arrival." Gerac bowed to Angele before walking into the gate. Angele waited outside along with the other guards.
Angele looked around as he remained standing by the carriage. He could see another hill at the opposite side of the waterfall, and built atop it was a large, gray castle. It had a slightly smaller size compared to the one in front of him, and there were sentry towers built along the hill roads heavily guarding the castle.
The scenery where the large waterfall lay in between the two castles looked magnificent.
"Great place," Angele praised.
"You think so too?" Angele turned his sight to the gate when he heard a voice coming from it. His eyes fell onto a muscular old man wearing a large, white leather coat. He sat in a wheelchair with a pale face, but he seemed to be in good spirits.
"Welcome to Lennon City. I haven't seen such a person with mysterious powers for years. We wouldn't have known you arrived in the city if it weren't for our Merfolk friend who sensed your power," the old man smiled, and he said before asking the maid to push the wheelchair toward Angele.
"Nice to meet you, my name is Alford Reed, Lord of Lennon City," the old man said.
"I'm Angele, pleasant meeting you too." Angele placed his left hand on his chest and bowed in courtesy.
"The night banquet is about to start, please come and join us," Alford said.
Angele nodded in response, and he followed the old man into the castle. Gerac and another white-armored swordsman walked alongside the Lord, while the rest of the guards followed them in the back. Angele had just entered the gate when he heard noises of arriving carriages coming from behind.
"Father! Why did you not tell me there would be a guest today?" a young man said. Angele turned around and saw a blonde man walking toward him with a smiling face. The blonde man had a beautiful face and a soft and smooth skin. Angele thought it was a woman until the blonde man walked closer to him. There was a whole group of guards behind him.
Before the carriage could stop, the young man jumped off it. Alford's facial expression became strange when he saw the young man, but it only lasted for a fleeting moment.
"My son, I didn't get the chance to tell you about Master Angele. I only saw the report today. I decided to invite him to my castle right after," Alford replied with a smile.
"You can call me Tinos, Tinos Reed. Welcome to Lennon City," the blonde man nodded as he said this to Angele. The latter caught the lord's strange expression. It looked like Alford feared his son.
For some reason, Angele couldn't help but do a double-take upon glancing at Tinos. The young man had a feminine face, fair white skin, and a clean, short hair. He was wearing a tight black leather suit. When he smiled, his purple lips caught people's attention. Tinos was strangely beautiful. If Angele were to associate him with something, it would be a thorny purple rose coated with deadly poison.
Angele glanced at the two guards behind Tinos. One of them was taller than the other. Both of them were wearing leather armor. The taller guard was similarly smiling. His white hair was left untied over his shoulders, and he was handsome. He was holding a black dagger.
The shorter one was a lady who had her face covered with a black mask holding two small stones in her hands. Her eyes and hair color were black. Complemented with the leather suit she wore, her attractiveness reached another level. Ten more guards stood behind them, all of which were beauties or handsome men.
"Nice to meet you, Mr. Tinos," Angele said as he gently smiled.
"I left the castle right away after hearing Master Angele was in Lennon City. Sadly, my father arrived first," Tinos said. Angele found Tinos's smile charming, causing him to feel a slight jealousy over Tinos's appearance. Angele, who had an average-looking face, had never cared about his appearance before but standing beside Tinos made him feel uncomfortably inferior.
"It's going to rain, why don't we enter the castle first? I hear the Lord has already prepared a banquet," Tinos continued.
"Sure," Alford replied, and Tinos nodded in response. Alford led the way; Angele and Tinos followed him. Some guards were dismissed, leaving the remaining guards to escort them to the castle.
Angele still wished to confirm his suspicions in regards to the strange feeling he had with Tinos. The young man didn't even have a beard, and his skin was smoother compared to other ladies. Angele could smell the woman-like fragrance coming from Tinos, causing him to have second thoughts. Angele kept convincing himself he was looking at a man.
They walked for a while. Every time Angele moved closer to Tinos, he found out the latter trying to stay away from him. It was as though Tinos was doing his best to have minimal contact with Angele.
'Zero, check Tinos's body condition and identify his gender,' Angele thought.
'Analyzing… Tinos Reed: Strength 2.0. Agility 2.7. Stamina 2.4. Mentality 1.2. Mana 0. Gene limit hasn't reached the peak. Status: Healthy. Gender: Male,' Zero reported.
'So he's a man… and his attributes are on a knight-level,' Angele thought. Tinos's attributes were on a mid-level knight's, but Angele wasn't certain of Tinos being a knight-level warrior. The chip was capable of gaining intel on Tinos's attributes, but it couldn't gain intel on Tinos's battle experiences and unique physical skills.
After Angele had become stronger, the results the chip showed had become more accurate. At present, he was 1 or 2 meters away from Tinos, and he decided to check everyone within a 5-meter radius. The two guards in black leather armor had knight-level attributes, and their Agility attribute was relatively high. The other guards had the same attributes as ordinary people's, and it was quite likely that they're worse than the city guards.
Angele hadn't expected to see many knight-level warriors here. However, the most important personage in Lennon City was living here, so the security level of this place must be the highest in the city.
'Well, it's likely that Tinos just likes handsome men and beautiful women. Perhaps he even hates average-looking people,' Angele made his conjecture. Lord Alford had an extremely high Strength attribute of about 5.0, but his Agility attribute was merely 0.5 and also, his Stamina attribute was only about 1.0. It seemed that Alford could no longer walk as he had been sitting in his wheelchair the whole time. Angele assumed that Alford would have been at least a top-level knight before getting crippled into his current state.
Angele also noticed that Gerac and the other white-armored guard kept looking at the guards behind Tinos. Instead, they kept a certain level of vigilance toward these guards. As Angele thought of this, he realized that there were still things he needed to figure out.
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ED Note(s): I apologize for the inactivity during these past few days. Please forgive me as I haven't been able to edit quite properly because of one single reason: I accidentally broke my laptop several days ago.
bows*
Please don't torch me or hang me. Please.
For now, I'm having it fixed so you can expect a normal release rate after 2 to 3 days… hopefully. I'll have to make do with my contingency plan — revive my antique pc. Heck, it's actually revived but the OS is still… um, Windows XP. Anyway, I hope that you won't get too angry with the recent silence in chapter releases. I'll compensate y'all with more chapters soon.
If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know report chapter so we can fix it as soon as possible.
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Chapter 74: Success (1)
Translator: Leo Editor: DarkGem/Frappe
As they passed through the garden, Alford whispered something to the guard beside him.
They weren't speaking in Anmag. It made Angele furrow his brows. Though he could hear what they were saying, he couldn't understand a single word.
The guard nodded in response before separating with the group and walking toward the right side of the garden. The garden was huge, and only after walking for more than 10 minutes did they finally reach the exit.
Angele finally saw the castle gate after walking past an ornamental pond. The gate was already open, and standing on both sides were maids and servants awaiting their arrival. It was still dark outside, but Angele could see the warm lights coming from inside the castle.
"Father, were you looking for me?" someone asked from behind.
"My son, you're finally here!" Alford exclaimed. This time, he had a face filled with gentleness — unlike when he was dealing with Tinos.
Outside the corner of Angele's eyes, he witnessed Tinos looking at his brother respectfully. After hearing his brother's voice, however, Tinos stopped looking at him nor showed any emotion on his face.
A blonde young man appeared from the corner of the garden and walked straight toward Alford. Angele looked at the man, his countenance turning stern. He was smiling; he had blue eyes and a balanced body. The man was handsome, and he looked identical to Tinos but was different. Angele could notice his eyes filled with confidence.
The young man's steps were heavy and steady. Angele felt like he was looking at a lion strolling in its territory. His expression turned more serious after that. Upon smelling a tinge of blood coming from the young man, Angele realized that this young man was a person who knew how to kill. The confidence radiating from his eyes indicated that he thought he's capable of anything. It was clear that the man's forged bloodlust wasn't a pretense. He must've had no small amounts of blood on his hands from his past experiences, which in turn numbed him toward violence.
"This is my other son, Harland Reed." Alford introduced the man young to Angele.
"It's a pleasure, Mr. Harland." Angele smiled and nodded.
Harland still held a garden shear in his hands. It seemed like he could care less about the presence of a man with mysterious power. He took pride in his power. Harland glanced at Angele for a second before nodding as a welcome gesture but spoke none of such greetings. However, after glancing at Angele, Harland did a double-take, and he became surprised.
"My apologies. I never thought my father's guest was a strong warrior," Harland said these words slowly. For a while, he looked at Angele, his face becoming solemn after.
"Haha, you're flattering me..." Angele replied, not understanding the underlying implication of Harland's words.
Harland handed the garden shear over to a worker at the side and walked toward Angele. He intentionally looked at Angele's sword for a moment, causing Angele to think Harland already had the knowledge of him being a top-level knight.
'Zero, show me Harland's information,' Angele thought.
'Analyzing… Harland Reed: Strength 8.2. Agility 6.1. Stamina 5.8. Genetic information: Unknown. Your possibility of surviving Harland's attack within a 50-meter range is 48.22%,' Zero reported.
'Holy…' Angele was surprised. It meant Angele would lose to Harland even with the assistance from his spells. Also, his attributes were extremely high.
'A grand knight… That's why he looks so confident,' Angele thought. He knew there were many strong warriors here, but he didn't expect to meet a grand knight with such high attributes.
Mid-level knights' attributes scaled between 2 to 3 in average, and top-level knights nearly had no contrast in attributes from mid-level knights. However, top-level knights had the burst potential that could increase their attributes dramatically. It was the reason why Angele became a top-level knight.
However, the situation was different for a grand knight. All of them were talented, and it was possible for them to have extremely high attributes. When dealing with an average knight, a grand knight could easily dispatch them in a battle because they have greater strength and agility. Also, grand knights had high resistance against physical attacks and their power after enkindling their burst potential was immeasurable.
One grand knight could fight against a whole army, and only archers and crossbow users would give them trouble. Average infantry stood no chance against one grand knight.
Harland met Angele for the first time today, but he had already shown great intrigue in Angele. They converse about everything, and they had a lot of drinks to boot.
Tinos and Alford didn't join in their conversation; the latter only sat there with a smile on his face. He was listening to the two talking about their experiences, but Tinos was disappointed. When Tinos tried to join in the conversation, Harland denied him.
After the night banquet, Harland asked the coachman to drive Angele back using his private carriage. He tried to invite Angele to stay the night in the castle, but Angele only smiled and declined his invitation. Harland didn't seem to be bothered by it, only being mindful of Angele's decision.
On his way back, Angele talked with the guards who were walking alongside the carriage. From their conversations, he learned a few things about Harland.
Harland Reed was the only grand knight in Lennon City, and the citizens called him the Molten Lion. He had a youthful face, but he was already 30 years old. Of the three major wars in the country, he took part in all of them. Harland gained a lot of great achievements during the wars. Subsequently, the king conferred upon him the title of 'Southwest Lion' and a decent-sized territory. The territory he gained was smaller than Lennon City but could still be considered a large one.
Harland showed Angele a gesture of goodwill by lending him his private carriage. This gesture caused Angele to try and make sense of whatever Harland wanted from him. The two of them both considered each other a threat unless Angele sided with Harland, which the latter indicated it to be a great thing. If Angele refused to do so, however, Harland would no longer treat him in a friendly manner.
Harland mentioned a lot about the rich reserves he discovered outside the city, and he even showed his desire of expanding his territory. He wasn't satisfied with what he had, so he desired more. To Harland, it was an infallible certainty for him to obtain whatever he wanted if he tried.
Angele had decided to settle down here, so he thought it was alright to join Harland's side. Still, he would rather initially ascertain the benefits in doing so.
Angele returned to his shop. He was surprised to see Tia still training with a twig in the backyard. She kept repeating the basic movements Angele taught today.
"That's enough, Tia. You should go back and have a good rest. Don't go too hard on yourself. Your right hand is still recovering," Angele told her after he threw a dry towel over.
"Understood, Master," Tia replied.
"Just call me Teacher." Angele corrected her.
"Yes, Teacher!" Tia enthusiastically said. She wiped the sweat off her body and refilled the water bucket at the well. Before leaving, she cleaned the towel first before returning it to Angele.
Angele found out that Tia had cleaned all the rooms for him and even mopped the floor. Because of that, Angele felt satisfied with the student he took in.
Time flew.
Angele stayed most of his time in his shop. He meditated, studied, trained his sword skills, and also tried to learn the secret skill he obtained before from the Snake of Sand Forest. Angele spent most of his spare time teaching Tia, and he went hunting with Harland twice. This new acquaintance of his invited him several times to private wine parties. At night, Angele would craft new potions using all the materials he could get his hands into the city as he tried to further his knowledge in Potion Study.
Harland had somehow found the horses Angele lost before and sent it back to him. Right after, the two horse thieves were arrested and sentenced to death with their carcasses getting discarded in the forest.
Angele had always known he wasn't that talented. He needed a long time to become a rank 3 Wizard apprentice, so he began to search for the Dragon Scale Flower and the Spartame Blue Stone. The Spartame Blue Stone was another rare mineral that could help Angele increase his mentality, and also difficult to obtain.
Though Angele didn't have high expectations of finding any of the two, he still amassed all the information he could find around the city. If he found one of them, the path to becoming a rank 3 Wizard apprentice would be much easier.
Angele kept doing those things for the next two months.
Crack*
The sound of a beaker breaking into pieces was loud. Angele looked disappointed as he disposed the broken glass fragments into the garbage bin. The bin was already full of broken glass.
"Another one, gone," Angele mumbled. He started to think while staring at the equipment on the desk. Angele's desk was round, having a diameter of 3 meters. It was the largest object inside the shop. There were several different types of potion concocting equipment arranged on the desk, most of which had a red hue while the rest were transparent.
"The standard of the equipment is worse than the ones in school. Most of these can barely handle just one experiment," Angele said. He took another transparent beaker out of a wooden box from under the desk.
There were three large crates underneath, all made of black wood. One contained equipment, while the other two contained herbs. Angele segregated the fresh herbs and the dried herbs into these two crates.
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Chapter 75: Success (2)
Translator: Leo Editor: DarkGem/Frappe
Angele took a dark red herb from the crate. He initially sniffed it before he put some of its leaves inside his mouth. After several seconds, Angele threw away the herb without saying a word and took out a mud-like material from the other crate.
Angele tasted it, only to throw the whole piece away afterward. He kept repeating this procedure until he finally found something of use to him.
Angele looked surprised but was also happy. He was currently holding an egg-sized yellow ball full of holes, scrutinizing it with his eyes.
"I hope this one works." Angele stared at this yellow ball.
He placed it inside a large beaker by the right side of the desk and grabbed a small glass bottle filled with some white, slimy liquid. He then poured some of the liquid into the large beaker.
Angele had a serious face while pouring the liquid, his eyes glowing with blue, shiny spots. With the chip's assistance, Angele could easily measure the number of materials and amount he needed. Angele closed off the glass bottle with a lid and put it down. He turned around, walking toward a small, black wooden box from the corner of the room. Inside the box was filled with green powder.
Angele scooped a bit of the green powder and sprinkled it into the beaker, white steam coming out of it right away. The green powder had begun to coagulate upon contact with the white liquid and burn from the flame that turned blue. The fire heated up the yellow ball and continuously produced steam out of it.
Angele maintained calmness as he poured some water onto the ball. With the vapor filling up the entirety of the room, he could barely see anything.
Angele waved his left index finger in the air and chanted.
Whoosh*
Angele controlled the energy particles in the air and created a wind to blow away the steam out of his room.
Angele could finally see what remained in the beaker. The yellow ball had now melted, resulting in some slimy liquid that looked like a pile of mud mixed with water. The surface of the yellow liquid glowed under the light.
Angele looked excited, and the blue light spots in his eyes brightened.
'Successfully synthesized the substitute material. Usage of such material in the concoction of Awakening Potion is now possible. Please name the new material.' Angele heard Zero's voice resounding in his mind.
'Name it Green Water.' Green had been Angele's nickname, and he decided to use it as the name of the byproduct of the synthesis. He had collected more than one thousand types of materials, and with the assistance of the chip, he attempted to synthesize different materials to fabricate new types of materials. Finally, he had been able to create a substitute for the main component in the formula of Awakening Potion, and it gave him hope.
'Show me the comparison of Green Water and Dragon Scale Flower and tell me how similar they are.' Angele was extremely excited at this point. He tried to calm down as he ordered Zero.
'Comparing... inputting the formula... more information on the Dragon Scale Flower required... more practical data required... simulation model created.' Zero maintained its task unabatingly.
'Analyzing the results... If you use the Green Water as a substitute for the Dragon Scale Flower, the possibility of reaching half the effect of the original formula is 81.5%.'
Angele nodded his head. The result could already be considered good enough. Though the yellow ball called the Night Honeycomb was expensive, it was still much easier to obtain compared to the Dragon Scale Flower. Also, wizards uncommonly used Night Honeycombs in their researches and experiments, so he could easily purchase it from typical merchants.
Also, Angele needed the chip to monitor the material creation process. Otherwise, it would be difficult for him to control the temperature and amount of water. Every step must be done accurately and timed accordingly.
Without the chip, even a formal wizard wouldn't be capable of recreating the formula of Green Water. Angele didn't need to hide the formula. Even if he decided to teach the concoction process to someone else, it was nigh impossible for someone to concoct it successfully.
The concocting process involved the use of mentality. As each person had differing types of Mentality, this had become a critical factor in potion concoction, albeit how minuscule the difference was. Zero had formulated the plan based on Angele's mentality. It would be a farfetched idea for someone to obtain similar results as him. Only Angele could use a particular method in synthesizing substitute materials.
'Zero, begin the simulation.' Angele held the beaker in his hand and looked at the slimy, yellow liquid while smiling.
'Initializing simulation… Time required: 15 minutes.'
'Also, show me my body model.'
A blue hologram appeared in front of Angele's vision right away. The simulated model of his body was rotating horizontally, bits of information shown beside it. The information contained Angele's heart rate, brain activity, and all his attributes. Some of his body statistics were interminably changing, but most remained within a certain numerical range.
'4.0 Mentality already?' Angele looked at his attributes bar, 4.0 showing beside Mentality. The values after the decimal point were ever-changing but still relatively stable.
'My body is stronger than before, my genes are improving, and even the chip has become more accurate with its calculations. Initially, it could only monitor up to the hundredths. Now, it could now calculate values up to the billionth,' Angele thought.
However, my mentality didn't increase significantly. I'll need to concoct an Awakening Potion. I'm 16 years old already, so if I can't reach stage 3, I'll never become a wizard in the future. I must hurry.' Using the Awakening Potion was his best chance.
Ten minutes later.
'Simulation finished. The success rate of concocting the Awakening Potion is 23.15%.' Angele became relieved upon hearing Zero's report.
'The rate is decent. I'll at least succeed once every five tries... Okay... Zero, show me the procedures.' Angele's expression changed, turning that of solemnness.
'Step 1…'
Half an hour later…
Angele walked out of his room and entered the backyard. He took a deep breath and smiled. He raised his arm and there was a small silver bottle in his right hand.
"Finally, the first Awakening Potion! The amount I used was enough to be used for four attempts, yet I only succeeded once. I need to get my hands on more Night Honeycombs," Angele spoke in a solemn tone.
'Now, let me give this a try.' Angele locked all the doors and windows. He didn't want anyone to interrupt him.
He returned to his room and sat on his bed with his legs crossed. Angele pulled the glass cork out of the bottle carefully. The dark, slimy liquid suffused a chocolate-like fragrance from its container throughout the room.
'Well, it smells like chocolate. I hope it tastes like an actual one, too.' Angele shook his head before pouring everything into his mouth.
Clang*
Angele dropped the small bottle, causing it to hit the wall. He had a pained expression on his face.
The potion tasted nothing like chocolate. It was salty and spicy, and it tasted like a hot seafood soup with a strange aftertaste. It was the most pungent liquid Angele ever drank. Sweat was rolling down his face, and his clothes were completely soaked.
Angele's face turned red caused by the burning sensation he was feeling in his throat and stomach.
'Show me my Mentality, Zero.' Angele tried his best not to throw up.
'Monitoring the Mentality…
Your Mentality is increasing.
4.1
…
4.15
…'
…
Angele had no idea how much time passed, but he finally began feeling better soon after. His clothes and bed, however, were wet.
'Zero, what's the new value of my Mentality?' Angele got out of his bed and stood up with a tired face.
'Your Mentality attribute is 4.2 units.' Angele inhaled once. He felt a bit relieved after hearing the result.
'One Awakening Potion increased my Mentality by 0.2 units, yet this one that I concocted only had half the effect of the original formula. To enhance my Mentality to 6 units and reach the next rank, I need ten potions. I need to keep looking for substitute materials and concoct more potions to drink.' Angele looked at his wet clothes.
'But it tasted extremely awful…' Angele still felt a lingering fear toward it.
'Wait… I haven't used the Black Lead Potion yet…' The Awakening Potion was the first potion Angele tried, but at this moment, he didn't want to even think about potions.
The potion was extremely spicy. Angele's throat and stomach were still aching. He could tolerate the pain but not the feeling of nausea. Angele didn't have any other choice, so he had to stick with potions.
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Chapter 76: Promotion (1)
Translator: Leo Editor: DarkGem/Frappe
"Sold out?" Angele stood beside the counter with his brows furrowed.
"Yes, sorry, the ones you purchased last time was all we had," the lady at the counter tactfully answered.
"I apologize once again." She bowed.
Angele stood in front of a counter in a large herb store. The rays of the sun at noon came right through the entrance, causing his boots to shine.
There were eight clerks taking orders of the customers, and Angele was talking to one of them.
"I heard Grace Herb Store is the best in the city. Can you double-check with other branches to see if they still have stock?" Angele didn't want to give up.
"I am afraid they don't. The one you bought last time was the last Night Honeycomb we had. I am sorry to disappoint you, but we don't have anything in stock right now." The clerk apologized again.
"Can you tell me where you get the Night Honeycombs from?" Angele already spent the whole trying to buy the Night Honeycombs, and this one was his last hope.
"We buy them from the people living around here. If you truly need it now, I'd suggest you check the forest around the city. If you are lucky, you'll find the Night Bees. We don't have people who can collect them, so we can only purchase them from others," the clerk explained.
"Fine." Angele nodded.
Angele left the store and began to head back to his shop. He was still contemplating to figure out a way to obtain more Night Honeycombs. Angele had successfully concocted his first Awakening Potion last month and spent the rest of the month trying to buy Night Honeycombs from the herb stores in the city. However, he was only able to buy two, and none of the stores had the channels to purchase more for him.
Angele's luck was good as he was able to concoct three potions out of the two Night Honeycombs. His Mentality reached 4.9 units within one month after drinking the two potions and meditating every day. If he could get five or six more Night Honeycombs, it would be enough for him to reach the next rank. However, there was no more stock left in the city. It was quite likely that he had to go to the forest and obtain them by himself.
The problem lied in the Night Bees. With their needles coated with deadly venom, no one would be able to take the honeycombs if they were present in the vicinity. Night Bees were nocturnal creatures, and their dark outer shells made it difficult to detect them in the hours of darkness. Night Bees took several lives every year: they were dangerous since they attacked anyone who wandered in their territories.
Additionally, the Night Bees' honeycombs were small, and they would carry their honeycombs with them while moving to other areas.
Angele returned to his shop only to find a carriage parked right in front of the entrance. Engraved on the body of the carriage was an insignia depicting a sunflower and a white bird. It was from the lord's castle.
A group of full-armored guards stood beside the carriage, and among them were several people who seemed like officers. The alley was much cleaner than it was before, and the awful stench that reeked was gone. Tia was standing outside the door, looking at the carriage curiously. She was here to deliver food.
The officers walked toward Angele right after they saw him.
"Master Angele, you're back. Mr. Harland is waiting for you. We've arrived here since an hour ago," one of the officers spoke in a respectful tone. They were in-charge of the area, and they didn't want to mistreat Harland's guest.
The guards knew that the young man in front of them was someone invited to banquets in the Lord's castle. Thus, they realized that Angele was a person they couldn't afford to offend. They once visited the shop before, and Angele told them that he disliked being disturbed, so they decided to improve the environment around the alley instead.
"Mr. Harland?" Angele was confused for a second, and then he looked at the carriage.
"Angele, I hear you've been looking for Night Honeycombs. You should've just asked me instead. We're friends, right?" Harland got off the carriage with a smile. He was wearing a white cape.
"Of course, we are." Angele smiled.
"It wasn't an urgent matter, so I decided to check the herb stores first."
"Well, I hope you still need more." As Harland waved his right hand, a guard stepped forward holding a black wooden box.
Harland took it and handed it over to Angele.
"There are several Night Honeycombs inside. You can take it if you want." Harland had an honest smile on his face.
Angele opened the box and saw eight Night Honeycombs inside, each wrapped in black clothes. The way it was packed looked great.
"I do need them. Thanks." Angele looked happy. He slowly nodded as he closed the box.
"Glad I could help." Harland nodded.
"I have to go now. I still got some work to do."
"Sure." Angele stood there watching them depart.
After they had left the alley, Angele reopened the box. He looked at the Night Honeycombs; seven of them seemed to be aged, probably sitting inside the storage for years. However, one of them looked fresh — its color was bright. He saw some blood stains on its surface.
Angele furrowed his brows. He grabbed the honeycomb and sniffed it.
"It is blood. A weighty gift," Angele murmured.
He wondered why Harland decided to collect a fresh one aside from the seven old ones. Doing so most likely resulted in Harland losing several people. Though Harland tried to erase the traces of bloodstain, Angele had stronger and keener senses than average people, so he detected the blood on it with ease.
Based on the information he obtained from the clerks of herb stores, Night Bees had twice the speed of an adult male, and only knight-level warriors were capable of dodging some of their attacks. Furthermore, they were tiny, and their needles could easily penetrate leather armor. If they had decided to don heavy armor, they wouldn't be able to catch up with the bees' speed.
The Night Bees were nocturnal, which made them even harder for people to capture. A knight-level warrior probably left the bloodstain on it wherein causing Angele to think of it as a weighty gift.
'Though they obtained Night Honeycombs, Harland most likely didn't find the other materials I requested. I can't go to Rifts, and those materials are too difficult to obtain.' Angele shook his head and entered the shop with the box in his hands.
Angele told Tia to train in the backyard. Afterward, he sat by the table and took the Night Honeycombs out of the box. He placed those honeycombs inside a large glass bottle filled with clear liquid.
Angele had obtained the materials he needed, so he wanted to pay attention to the concoction of potions. Eight Night Honeycombs were enough to concoct eight Awakening Potions. With these potions and the supplement of meditation, he could easily grow his Mentality to 6 units.
Time flew.
A week later.
Angele sat on his bed with his legs crossed, his expression calm. He had been unlucky these days. He only successfully concocted seven Awakening Potions, though he still managed to increase his Mentality to 6.2 units. Angele had initially expected to attain a 6.3 Mentality. However, his body seemingly began to resist the potion's effects.
'Well, at least I met the requirements.' Angele was relieved.
Angele asked Tia to take two days off. He didn't want anyone to interrupt him during the process.
Angele looked at the crystal clock on the table. It was 2:10 p.m. Angele got off the bed and took out the Black Lead Potion from the bag.
The bottle was the length of a palm and made from some silver metal. The rim of the bottle was sealed using a brown stopper. Angele placed the Black Lead Potion on the table before he took the tinderbox out of the drawer and struck the flint to light up the oil lamp. The oil lamp used a different type of fuel — one that looked like solid, white fat.
Angele set a beaker onto the metal holder over the flame and poured some light red liquid into it. He then grabbed a test tube that had yellow powder contained inside.
Angele sprinkled some yellow powder into the beaker, causing the red liquid inside to turn blue and cloudy within a second. He heated the beaker right after.
Ten minutes later.
The blue liquid inside the beaker was no longer boiling as it was before, but its color turned darker into something nearly black. When Angele began to smell a fragrance of flowers in the room, he thought that everything was prepared accordingly and nodded his head. He then grabbed the Black Lead Potion.
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Chapter 77: Promotion (2)
Translator: Leo Editor: DarkGem/Frappe
With a serious face, Angele held the bottle in one hand and the glass pliers in the other. He carefully removed the stopper from the bottle, barely escaping the onslaught of smoke coming out of it.
Slowly, the green smoke amassed itself in the air, forming into a hazy outline of a woman's face. A pungent odor replaced the fleeting fragrance of flowers that pervaded the air. Angele had his brows furrowed as he pointed at the woman's forehead with his finger.
The woman opened her mouth slowly as soon as Angele's finger made contact with her forehead, and then a black beetle crawled out of it. On the back of the beetle was a white crying face about the size of a nail. Angele grabbed this insect and quickly threw it into the large beaker nearby.
Waah*
Suddenly, Angele heard wailing sounds from the blue liquid, actually originating from the black beetle. Its screams sounded like an infant crying from agonizing pain. As this continued to occur, the beetle was melting inside the beaker while the blue liquid continually dissolved it.
Angele furrowed his brows. When he further increased the temperature, the light of the fire dyed his face red. The noise produced by the beetle gradually grew fainter and disappeared after several seconds.
The blue liquid inside the beaker finally started to boil. The green smoke slowly returned to the bottle and the outline of a woman's face dissipated at the same time. Angele kept his sight on the beaker as he poured the rest of the potion into it. Upon contact, the green substance mixed the blue liquid that had become darker and turned completely black after several seconds.
Angele stirred the solution with a glass rod. He was satisfied with the result. He didn't care if the beaker was still hot, taking it and drinking all of its contents. Angele put down the beaker, not feeling any change.
'Your condition is currently unstable.'
'Mentality is increasing… being influenced by radiation energy…'
'Unknown radiation energy is damaging your body. Emergency plan activated, releasing energy particles for defense.'
'Special radiation energy expelled, 45% of total energy particles consumed, attempting to extract discharged radiation energy... Attempt unsuccessful.' Angele was reading the event log recorded by Zero after he drank the potion. He checked the hologram of his body to see the changes.
He could see the dark energy particles flowing through his body, damaging all the organs it passed. The emergency measure Angele set was enabled. The energy stored in his body forced the dark energy out, but the dark energy was fast, still leaving traces inside Angele's body.
'A portion of the dark energy is still inside my body. That is a problem,' Angele thought.
'Zero, show me my condition.' Angele felt cold, and his body was aching.
'Body tissues are 5% damaged. Leftover dark energy is influencing the growth of your Mentality. Your gene strands are unstable, some already breaking. Use more energy particles to force the remaining dark energy out?'
'No!' Angele's face was stern as he looked at the growing Mentality value.
'6.4
6.5
6.6
6.7
6.8
6.9…'
Suddenly, the value rose from 6.9 to 10, and it was still increasing.
'10.1
10.2
10.3…'
'Warning! 14% of your body tissue is damaged. It will become fatal once it exceeds 30%. Please take action.' Zero's mechanical voice echoed within Angele's mind.
'20% damaged.' As Angele focused on the percentage value, he began to sweat.
Angele wanted the number to rise again since it was his best chance. The first jump increased his Mentality from 7 to 10 units. It was probably the best result he could get from drinking the Black Lead Potion, but he wanted to wait for the second jump.
Theoretically speaking, the Black Lead Potion could increase one's Mentality dramatically, but people who had taken one couldn't handle the side effects.
'Based on my calculations, the second jump has better results than the first one! I have to take this opportunity…' Angele was nervous. He no longer felt any pain from his body that had gone paralyzed, and he could barely stay conscious.
'25% damaged. Increased Mentality to 10.5.'
'28% damaged. Increased Mentality to 10.8.'
'29% damaged.'
At this point, Angele could no longer handle it, 'Cleanse my body of the remaining dark energy!'
'Releasing all the stored energy particles. Cleansing has begun.' Right before Zero released the energy particles, the value of Angele's Mentality jumped once again, from 10.8 to 15. Angele, who saw this change, felt relieved before he closed his eyes and fell to the ground.
Angele laid on the ground motionlessly. Suddenly, a horrifying scene ensued as his body began to spasm violently, his muscles started to cramp, and his skin turned red; his eyes had long rolled back into his head.
Looking closely, black specks of light covered by red and green light were coming out of Angele's body. The light particles vanished in the air after leaving his skin.
'Finally, I succeeded.' Angele was still suffering, but he was feeling excited about the results.
All of a sudden, the temperature of the room dropped to the extent that Angele felt cold.
Kata-kata*
Angele heard light footsteps coming toward him.
Only after exerting great effort did Angele somehow turned his head toward the source of the sound. He witnessed a group of zombified monsters approaching him. They surrounded Angele — some were enemies Angele had long slain before while some were bizarre creatures he had never seen before.
There was nothing Angele could do. After all, he was still in a paralyzed state. He could only lay there as he watched the zombies closing in. The one closest to him was already rotten in a way that Angele could barely recognize its face. It was releasing a disgusting stench, even dripping with a slimy fluid of some kind. Black beetles were crawling out of its right arm.
Angele exerted a lot of effort to move, but all he could do was turn his head. Ultimately, those creatures reached him. They bit Angele's neck hard with their sharp teeth, and blood cascaded out of his wounds. Angele never felt any pain. He only observed them as they devoured him. With his body torn apart and his bones piled atop his head, Angele watched this entire process with unabating clarity.
Fear pressed against Angele like cushion over his mouth and nose, barely able to breathe. He couldn't comprehend what was happening.
Chi*
Everything disappeared after a slight noise sounded out. It was as though nothing had happened. The room became warm and peaceful again.
Only after half an hour did Angele recover finally from the fear he felt.
'Finally... it's over,' Angele thought.
Everything had just been an illusion. Angele was still in one piece, and he started to feel his limbs again.
Angele remained still on the ground lying down. He tried to move his arms. After he successfully touched his face, he felt relieved. It meant the side effects of the potion was gone.
'The Black Lead Potion must have some secrets to it. It can't be as simple as what the book mentioned. This potion is cursed and filled with hatred. It may even contain souls.' Angele still felt horrified upon thinking of what had just transpired.
'Zero, search the database and get me all the information related to the concoction of Black Lead Potion,' Angele asked.
'Searching... finished. Data is incomplete.' Zero finished its job immediately.
'Black Lead Potion's fake formula: Sivia Bird, Soul Eater Beetle, Heart of the Alice Tree, Lead Solution.'
'Fake?' Angele wasn't surprised.
'So, does it contain something strange? Show me the real formula.'
Zero started to show the data before Angele's eyes:
'Real formula: 18-year-old female, pregnant for five months. Soul Eater Beetles and various unknown materials.'
'Possible concoction procedure: First, make the pregnant female die in fear and preserve her body. Second, inject the Black Lead solution into her womb and melt the fetus. Third, extract the melted fetus and turn it into a solution. The obtained solution can be used to concoct 5 Black Lead Potions. Actual procedure unknown but likely to be nearly identical.'
"What the...!" Angele started vomiting upon learning the truth.
When Angele realized he had drunk a solution concocted from a dead fetus, his abdominal wall muscles had begun to contract violently.
"I swear! I'll make sure the formula is real... HUUUURGGEHH…" Angele kneeled on the ground and continued vomiting.
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Chapter 78: The Hunt (1)
Translator: Leo Editor: DarkGem/Frappe
After the congealed contents of his stomach emerged onto the ground, Angele almost collapsed. He stood up slowly and sat on the chair. The puke on the ground made the whole shop smell bad.
Angele rested for a while, then found the tools to clean up the ground. He dumped all the mess into the garbage bin and mopped the ground several times. He then threw the garbage bin to the waste collection place on the street.
"I'm a rank 3 apprentice now." Angele sat down again, feeling much better after finishing cleaning the shop.
'Zero, record the mentality cost of the spells I cast,' Angele said.
'Recording…'
Everything turned blue in Angele's view for a second, then returned to normal right after.
'Start the regular experimenting mode.'
Regular experimenting mode was a mode designed by Angele. He could monitor all the data related to his experiment under this mode while the blue indicators would stay hidden to avoid blocking his sight.
"First, the Hand of Exhaustion."
From his pouch, Angele took out a finger-sized bottle which was filled with white powder.
Angele removed the stopper, poured some powder onto his palm, and put the bottle back into his pouch. He clasped his hands together and rubbed them once. It sounded like he was rubbing glass shards between his palms.
Angele stayed calm and started to chant the incantation. It kept on coming out of his mouth in a weird tone. Slowly, his hands' color started to turn from white to a darker color, and after several seconds, they became red like blood.
Angele stopped casting the spell and started to carefully observe the changes that had happened to his hands. His skin had turned red, and his nails were shining, but he had to look closely to see the red shiny dots on the edges of his nails.
Angele was staring at the data showed in front of his eyes. He was reading the temperature, hardness, radiation, spectrum, duration, and various other properties of the spell. Most of the numbers were stable, but some were changing rapidly.
Angele compared the data to the ones from previous experiments, finding that the power of the spell had generally increased, and he had spent less time channeling the spell.
'Zero, I have enough mentality to improve level 0 spells, right?' Angele asked.
'Requirements are met. Mentality 15.0. One level 0 spell can be improved.'
'Can you improve the Hand of Exhaustion? It's better if I can skip the spell powder.'
'Improvement plan for Hand of Exhaustion created… Expected results after the improvement:
The Hand of Exhaustion (Improved) – Spell level 0
Cost: 1.5 mentality points. 1.5 mana points.
Effect: Strike the enemies with negative energy and exhaust them.
Effective distance: Direct contact.
Casting Time: 3 seconds. Spell fails if interrupted.
Weaknesses: Enemies with high Stamina can resist the exhaustion effect.
Improvements: Spell can be casted without spell powder. Casting time will be reduced by one second.
Information acquired from: Fundamentals of Spells, Fundamentals of Negative Energy, Casting and Channeling, Touch of Solomon - Explanations on all the Level 0 Direct Contacting Spells.
Angele had a satisfied look on his face. 'How long will it take to improve the spell? Can you improve the spell again after the first improvement is done? Also, can you turn it into a ranged spell?'
'Based on the current information in the database, it is impossible to improve it again. The improvement will take 152 hours, and it will cost 14.2 mentality points.'
Angele was not disappointed; he was satisfied with the results of the first improvement. He had learnt the Hand of Exhaustion because he wanted to strike before the enemy could react. Though the casting time was long, and he would not be able to use it against a prepared opponent, it was still a good spell in terms of its effect's duration and power. It would take effect the moment Angele touched an enemy with his hands.
He had tried it on a Single Horn Bull, and the bull lost its ability to fight right after Angele touched its body. The bull's Stamina was about 3 or 4, but it could not resist the exhaustion. The Hand of Exhaustion was one of the most useful low-level spells he could get.
'I need to acquire more knowledge before I can ask the chip to improve the spell again. I probably need more books about the fundamentals of the spells,' Angele thought.
Once the opponent was exhausted by the spell, the exhaustion would last for about an hour, but it was possible for the enemy to remove the negative energy while still being exhausted.
Angele clapped his hands, and some red mist appeared in the air, then disappeared after Angele's hands turned back to their normal color.
'Now I can learn as many level 0 spells as I want. However, I need to figure out how I want to use them, otherwise, the spells may even slow down my speed. Wasting mentality points during a fight will never be a good idea.'
Angele knew what he needed to do.
"I need to focus on one specific type of spells!"
Angele made up his mind.
'The spells I learnt were all from the negative energy category, but the energy particles I can store in my body are Air and Fire. I barely stored any negative energy particles, and that's the problem. I should've bought some Air and Fire spells when I was still in the school. I'm sure I could enhance those spells while casting them,' he thought.
'The school is in chaos right now, so it's impossible for me to buy basic spells there. What should I do?'
Angele scrunched his eyebrows, trying to figure out a way to buy more spells. He finally reached rank 3, but he needed more resources. When he was at the school, he did not have enough magic stones to buy everything he wanted.
'Master Adolf was an apprentice, and he lived as a professor in the Marua Harbour. It's totally possible that there are people like him living in the Ramsoda Empire, so I just need to find them and exchange resources with them. That could solve my spell model problem.' Angele kept thinking. 'Also, there must be books like the Wizard's book that I have. I should try and find some. For now, I will make my Mentality more stable, and improve the Hand of Exhaustion.'
The next thing Angele wanted to know was how the increase of Mentality changed him.
In order to calculate the casting time of a spell, Angele needed to create the model and stop right before casting the spell. After he reached rank 3, he could cast spells much faster than before. Previously, he needed three seconds to cast the Stun Spell, but now he only needed two. Angele could store spells on his chip so the improvement on casting speed was not significant.
However, the next point was important.
Angele could cast more spells during fights with higher Mentality, and the spells became more powerful than before. The reason was simple, if one considered Mentality as Strength. A man with higher Strength would be able to strike harder with the same weapon compared to a man with an average Strength, that way, a Wizard with higher Mentality would be able to cast a more powerful spell.
Also, Angele increased his Mentality to 15, and it met the Mentality requirement of becoming a Wizard. It was something Angele hadn't expected the potion to be able to do.
Being promoted to Wizard was not just about how high the apprentice's Mentality was, he would also need the help from outside. Angele's Mentality was 15, and it was probably the limit for human beings. If he wanted to increase it again, he would need to break the limit. Wizards did research and found out that they could combine certain materials to produce a new substance that could help apprentices break the Mentality limit.
The apprentices that successfully broke the limit could become Wizards, and the substance that helped them break through it was named the Water of Asu. The word 'Asu' meant breaking the limit.
The Water of Asu was one requirement for an apprentice to become a Wizard, while the other one was to obtain as much knowledge as possible. The apprentice needed to know how to handle the various situations that could happen during the breaking of the limit.
Also, obtaining more knowledge would help Angele to learn to solidify the mentality models.
Angele raised his hands and touched his palms. He felt his whole body was in his control, and he could react to things much quicker.
'Water of Asu, solid mentality models, those two requirements are a pain… I can buy the Water of Asu from any large Wizard organization, but I need to choose a spell structure and use my mentality to solidify the model. After I acquire the solid mentality model, I will be able to make it my Talent Spell. It's better if I can make a solid defensive mentality model, otherwise, it won't be too helpful during fights.'
Angele had a lot of problems to worry about. He needed more basic spells, and he also needed a good defensive spell that suited his fighting style. He would be weaker than other Wizards if he chose the wrong defensive spell.
The reason why Wizards were so strong was the defensive Talent Spell they had. A Wizard always had a force field blocking attacks for him, and since it is a Talent Spell, he did not need to cast it. It was like a passive defensive skill. Some Wizards tried to harden their skin to prevent basic physical attacks, something apprentices could not do. Also, the Talent Spell barely cost a Wizard any mentality, and some Wizards could keep the force field around themselves permanently.
'I wonder how's the situation in the school.' Angele started to miss the life in the school. 'After the war, the school might call us apprentices back since it's not the first time that they get invaded by the Northland Wizards. It's happened several times in the history of the school.'
He took the gray robe out of the wardrobe and turned it over; there was a black cross sign on the back of it. This black cross sign would shine when the school wanted to call all the apprentices back. This was one of the reasons why the school let all the apprentices leave—the president could order them back whenever he wanted to.
'I hope they can solve the problem quickly.' Angele knew there was nothing he could do. 'But I heard it's very hard to break the limit. I just reached rank 3 and I should take my time to prepare.'
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Chapter 79: The Hunt (2)
Translator: Leo Editor: DarkGem/Frappe
One month later.
In the library of the Lennon City Lord's castle.
The marble tiled floor was smooth, colorful, and had a brown circle pattern on it. All the small circles were inside a large red circle. There were more than ten bookshelves in the room, and yellow oil lamps were glowing gently on the walls. A young man in a white suit was standing next to one of the shelves reading a thick book carefully.
The young man had an average-looking face, and his skin was a bit pale. His short brown hair barely covered his ears, and he looked just like any other noble playboy, though the suit he was wearing did not cover his muscular body.
That young man was Angele, who looked wild but gentle.
He had gotten the permission to enter the lord's library and read the books the lord had collected. It was to try and find more books like the Wizard's book he had.
"Ugh…" Angele sighed and closed the book. "This one isn't made by a Wizard, either."
Angele was disappointed, and he put down the last book he had wanted to check.
Creak*
Someone opened the door.
"Master Angele, have you found anything useful to you?"
A man with a pretty face walked into the room. It was Tinos, and he was still wearing a black leather suit, his short blonde hair combed to one side.
Angele could still not believe that Tinos was male. He couldn't imagine how attractive the man would be if he tried to wear some female clothing. Angele thought for a second and carefully returned the book back to its place on the shelf. He then turned back and smiled.
"Mr. Tinos, what brings you here? Although there are plenty of books here, I failed to find the ones I wanted," Angele said.
Tinos closed the door and slowly walked towards Angele with a red leather whip in his hands.
"Master Angele, you've changed your hairstyle? Last time I saw you, you still had long hair, and I think you looked great with it," Tinos noted, his words focused on some irrelevant things first. "My scout has reported that he found a Glowing Beast in the forest around the Lennon City. It had attacked several teams of merchants and also injured a number of hunters. My father and my brother are going to hunt it down, I am wondering if you are interested?"
"Glowing Beast?" Angele lowered his head and started to think.
The Glowing Beast's name came from its appearance—the beast was blue and its skin was always glowing. Based on the description found in the books, an adult Glowing Beast was three meters tall and three to four meters long. It was about the size of a below-average Asian Elephant. The beast was very special to Wizards and their apprentices due to the value of its heart. Both Wizards and their apprentices could easily make it into a basic enchanted item.
Wizards or their apprentices could use the enchanted item to cast Glowing Fire Strikes, and the cooldown of the item was one day. The Glowing Beast's skin could also be made into high-quality leather armor suits. The beast was relatively easy to find on this land.
"Well, I've never seen a Glowing Beast in real life, so I will join them." Angele nodded.
"They will be leaving this afternoon. I will let them know you are interested right away." Tinos smiled, turned back, and quickly left the room.
Recently, Tinos had begun to try and find all the reasons he could to spend time with Angele, and Angele knew Tinos wanted him to joins his side. Angele was not so sure about the reason but Tinos and Harland did not like each other, and Tinos was a bit nervous after learning that Harland was building a friendship with Angele.
However, Angele liked Harland more because he was much stronger than Tinos.
'Glowing Beast…' Angele was happy. 'If I can take its heart, I will be able to make a basic enchanted item.'
Outside the west forest.
A team of mounted soldiers in white plate armor suits left the city through the west city gate. That gate was not as busy as the main one, and there were not as many people around there.
There were about twenty people in the team, and the leader was a handsome young man riding a white horse. The blonde man's body looked balanced and strong, his skin smooth like a marble sculpture's. He was leading the team, and two men were following after him on black horses. The man on the left was wearing a black hunting suit and the man on the right had a pretty face.
Following the three, there were four fully geared knights and about ten mounted soldiers in white plate armor suits. The team was heading to the last location the Glowing beast had appeared at.
The leading Knight was Harland Reed, and Angele and Tinos were following right after him. The fully geared knights were knight-level warriors, and the soldiers in white plate armor suits were some of the best in the lord's army.
Harland kept checking the surroundings while slowly advancing. He saw the washbasin sized footprints on the grassland around the bridge, and he also saw some blood stains on the grasses.
"Last night, that Glowing Beast went to the west city gate and attacked several pedestrians. That's why you did not see many people around the gate. The footprints are easy to find, and the only thing we need to do is follow the trail," Harland said in a deep voice. "The Glowing Beast's skin is very hard, and I brought the best short iron spears I could find this time. After initiating with the spears, the four Knights need to step forward and try to block its attacks. The rest of you can act freely depending on the situation, and I will prevent it from escaping to the side.
"What about me? Brother? I am a Knight too? Where's the order for me?" Tinos asked.
"Tinos, you stay with Master Angele. Although people like Master Angele are very strong, they need time to prepare their spells, and you need to make sure the beast does not get anywhere close to him."
Harland was not expecting Tinos to contribute to the team, so he asked him to stay with Angele, knowing that Angele would be able to protect him.
"Thanks in advance for your help, Mr. Tinos." Angele smiled.
"I've slain several Glowing Beasts during the war. They're not scary, but we still need to be careful with its Flame Breath." Harland patted the tower shield that was hanging on his saddle. The tower shield looked luxurious with the 'sunflower and white bird' emblem engraved in the middle of it.
Angele kept smiling, he looked gentle and harmless. He tied his crossguard sword to his waist, no longer nervous while staying around a Grand Knight after having reached rank 3. Last time Zero had said that Angele had less than 50% chance to win a fight against Harland, but this time it had increased to 70%. Angele felt that he was much stronger than before based on the numbers.
Harland waved his right hand, and one of the Knights moved towards him right away. They started to talk about how they should handle the various types of attacks from the Glowing Beast.
Tinos was also talking with another Knight, but they were speaking in a language that Angele could not understand, and it made Angele feel a bit uncomfortable.
The team entered the forest and followed the large footprints on the ground.
Angele followed behind Harland, who was still talking to a Knight called Anthony. Angele heard some of the things they were talking about: they were planning on training the mounted soldiers later, and they were trying to eliminate all the possible threats within the territory.
No one seemed nervous about hunting the Glowing Beast. The two other Knights behind Angele were talking about the new clubs that had opened up in the city recently.
"Master Angele!" Tinos finished his conversation with the Knight and turned back. "My Knight just told me that a ship full of rare goods just arrived at the Ricky Dock this morning, and they are auctioning some of the herbs tomorrow. I was wondering if you would be interested."
"An auction, huh?" Angele thought for a second. "Will there be something like the Dragon Scale Flower?"
"I am afraid not…" Tinos had a bitter smile on his face. "The Dragon Scale Flower is so rare that only people like you would have access to it. However, I heard the legendary body armor, Sun of the Tribe, would be auctioned tomorrow."
"The Sun of the Tribe? How is that even possible?" Angele was surprised, "That was the armor suit worn by the legendary Duke Stagger Plat."
"It's not the original for sure. It's a replica," Tinos explained. "The genuine suit would not come to a city like Lennon. Merchants would bring it to the capital if they somehow got their hands on it. But there will be some rare goods from the Merfolk and several Water Fairy slaves on the auction. I'm sure you will find something you like."
Tinos smiled, and he was blushing a bit. With his purple lips, Angele found him a bit coquettish.
'Do those Water Fairies look more pretty than you?' Angele really wanted to ask.
But he decided not to ask a disrespectful question like that, and it would sound very weird anyway.
Tinos did not notice what Angele was thinking.
"Last time I asked Sir Henry of the Ricky Merchant Association to bring me some special skin care products, and I heard those were the favorites of the Merfolk Princesses. I hope my order arrived with the ship this time. My skin is very dry recently," Tinos continued, and he sounded distressed.
Angele decided not to comment on that. He did not want to question his own sexual orientation.
"Also, Viscount Sparks from Loran City sent me some well-crafted weapons last month, some of them sharp and pretty. After we finish the Glowing Beast off, you can come by my castle and take several of them if you want. I haven't gotten the chance to send you a gift since we met, while I heard my brother gifted you some Night Honeycombs, and I think I need to prepare something, too," Tinos said.
"Thank you for your kindness, but I like my sword," Angele declined the offer. "We're very close to the Glowing Beast so we need to stay alerted now."
Tinos was going to say something else, but he stopped after hearing Angele's words. "Sure, we can discuss it later."
The team arrived at the logging area, the place looking empty without all the trees. There were countless tree stumps on the ground.
It was afternoon, the sunlight had weakened, and the area was extremely quiet.
"This is one of Lennon City's official logging areas, and the sawmill is not too far from here. It was the first location that was attacked by the Glowing Beast," Harland said loudly. "The city's major source of income is the export of lumber, thus, even if we fail to kill the beast, we still need to make sure it doesn't stay in our territory. Workers fear it, and if they don't log, our financial situation will get worse."
Harland's voice was loud and clear. Several birds were scared by his voice and flew away.
"Understood!" all the soldiers yelled out.
"It's getting close!"
Harland held his silver axe tight.
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Chapter 80: The Hunt (3)
Translator: Leo Editor: DarkGem/Frappe
The sun was setting, and the team stopped advancing under the dimming light. Soldiers got off their horses and equipped themselves with the heavy weapons and shields they brought here. They then tied their horses beside a tree.
Angele let one of the soldiers take care of his black horse and then walked straight toward the logging area to check the surroundings. He saw red flowers growing beside the bushes between the tree stumps. The place was misty and the visibility around was a bit poor.
It was sultry, and the smell of blood mixed with the fragrance of grass was floating in the air. The Knights and the soldiers were trying to find traces of the beast in the bushes. Angele could hear something howling in the forest from a distance.
"Damn Ghost Birds, they're really making some disgusting noises!" a soldier said in a light tone as he walked passed Angele.
"But they're tasty." Another soldier laughed.
"How about we catch some for dinner after we finish the beast off?"
"Let's take care of the beast first," a knight said, walking over. "You can catch as many as you want when we start the group training. Stay alert for now."
The soldiers around got noisy after hearing what the Knight said, some even clapping their hands while laughing.
"Stop. We are on a mission." Harland waved his right hand.
Angele was walking around the tree stumps alone. He sensed the presence of something dangerous, and he thought the place was way too quiet. They were deep in the forest, but he did not hear any insects making noise.
He looked at Harland and saw a serious look on the Grand Knight's face. The man held his axe tight and was checking the surroundings with his eyebrows scrunched. He knew that something was wrong as well.
Harland walked towards Angele and whispered, "I don't think it's a Glowing Beast." He was still looking at the trees that were not cut down yet, wanting to make sure he was prepared for the oncoming threat.
" "You're right." Angele nodded. "Glowing Beasts are not cunning, they will come for us once they know we are here, but this one hid itself well."
Harland nodded. He was wielding a large axe and a tower shield. Before he could respond, someone suddenly yelled, "I found it! It's here! … AH!"
Bang*
A man was hit by something, and he was blown away by the impact. He screamed and died within seconds.
"Watch out!" Harland yelled and rushed towards the soldier that just got killed. Several other soldiers also quickly ran to the body. There was a basketball-sized hole on the dead soldier's chest. It looked like the man was hit by something with extremely high temperature because there not a single drop of blood could be seen on the grass around him. The man's wound was clearly burned closed.
"Goddamn! It's Aurens…" A soldier who knew the man tried not to stare at the body.
"His chest piece didn't do shit." Another soldier sighed.
"Damn! It's the Glowing Elephant! Not Glowing Beast!" Harland had seen a similar wound before, and his expression changed. "Everyone, rally to me!"
The soldiers and Knights heard Harland yelling, and they quickly started to move towards his location. The situation was intense. No one was talking, and they all looked serious.
"Jack, Belem!"
Two strong Knights stepped forward after hearing Harland's order.
"You guys go check that bush. Raise your shields and don't go too fast. Glowing Elephants are very strong. I just want you two to confirm its location, don't do anything stupid." Harland pointed at the bush that Aurens was attacked at.
"Affirmative!"
The two started to walk slowly towards the bush.
Angele and Tinos were at the end of the formation.
Although there were two knights protecting Tinos, he was nervous, and he was holding his sword so tight that his knuckles turned white.
Angele scrunched his eyebrows, listening carefully. 'Zero, do you know anything about the Glowing Elephant?'
'Glowing Elephant: a mutant. Its size is about the same as the Glowing Beast's, but it is much faster. The Glowing Elephant prefers to attack its prey with its sharp tusks. You can make low-level enchanted items with its heart,' Zero answered quickly.
'Faster than the Glowing Beast?' Angele drew his sword, trying to figure out a plan.
"Master Angele, please go to the top of that small hill with Tinos. We will take care of it," Harland spoke in a deep voice.
Tinos gritted his teeth. "Master Angele, let's go. My brother can handle it, and there is nothing we can do here."
Angele wanted to stay, but he did not have enough information about the Glowing Elephant, and Zero only showed him some common knowledge about it. It seemed that Harland had experience of fighting one in the past, and he wanted Angele to make sure Tinos did not get hurt. It also meant that Harland wasn't sure if he could protect his brother during the battle.
They had seen how Aurens died at the logging site, and how the plate armor had done nothing for him. The Glowing Elephant had to have some exceptional strength to able to do something like that.
"All right, let's go."
Angele nodded, and they started to retreat with the two Knights by their side. They were heading to the top of a small hill not too far away; the Glowing Elephant was huge, and it would not be able to climb up a hill like that.
They could also survey the battlefield from the top of the hill.
The four looked down and saw another dead soldier. He was also penetrated by the Glowing Elephant's tusks. Angele heard Harland shout out a loud battle cry, and then the man rushed into the bush with two Knights covering the sides. There were many things going on, and the sounds made by the weapons were intense.
The visibility down there was still bad.
Angele suddenly heard the loud trumpet from the Glowing Elephant. Right after that, a shining red elephant stomped into the logging site, and the trees on its way were easily knocked down by it. The elephant was about four meters tall, five meters long, and it looked more like a mammoth than an elephant. Its hair was red, and its tusks were long and sharp.
The elephant looked really strange with its glowing red hair, like the light was coming from inside its body, and it was almost translucent. The Glowing Elephant trumpeted again and grabbed a tree with its long trunk. It wielded the tree like a weapon, trying to hit the soldiers with it.
BAM*
A Knight tried to block the attack with his greatsword, but he was not able to handle the elephant's force and was pushed back. The Knight hit a tree and stopped, his face pale.
Harlan roared like a lion and jumped forward. He then hit one of the elephant's feet, hard. The elephant had just finished attacking with the tree and failed to defend. Right away, blood spurted from the wound. Harland raised his tower shield and quickly backed off.
"Throw the spears!" he yelled while retreating.
The soldiers around started to throw the short spears toward the elephant. The spears hit the elephant's skin but dealt almost no damage. The skin was extremely hard, and normal attacks would not do anything to it.
The Glowing Elephant trumpeted in anger, and Angele felt the ground shaking.
Boom*
The elephant rushed towards Harland and hit his shield. He was knocked back several meters, and the centre of his tower shield was dented.
The soldiers did not stop throwing the spears, but most of them just dropped to the ground after hitting the elephant's skin, not even scratching it.
"Damn!" Harland turned his head back and yelled, "Jack! You do it!"
The Knight named Jack nodded and grabbed a short spear. He aimed at the elephant and threw the spear towards it at full speed.
The short spear howled through the air, accurately hitting the right side of the elephant's body, and the spearhead finally cut the skin open. But there was barely any blood leaking from the wound because the elephant somehow moved its muscles to pressure the cut. It then rushed to the right and five soldiers were blown away. Even elite soldiers could not deal with the elephant's strength.
The elephant then swung its tusks, and two of the soldiers failed to dodge the attack, getting skewered.
Sizzle*
It sounded like their bodies were being roasted. The elephant swung its tusks again, and the dead soldiers were thrown back to the ground. Their chests were penetrated, but there was no blood coming out of the wounds.
"Don't get hit by its tusks, they're ablaze!" Harland yelled. "Knights, follow me! Others back off!"
Harland inhaled once, and it looked like his body was coated with white light.
"For victory!"
Harland's angry battle cry echoed through the forest. He raised his tower shield and charged forward. His strength was so strong that the ground started to shake, and his footsteps sounded like thunder. He was approaching the Glowing Elephant at full speed.
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Chapter 81: The Hunt (4)
Translator: Leo Editor: DarkGem/Frappe
It seemed like the huge creature had figured out who the real threat was to him. The Glowing Elephant turned back and lowered its head. It then aimed at Harland with its tusks and charged toward him.
"HA!"
Harland roared and struck the elephant with his tower shield.
BOOM*
The loud sound of collision made everyone's ears ache.
Harland's tower shield was almost broken, and it had barely blocked the elephant's tusks. The Grand Knight's left arm was bent at a strange angle, the elephant's attack probably having broken his bone. However, the injury did not stop him from striking the elephant's stomach with his axe.
Harland and the elephant were both struggling. The Glowing Elephant was in deep pain. It raised its head and roared. A translucent green fireball suddenly appeared between its tusks.
The fireball was growing bigger and bigger, quickly expanding to the size of a basketball. The elephant swung its head and threw the fireball toward Harland. Harland stayed calm and stepped back immediately after seeing the elephant's actions. He tried his best to raise the tower shield in the air and hide his whole body behind the shield by leaning toward the right.
The fireball hit Harland's tower shield, and the green flame splashed everywhere. Some of it dropped onto the grass, and a lot of smoke spread into the air.
Angele, Tinos, and the two Knights were still surveying the battleground from the top of the hill. The battleground was lighted up by the elephant's green fireball attack. Although the visibility was still bad, Angele could see the green light dots through the smoke.
"My brother will be fine," Tinos said with mixed feelings.
Angele looked at him but did not say a word.
'Zero, did you collect enough data to calculate the elephant's statuses?' Angele asked. He was more than five meters away from the elephant, so Zero would not be able to directly obtain the creature's data. It had to collect relative information and do the analysis.
'Estimated Results:
Glowing Elephant: Strength larger than 8. Agility larger than 4. Stamina larger than 15. Mentality larger than 7. Talent Skill: Blazing Tusks (Damage Increased), Glowing Strike (By draining energy from the heart, it can make fireballs).'
Angele read the information, and he was surprised by how high the elephant's attributes were. He was also impressed by Harland's ability to fight. Angele wondered what he could become if he could break his gene limit, however, there was no way for him to do it, and he would never become a Grand Knight.
At the moment, Harland was still fighting with the Glowing Elephant, and the other two Knights were supporting him from the sides. They had slashed at the elephant several times with their swords, but most of the time, they were just dodging its attacks.
Three soldiers failed to dodge another green fireball thrown by the elephant, and they were burnt to death in seconds. The situation was getting worse.
"You two! Go help them," Tinos ordered, turning his head back.
The two Knights looked at each other, hesitating. "Mr. Tinos, our skills are not based on strength, I'm afraid we won't be able to provide any support…"
"It doesn't matter, just distract the elephant," Tinos said in a serious tone. "Just go."
"Roger that."
They drew their swords and ran down the hill.
Angele noticed the swords in the Knights' hands were slim and would do no damage to a creature with such high defense. Their Agility was definitely high, so they needed lighter weapons to unleash the full potential of their skills. The order they had received was probably just to protect Tinos.
Only Angele and Tinos were standing on the top of the hill after the Knights left.
Angele thought Tinos and Harland hated each other when he first time met them, but now Angele realized that they were just expressing their love in a strange way. Tinos admired Harland, and he was sometimes jealous of what Harland could do, but he still wanted to help his brother when Harland was in trouble.
Tinos was just childish. He wanted to become stronger and better than his brother one day, but at the same time, he was still relying on Harland a lot. He admired Harland and regarded him as his role model. Tinos always hid his feelings when he was with Harland, and he did not want others to know how he thought about his brother.
"Don't worry, the elephant is dying," Angele said, trying to comfort Tinos.
"Is it?" Tinos looked relieved. "Wait, I'm not worried about him!" he then yelled after realizing what Angele was implying.
Angele did not respond. He just smiled.
"Why are you smiling?" Tinos stared at Angele. "I can't let him die because my father will be sad if he's killed by the Glowing Elephant!"
"I know, I know." Angele nodded, knowing that Tinos was just shy.
"You… Whatever!" Tinos decided not to explain any further.
Angele quietly put his crossguard sword back into the sheath.
"The fight is almost over. The Glowing Elephant is losing a great amount of blood, and it's dying," Angele said with a light tone.
Tinos immediately looked at the battlefield after hearing Angele' words.
The Glowing Elephant's attacks were no longer as powerful as before. The loss of blood was making it weaker and weaker. It tried to fight back, but it could no longer hit Harland or the Knights. The elephant tried to use Glowing Strike again but did not have enough power to create the fireball.
Angele started to think about the information he had recently collected about Tinos.
Tinos's father was Lord Alford, and his mother was a daughter of a Duke. She left home due to an argument with her parents and got married to Lord Alford, but later she went back to the Duke's territory. Now, she had great power in the country, and the army was also in her control.
Harland once told Angele that his father, Lord Alford, actually feared Tinos' mother due to various reasons. The woman would do anything to acquire the things she wanted, and she was not satisfied with what she already had. She loved Tinos a lot, but for some reason, she left her son with Alford.
Tinos never respected Alford and never cared if the man liked what he was doing. Before Angele had visited them, Tinos had once found out that Alford had affairs with two women in the city and slain them right in front of Harland's mother. Harland's mother had never known about Alford's affairs prior to this. She left her husband and went to live with Harland after what Tinos did, never coming back to Lennon City.
Alford begged Harland to stay with him to no avail, and that was the reason why Angele thought the relationship between the father and the sons was strange when he first time visited the castle.
BOOM*
The Glowing Elephant fell to the ground.
Angele's expression suddenly changed. He stopped thinking due to the noise he just heard.
"Wait! Another one! One more Glowing Elephant is coming for us!"
He suddenly turned his head back and saw the crying Glowing Elephant that was charging toward Harland.
Tinos did not understand what Angele was talking about. He quickly turned back and looked in the direction Angele was staring at. His face turned pale after seeing the other Glowing Elephant. Harland and the rest of the team had just finished their battle, and they did not expect another one to come for them. They were injured and tired. Although Harland was strong, he would not be able to block the charge from an angry Glowing Elephant at this moment.
"But…" Tinos wanted to say something, but he saw Angele quickly running down the hill and disappearing into the bushes. He gritted his teeth, drew his sword, and followed Angele down.
Angele had no expression on his face. He lowered his body, moving quickly through the bushes.
Leaves kept dropping down on Angele's head, twisting in the air due to Angele's extreme moving speed. He could sense the danger in front of him and see the giant shadow of the elephant.
Angele's eyes started to shine. He put his hand on the handle of his sword.
'Approaching the target…'
'Show me the plan.'
'Target locked: Glowing Elephant. Analyzing… Plan confirmed…'
'Battle mode: On.'
Various types of blue holograms appeared in Angele's sight, and a lot of information was displayed beside the objects he saw.
Angele drew his sword and increased his speed again. He was so fast that his body blurred.
He rushed out of the bush and passed the Glowing Elephant. He easily cut open its skin, making it wince in pain.
Trumpet*
The Glowing Elephant stopped and roared. Its eyes turned bloody red, and it turned around right away, starting to chase Angele.
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Chapter 82: The Chase (1)
Translator: Leo Editor: DarkGem/Frappe
Angele kept running, and the elephant kept on following him. Countless trees were knocked by the huge elephant on the way. It tried to throw stones and trees at Angele with its trunk, but Angele easily dodged all the projectiles.
He kept running, no longer sure how far he was from his original position.
The Glowing Elephant's wound had begun to heal. There was still some blood coming out of the cut, but it did not impact the elephant's ability to run.
Angele knew the elephant's Stamina was 15 but still thought its healing ability was impressive. He looked at the edge of his blade while running, noticing that it was already cracked after that one hit he had made.
Angele was still using the silver crossguard sword he had obtained from Dice, and he liked it a lot. He felt a bit sad that the blade was cracked by the elephant's skin.
'I have to get a new sword after this, damn.' Angele shook his head. 'But first, let me figure out a way to deal with this creature.'
He regretted leaving his poisoned weapons at the shop, but the elephant's Stamina was over 15, and the venoms he had were not strong enough for it anyways.
The elephant's Stamina was so high that it would be hard for Angele to deal any physical damage to it during a short period of time. He needed to keep attacking it like what Harland had done. The best way would be to open a deep wound on its body while having people to cover for him, but there was no one else around him right now.
The elephant trumpeted again and raised its head. A green fireball appeared between its tusks, and it threw the fireball toward Angele. Angele had a serious look on his face. He turned right and rushed behind a large tree.
BAM*
The fireball hit the tree and exploded, drops of green flame alighting the grasses around. A basketball-sized hole was left on the body of the tree.
'Damn. I guess Stun Spell won't work on a target with such high Stamina. Let me try the Hand of Exhaustion. At least, it should reduce its speed.' Angele kept running, he put the sword back into its sheath and clapped his hands. They turned red within seconds.
At the logging site.
Harland hit the elephant's feet again with his axe, and the axe stuck deep into its skin.
PONG*
The elephant hit Harland with its trunk, and he fell onto the ground, not able to handle its force. Harland struggled to stand up. He spat out some blood and quickly looked around. Most of his team were either dead or injured.
The two Knights that had retreated with Tinos were now trying to attract the elephant's attention. The Glowing Elephant had wounds all over its body, and there was blood dripping down its skin. The elephant was about to die, but it was still trying its best to survive.
"Jack! You go!" Harland yelled.
"Yes, sir!" The Knight named Jack was injured too, but he could still fight. He tightened his grip on his great sword and rushed towards the elephant.
Suddenly, a white-feathered arrow blocked Jack's way.
"Who's there!"
Surprised by the attack, Jack raised his greatsword and looked in the direction that the arrow had come from.
The others were alerted by the arrow as well, and they started to check the surroundings.
Harland dropped his broken tower shield on the ground and grabbed the axe with his right hand. "I knew it. Two Glowing Elephants won't randomly appear around Lennon City!" he yelled. "Reveal yourselves!"
Harland heard the noise made by the armor pieces right away, and three men slowly walked out of the bush. Two of them were fully armored warriors: one bald and the other with short brown hair. He was also tall and strong. The man following the two was wearing a leather armor suit with a black robe over it, and his hair was silver. It was not a common sight to see people with silver hair around Lennon City.
"Harland, long time no see, haha." The bald man laughed.
"I and my brother missed you." The man with the short brown hair was also laughing.
"Vince brothers, you guys really can't give up Vader City, huh? Where is Kaiser? Why didn't he come here?" Harland laughed emotionlessly. "I didn't know you had the ability to control the Glowing Elephants. I guess a man with the mysterious power is helping you?"
Harland was talking to the two warriors, but he was looking at the man with silver hair.
"You are right." The man with silver hair smiled. "Vader City did me a huge favor during a recent event, and I am here to pay it back. I thought I lured two Glowing Elephants here, where is the other one? Someone else drew it away?"
'I guess he is the one with the mysterious power.'
Harland stayed on guard. People with mysterious power used different ways to fight, and he was not sure what skills the man in front of him had. He was not scared, but he sensed something different from the man with silver hair.
Harland kept staring the man, knowing that the man was dangerous just by looking at him. There was a strange aura around him.
"You are not a Wizard yet," Harland said.
"So what?" the man with silver hair said.
"You really think I can't deal with two Knights and an apprentice?" Harland smiled.
"Of course not. But you are injured now. Although you are a Grand Knight, you're no threat to me if you can barely use your left arm." The man with silver hair nodded. "I'm just here for the Glowing Elephants' hearts, and I don't care about you."
"You're using us to kill the elephants for you?" Tinos stepped forward and asked in anger.
"Bingo, ha," the man mocked him. "Sadly, the other one is gone, otherwise I could have gotten two hearts."
"You!" Tinos was trying to hold his anger.
"Good job, you guys can leave now," the man said in a calm voice and smiled. "We will gratefully clean up the mess for you."
Harland narrowed his eyes and stared at the man. "Let's go!" he yelled out.
The two Knights that were still fighting with the elephant backed off, and the soldiers that had survived the fight looked disappointed, but they all knew that the best choice they had at the moment was to leave.
。
The badly wounded elephant just stood there, unmoving; it was not trying to attack anymore. The elephant started to back off, it looked weak and was probably trying to escape.
Harland suddenly stopped after giving the order. It seemed like the arrow had reminded him of something, and he stared at the man with silver hair with hatred in his eyes.
"It's you?" Harland said.
"Yea, it's me. It's about time you recognized the arrow I shot," the man said. "Also, I killed several mice in the forest on my way here. I'm not sure if they were your pets, but I will apologize anyways."
"I respect your power," Harland said with a deep tone. "That's why my Crossbow Soldiers did not show up. 15 Crossbow Soldiers..."
Harland gritted his teeth. Only post-Knights could meet the requirements of becoming Crossbow Soldiers. They needed to be strong and practice both crossbow and stealth skills, too. He spent a long-time training each one of them, so he did not expect for them to be killed so easily. The large loss of his elite soldiers in this mission made him feel sad.
"What's the plan, brother?" Tinos asked in a light tone.
"Let's wait for Master Angele to come back," Harland replied. They paid a great price to deal with the Glowing Elephant, and he would not let it go so easily.
He knew the heart of the elephant had some special value to the Wizards and that every part of the elephant could be sold for a good amount of gold coins in the market. The skin of the elephant was used to make top-class leather armor pieces, while its meat was very nutritious and its tusks were almost priceless.
The Glowing Elephant could easily be sold for more than ten million gold coins.
In an area not so far from the logging site.
The sunlight was blocked by the leaves, and the shadows on the ground were dancing when the wind passed by.
A tall and strong man with a beard slowly walked out of the shadow. He was wearing a black chest piece, and he had two silver great swords on his back.
The man checked the surroundings and took out a white shell out of his pouch. He opened the shell, and there was one white lively string twisting in the water. Its head always pointed in one direction, no matter how the man rotated the shell.
"That's it. It's Harland from Lennon City," the man said as he closed the shell and put it back into his pouch.
The man drew out his two swords and ran in the direction the string in the shell had pointed at; it was the location of Harland and his soldiers. He disappeared in the forest after several seconds.
Harland had a serious look on his face. He knew that if he wanted to escape the three would not be able to stop him, but it looked like they were waiting for their reinforcements to arrive as well.
'Who's coming? We're right outside Lennon City, but it seems like they don't even care.' One man's name appeared in Harland's mind. 'It can't be.'
He knew there was a Grand Knight in Vader City. Lennon City and Vader City were two of the largest cities in the province, and Harland was the Grand Knight of Lennon. The other Grand Knight was named Campbell. He was the Grand Knight of Vader, and he wielded two great swords.
'I hope it's not him…' Harland was not sure if he was making the right decision, but he just did not want to hand over the elephant to the three.
The soldiers stopped after they realized Harland was not moving. They did not really care about the injured elephant because they knew it would not go too far with all these wounds, and they could easily track it down after the problem was dealt with.
Huff*
Angele took a deep breath. He stood between the trees and looked at the Glowing Elephant that was trapped in the soft mud by the river.
'It'll need more than a minute to get out of the mud. The Hand of Exhaustion had actually worked, I could probably kill it by myself if I had the time. Damn.'
The Glowing Elephant was still trumpeting. Although it was still dragging a large tree with its trunk, it was slowly getting out of the mud.
Angele gave it one last look and started to head back the way he had come.
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Chapter 83: The Chase (2)
Translator: Leo Editor: DarkGem/Frappe
Zero had sensed people hiding in the shadows when Angele had run down to lure the elephant away. The people hiding behind the bushes probably did not think Angele would notice them, but they did not know Angele had a chip that could record anything it detected.
'I need to go back. There is no way two Glowing Elephants just randomly appeared outside the city. Also, those people in the bushes… Maybe they're after Harland.' Angel's eyebrows furrowed. 'According to the data, Glowing Elephants are intelligent enough to make decisions, and they are cunning, but the two I saw here were different. Their eyes were red, and they had no reason to fight to their last breath. Maybe someone casted Bloodlust on them.'
Bloodlust was one of the basic water type spells. It was a level zero spell that had a similar effect to the Berserk Potion, but its effect was a bit weaker than the potion's. Bloodlust would only make the creatures lose their mind, without boosting their attributes. The Bloodlust model was displayed in the school as well, but Angele did not buy it; he only recorded the free data he had access to.
Angele stopped thinking and increased his speed. He was sure something went wrong.
The logging site.
The last rays of sunlight made everything on the ground look red and shiny. With the white mist in the forest, the area was dreamy.
"Why are you still here?" the man with silver hair yelled out. "Although I'm not sure if I can kill you, you won't stop us from taking the elephant. Also, I think you already know who's coming."
"Campbell, right? The man that dual wields swords," Harland said in a deep voice. It seemed like he was still having trouble with his left arm.
"Your left arm was not fractured. Why are you faking it?" The man looked at Harland's left arm.
"Well"—Harland straightened his back and stretched his arms— "I was planning to lure you out, but I guess I'm bad at acting." He smiled.
"One on one, Campbell will lose. However, what about you versus me and Campbell?" The man chuckled.
"I will lose for sure," Harland answered without hesitation.
"Let's go." Harland waved his hands. "I will retreat today. However, make sure you stay alert on your way back. The deep forest is probably more dangerous than you think…"
"We will see." The man smiled and stepped on Harland's broken tower shield.
"You will regret this…" Tinos stared at the three in anger. The soldiers behind him helped each other to stand up before starting to walk towards their horses.
Harland fell back with his axe in hand, still staring at the man's hands. He had fought with the people that could use the mysterious power before and knew that they could cast strange spells just with incantations or hand gestures.
Harland kept moving back until he reached a large tree. A silver greatsword suddenly appeared behind his head, but for some reason, Harland did not notice it at all.
Clank*
A crossguard sword appeared before the man who was trying to slash Harland, but the man blocked the attack with another great sword in his other hand.
The two men dropped down from the trees and stepped back.
"Campbell!" Harland broke out in cold sweat. He hadn't noticed the stealth attack at all.
"How is that even possible? Did you cast some stealth spell on him?" Harland was staring at Campbell, but he was talking to the man with silver hair.
The man who tried to attack Harland was wielding two silver great swords. He was rubbing the back of his neck where there was a short line of blood dripping down. Angele was standing opposite the man with a thick beard, holding his sword and looking calm.
"You're fast. You can use mysterious power too?" Campbell laughed. "That's why Harland hasn't given up yet, right?"
The soldiers hadn't noticed Campbell until he traded attacks with Angele. They were surprised by how fast and accurate Campbell's attack was. Tinos' face turned pale, and he held the sword in his hand tight, his eyes filled up with fear.
"You really think there is nothing I can do?" Harland asked. He raised his axe and charged towards Campbell. His footsteps were heavy, and the ground was almost shaking.
Campbell jumped and backflipped to a tree behind. "Harland, long time no see. That's how you welcome an old friend?"
Clink*
He swung his swords and sliced two daggers that were coming toward him into pieces.
Angele lowered his arms, and there was a serious look on his face, "Impressive."
He drew his crossguard sword and stepped forward, but his way was blocked by the man with silver hair.
"You're an apprentice too, huh? I will be your opponent."
The soldiers were still trying to figure out what was going on when the Vinci Brothers had already blocked them from moving toward Harland. Thus, the battlefield was divided into three parts: Harland against Campbell, Angele against the man with silver hair, and the rest of Harland's team against the Vinci Brothers.
The man with silver hair smiled. "This place is too narrow for us, follow me."
He turned around and rushed into the deep forest in seconds.
Angele followed after the man, controlling his speed to keep a distance from his opponent, and they both disappeared in the mist.
On one of the main roads outside Lennon City.
The carriage lane was made from gray mud. Three black carriages were stopped by the bandits, and about ten guards of the carriage team were fighting them.
There were people screaming and yelling everywhere around the carriages.
A bandit laughed and stabbed into one of the guards' chests, the blade easily penetrating the white leather chest piece, and blood spurted out of the wound once the bandit pulled his blade out.
All the bandits were wearing white masks and gray scarfs. Their faces were covered very well.
Inside one of the carriages, Avril's mother embraced Avril in her arms while they peeked outside through the window. Avril's father held his commander sword in hand and was finishing off the bandits that had broken their defense formation. It seemed that her father knew how to fight, and he looked wild with the blood stains on his clothes.
"You think I don't know who you are? Damn Terrio's puppies! I will not give up my life here, and you will never take my territory from me!" Avril's father was yelling in anger.
Avril hugged her mother tighter after hearing her father's words.
"Don't worry, I'm here for you so no one will hurt you," Avril's mother whispered, but Avril could barely understand what she was saying.
"Mom, dad will win, right?" she asked in a light tone.
"Yea… He will, your father is the strongest man in the world," her mother responded.
Suddenly, someone groaned outside the carriage.
The man with the commander sword in hand was staring at another man in front him, and his eyes were filled with surprise. There was a dagger protruding from his stomach, and the blood coming out of the wound was dripping down to the ground.
"Why… Dunleavy… Why did you…" the man asked in pain, but there was no expression on Dunleavy's face.
"Don't blame me," Dunleavy answered in a deep voice.
"Avril, stay here!" The lady had a strange expression on her face as she released her daughter from her arms. "Once you find the chance, run, and… you will be alright!"
The lady patted the girl's head and pushed her away. She stood up, grabbing the silver sword lying by her side, opened the door and jumped off the carriage.
Avril stayed in the carriage alone, crouching down since she did not know what else to do. She was the only one left in the carriage, her parents gone.
Avril was in shock. She could hear people screaming outside while the bandits were approaching her carriage.
"Mother…" Avril was holding her knees on the floor, and a flood of tears gushed down her cheeks.
"Run… Mother told me to run…" She suddenly realized what she should do and quickly opened a hidden exit on the floor. There was mud down there.
Angele and the man with silver hair were already several kilometers away from Harland and the others. They were so quick that the objects around them looked like slideshows.
Suddenly, they both heard some people fighting.
"Huh?"
The man with silver hair hesitated for a second. He then quickly changed his direction and ran toward the source of the noise.
Through the gap between trees, he could see several carriages being attacked by a group bandits with gray scarfs. The man with silver hair was trying to say something before approaching the carriages, but his expression suddenly changed, and he blocked Angele's slash with something black in his hands.
Dang*
Angele's strike hit the man hard, but he floated in the air almost like a feather and flew through the carriages into the other side of the forest. It was almost like he had blocked the attack and used Angele's force to retreat.
Angele walked out of the forest slowly and swung his sword towards the road.
"Let's do it here."
He was calm, and there were green dots floating around him. He looked ghastly and bloodcurdling with the glowing green light.
"I don't really care."
The man with silver hair smiled. He walked out of the bush and raised his right hand. There was blue lightning sparking around his palm.
The carriages and bandits were right between Angele and the man with silver hair. Both parties stopped fighting after the two appeared.
"Wizards…" someone said in a shaky voice.
The place suddenly became silent, and everyone was dazed.
Some of them started to tremble.
Avril was under one of the carriages, looking for a chance to escape. She knew something had happened, and then saw Angele walk out of the forest.
Angele looked at the carriages and scrunched his eyebrows. He knew those carriages.
"Avril's carriage."
He narrowed his eyes.
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Chapter 84: Intense Battle (1)
Translator: Leo Editor: DarkGem/Frappe
'Why is Avril here?' Angele wondered. It seemed like her carriage was being attacked by the bandits.
Avril had saved him once, and Angele had not yet found a chance to repay it. So since she was in trouble, he would try his best to help her.
Angele stopped thinking and instead returned his stare to the man with silver hair while dragging the green dots toward himself.
He was releasing the Wind energy particles into the air so they would help him act faster. Although using the particles was not as effective as casting Agility Burst, they could still provide him with a decent buff while increasing his magic resistance. It was one the advantage of being a rank 3 apprentice. Rank 2 apprentices would never be able to control the particles so accurately due to the limitations of their Mentality.
The man with silver hair clasped his hands, and a large electric arc appeared between his palms. The noise made by the lightning sparking was loud, and its arc made everything around look blue.
"Die!"
The man with silver hair chuckled and released the thick electric arc from his hands. It jumped toward Angele's head like a blue flash within a second.
Angele's expression changed, but he quickly reacted to the attack by swinging his sword toward the incoming electric arc, and the electricity was absorbed by the blade. Angele's sword turned blue, and he could still see tiny lightning sparks flickering around the blade.
Angele could barely hold the handle of his sword—it was blazing hot—and his right hand was almost burning. He quickly gathered the green particles towards his sword, and the Wind energy particles weakened the Lightning particles around the sword.
If the man's electric arc had hit a normal person, they would have been paralyzed and burnt to ashes.
Angele quickly thrust his sword into the ground, and the rest of the electricity disappeared in seconds. White smoke was coming out of Angele's body. He was injured by the heat from the electricity, and his clothes were burning.
'Thank god the electricity was from the Lightning particles, which is slow. If it was a real lightning strike, I'd be dead already.' Angele thought he was lucky, and he began to pay more attention to the man on the opposite side of the road.
Zero was not fast enough to calculate a plan for Angele when the man had released the electric arc, and he had to deal with the attack by himself. The chip was useless in fights between Wizards since the spells were way too fast for it to collect necessary data and figure out a counter.
After Angele dealt with the electricity, he charged toward the man with silver hair with a raised hand. A white flash appeared in the air and flew towards the man's chest.
The man with silver hair had seemed to know the lightning spell would not work on Angele and had lowered his head to start another incantation.
Angele could see the man waving his hand in the air, and there were blue runes appearing around it. He had to be preparing to cast some powerful spell.
The man was not concerned about the daggers flying toward him. He moved one step to the left and dodged them easily, still preparing for the next spell.
Suddenly, the man raised his hands in the air and a pentagram magic circle slowly appeared under his feet. Its dazzling blue light almost blinded Angele.
He then pointed at Angele, and a finger-sized blue laser was generated by the magic circle which then shot toward Angele. The Lightning particles were gathered together and became a laser. There were also unstable tiny lightning sparks around it. The laser could easily paralyze and penetrate anything on its way.
The laser was about six meters long, and it looked like a blue spear. The blue spear was slowly traveling through the air, but it seemed like the man was still channeling the spell so the laser would not disappear after landing on the target.
The man with silver hair was enjoying the fight. The magic circle was specially designed for him by his master. Besides creating lasers, it could also help the man block incoming projectiles. His skill level was very close to a formal Wizard's with the defensive enchanted item he was using.
Most bandits had already fled due to the fear of the Wizards, but some unlucky ones were still penetrated by the laser. They fell to the ground, paralyzed.
Knight Dunleavy took a last glance at the carriages before escaping, but someone on the ground grabbed his ankle and stopped him from leaving. It was Avril's father. There was blood all over his face, and it made his smile scary.
CHI*
Dunleavy was hit by the lightning sparking from the laser, and he was paralyzed by it.
Angele passed by him while charging toward the man with silver hair, and he cut Dunleavy's throat open. A line of blood spurted out of Dunleavy's neck. He stood there for several seconds, then fell to the ground. There he trembled for several seconds and died before realizing what had actually happened.
Angele threw a green potion to Avril's mother after cutting Dunleavy's throat open.
"Apply the potion to his wound. It will stop the bleeding," Angele ordered in passing. He was still charging toward the man with silver hair.
Avril's mother held her left arm tight and rushed towards the carriage after seeing what Angele just did. She helped her daughter that was hiding beneath the carriage to get out and wiped the dust off Avril's clothes.
"Mother… What about dad? We need to help him!" Avril was almost yelling, her face still covered with tears.
Avril's mother picked up the green potion with gritted her teeth. "Your father will be fine," she said, then quickly pulled the stopper off the potion.
After another lightning bolt struck the bushes, Angele and the man with silver hair disappeared into the forest once again. The blue light was getting farther and farther. It seemed like one of them was chasing the other.
"Damn! Not this again!"
Angele missed another slash, and he was getting nervous. The man with silver hair kept dodging his attacks with ease while chuckling all the time. The magic circle moved when he moved, and it buffed his speed as well.
After missing the hit, Angele rolled to the left right away and dodged the incoming laser attack. Everything where he had been standing just a moment ago got burnt to ashes in seconds.
'Such power…'
Cold sweat poured down Angele's back. He was certain he'd be dead if he had gotten hit by the laser.
He could dodge the lasers because they were slow, but the tiny electric pulse around the laser was still a problem.
Angele bent down and kept moving, but the lasers easily located him every time he changed locations. There were burn marks everywhere in the bushes now.
Angele tried his best to dodge everything, but he was still hit by the pulse and became paralyzed for a second.
RIZZZ*
His right arm was hit by the laser and got burnt due to the extremely high temperature. The pain made Angele even more nervous.
'He's a rank 3 apprentice too, but he is much stronger than me. If only I had access to more spell models…"
Angele dodged another blue electric arc and finally got closer to the man with silver hair.
He jumped toward the man and aimed at the man's neck with his sword.
Again, Angele's attack missed, and he hit a tree on the side, slicing off several pieces of wood.
The man with silver hair smiled and pointed at Angele. An electric arc burst from the tip of his finger and hit Angele's chest.
Although the arc was much weaker than the laser, it still left a burn mark on his chest. Cold sweat was still running down his back, and his actions were becoming slower due to the pain.
"Why don't you understand? You can't even touch me since I only use ranged spells. I can crush you like an insect if you can't get close to me," the man said in a light tone, sounding both contemptuous and arrogant.
Angele's expression did not change. He kept attacking the man with his sword skills, even if he was yet to land a single hit.
RIZZZ*
Angele's left arm was hit by the electric arc again.
"Do you even know how to cast spells? You're just like an average warrior with your weak physical skills. If you focused on close combat spells, you should at least learn to deal with ranged spells. Pathetic," the man with silver hair started to mock Angele. "How long can you hide? Your endurance is good, almost like a Knight's, but it won't help you."
HUFF*
Angele was breathing hard.
The man had paused his attacks to talk, and Angele finally had time to recover a bit. He threw the last dagger he had with his left hand, aiming right at the face of the man with silver hair.
"That's all you got?" the man with silver hair taunted and raised his hands again. Countless electric arcs appeared in the air, and they all started to rotate around him. The dagger was slowed down and eventually stopped by the electricity after entering the magic circle.
The dagger had still slowed the man for a second, and Angele used that moment to jump at the man again. He started to strike the man from different angles with his sword skills. Although the man was still dodged most of Angele's slashes, he had managed to hit him several times, and there was blood spurting out of his wounds.
After losing some blood, the man's face turned pale, and the lightning pulse generated by the magic circles became less and less. It seemed like the man did not have enough Mentality and Mana to keep the magic circle up.
BAM*
The man suddenly got knocked back, and he dropped to the ground after hitting a tree. He coughed up some blood and kneeled on the ground.
The mist that was floating around Angele disappeared. He had done everything he could but still failed to kill the opponent.
He was uncertain if the man had really lost his ability to fight and could no longer make another electric arc. Even though it seemed like he was badly injured after taking all the hits, Angele still decided not to take a step closer.
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Chapter 85: Intense Battle (2)
Translator: Leo Editor: DarkGem/Frappe
The man with silver hair pointed his finger at Angele again, a blue electric laser appearing at the tip of his finger, and was about to unleash it towards him. Suddenly, a crossguard sword hit the laser and stabbed into the ground beside the man. The rest of the electric pulse spread into the ground, and there were energy particles leaking everywhere. The sounds made by the sparks were extremely loud and intense.
Soon, the magic circle under the man collapsed.
The man's expression changed. He just now noticed that Angele was only several meters away from him.
Angele's hands were bloody red as if their skin was peeled off. Green dots of light around his feet were protecting him from the electric pulses.
"You think you can…" The man did not finish his words, a wave of dizziness washing over him. "It's the Stun Spell!"
The man tried to leap away, but it was too late.
Angele was extremely calm at the moment. The closer he was to victory, the more careful he needed to be. He wanted to make sure he did not mess this up.
There was a black dagger in his right hand, his father's gift. It was the first time he was going to put it to use.
He held his dagger tight and leaned forward.
"Ah!" He groaned.
"You thought I didn't know what you were going to do? You thought I didn't know metals were conductive?" The man leaped away and landed on his feet. He stared at Angele and sneered.
Countless tiny electric arcs were climbing up Angele's body like insects. There were many green and red light dots coming out of Angele's body, protecting him from getting hurt by the blue electric arcs. But Angele was not feeling well. He was paralyzed.
"However, it's quite impressive that you broke my magic circle." The man stopped smiling. "I mean, for a rat like you, it's truly impressive. I was planning to finish you off quickly and grab the parts I needed from the elephant, but oh well. I will become a Wizard after I return to my school so I'm happy that I found you. I gained some practical experience."
The man raised his hand again, and another blue electric arc flew toward Angele.
He rolled to the right, but he was too slow to dodge the attack, and the electric arc hit his shoulders. He trembled and barely able to stand still.
"Now who's laughing?" The man sneered. "Come at me."
Angele charged toward him after pulling his crossguard sword out of the ground.
The man applied a speed buff on himself and leaped back, easily dodging Angele's attack. He waved his hand and hit Angele with another electric arc, but without the help of the magic circle, the electricity didn't deal as much damage as before.
"You're a coward," Angele suddenly said.
He stared at the man, holding his sword tight. There were still electric pulses moving around his body. Many burns marked his skin, and Zero kept warning him about how badly wounded he was. He would die if he kept getting hit by the electric arcs.
"Dumbass! I'm not good at close combat." The man knew Angele was taunting him. "It won't work. You should tell me your last wish. I can make it come true if I'll feel like it, hahahahah."
Angele had no expression on his face. He charged toward the man again and threw his dagger at the man's chest. The dagger was thrown with his full strength, and it drew a black line in the air.
"I told you it won't work!"
Once more the man blocked Angele's attack with the black thing he had used earlier. The dagger hit the thing and dropped to the ground.
A black chain flew towards the man and bounded him. He hadn't known Angele had so many different weapons. Having failed to dodge the chain, he looked surprised.
However, the man smiled and chopped the chain to pieces with the black blinking thing.
"That's all you got?"
The man chuckled and dodged Angele's front slash again.
"Damn!" The man was really getting on Angele's nerves. "You little monkey!"
"Retard!"
The man with silver hair started to use incantations again, but he looked tired. A fist-sized blue electric ball appeared beside him. There were many electric arcs in the ball as it floated in the air.
"Wait! You're from Manchester School too, right?" Angele asked, calming down.
"Huh?" The man hesitated, confused. "You are an apprentice from Manchester?" He wondered why Angele suddenly brought this up, but he had rules to follow. "Show me your sigil."
Manchester School was a strong Wizard organization, and fights between rank 3 apprentices were against the rule there. The punishment for rule violations was very hard, and the man did not want to risk it.
Angele smiled.
'Warning! Warning! Your heart rate is way too high, and your bioelectricity is being interfered with. If you take another electric attack in the next hour, your heart will stop!' Zero reported.
"I didn't know we're from the same school. There must be some misunderstanding between us."
Angele kept smiling.
"Show me your sigil," the man said in a deep voice. "If you're lying, I'll kill all your relatives, and I have my own ways to find them."
Angele nodded and slowly walked toward the man. He put his right hand into the pouch on the back of his waist. It looked like he was trying to take something out of it.
One more electric arc and Angele would be dead. However, he was not scared for some reason, rather he was even getting excited. Angele felt like he was in a trance at that moment. The pain from the wounds, the numbness from the electric attacks, and the chilling wind blowing in the forest - all of them made him feel like everything was so real. He could actually sense his presence in this world.
Angele knew that he was not a normal man that lived on Earth anymore, and he needed to do whatever he could to survive in this new world.
He suddenly realized something, and the objects around him became vivid. The memories of the earth became a slideshow in front of his eyes.
Angele was still smiling, and he looked relaxed. It seemed like the man with silver hair believed what he just said after seeing his natural smile and canceled the spell he was going to cast. He thought a lying man would never show a smile like that.
"Show me your sigil. Why didn't you tell me earlier that you were from Manchester?"
The man looked relieved.
Angele looked at him with a strange expression on his face as black smoke kept coming from his body.
"I guess you don't have a lot of mana left?"
"What?"
The man's expression changed. He had been trying to say something when he saw Angele charging toward him, ready to cut his throat with the silver crossguard sword.
"How dare you!" he yelled out and quickly leaped backward. Again, an electric ball appeared on his right hand, but his face turned pale. He had just wasted most of his mana and mentality on the previous spell he had cast and had barely any mana left.
Angele's assumption was right—the man was out of mana. He drew the electricity toward his sword and threw it toward the man. His opponent leaned left, trying his best to avoid the sword, but it still hit his right shoulder, and the electricity on the sword paralyzed him for several seconds.
"The black enchanted item you were using probably reached its limit for the day too."
Angele smiled and walked toward the man.
The man's face turned serious. He pulled the crossguard sword out of his shoulder and dropped it to the ground. The heat from the electric pulses burnt his wound and stopped it from bleeding.
"You're smart. I don't even know why I trusted you for a second. I don't have much mana left, but your wounds are severe. You still think you can win?"
"We'll see." Angele charged forward and picked up the crossguard sword from the ground. The blade became blurry as Angele rushed aiming at multiple weak points on the man's body.
The gloomy electric ball exploded, and the man groaned as he stepped back. His stomach was almost penetrated by Angele's sword. He held the wound with his hands, but there was blood leaking out through the gaps between his fingers.
Angele swung his sword and the electric pulses dropped to the ground. The black smoke was protecting him from taking any lightning damage, and it was formed by the last negative energy particles in his body. The stored wind and fire energy particles were all gone so the negative energy particles were all he had left, but they would not last long. Zero told him that he had about ten seconds before all the negative energy particles would be consumed.
"Fool! Didn't your master tell you, once you use up all your mana, you can easily be killed by a close combat spell user?"
Angele was slowly approaching the man, trying to make sure that his opponent did not have another enchanted item or special spell prepared. It was a cautious advance.
The fights between Wizards were all about the stability of their minds. If a Wizard could easily be disturbed by the words his opponent was saying, he would not be able to form any spell models. If that happened, no matter how high his Mentality was, he would not be able to cast any spells.
Angele and the man with silver hair tried to test each other's stability of mind by cursing or saying weird things, but it seemed like both of their minds were stable.
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Chapter 86: Standoff (1)
Translator: Leo Editor: DarkGem/Frappe
Angele was standing several meters away from the man, and the man was lying on the ground. Both of them stopped moving and just stared at each other.
"Arrogant rat!" Angele sneered. "You said you were going to kill all my relatives? What happened? Why are you lying on the floor like a dog? Are you trying to beg for your life?"
"Kill me if you can." The man's expression did not change. He remained calm. "A punk like you will be able to hurt me? Come, come at me!"
Angele threw his crossguard sword toward the man, aiming for his chest, but the man leaned to the left, and the sword pinned his right hand to the ground. The grass around his hand became soaked in blood.
"You're provoking me." Angele narrowed his eyes. "I will skin you alive and sink your body into a cesspit filled with maggots."
"You can try," the man said in a light tone.
He was losing a lot of blood, and his face had turned pale, but Angele could see the determination in his eyes. The man was staring at Angele like a hawk. He then pulled the crossguard sword out of the ground, quickly took out a green potion from his pouch, and carefully applied the liquid on the wound. It stopped bleeding right after some liquid reached it.
Angele just stood there and watched, still paralyzed by the electric pulse after all the negative energy particles were gone.
The man was weak as well, lying quietly on the ground after patching up his wound.
Time went by, but the two did not move. One was standing, and the other still lying on the ground.
"Monkey, how do you feel? You are weak. You lost a lot of blood and don't have any mana left. I guess your head is aching too," Angele gloated.
"You're paralyzed, and your body is being corroded by the negative energy particles. It surprises me that you can still talk."
The man didn't really care about what Angele had just said.
"Well, neither of us can move now anyways," Angele said.
"Dumbass!"
The man rolled his eyes.
"Retard!"
The two were arguing like kids.
Time flew, and it was getting dark. Strange noises were coming from the forest, and there were birds twittering. Groups of shiny white mushrooms were growing under the trees, making the forest bright.
"If I wasn't paralyzed…"
Angele stared at the man.
"If I did not fall for your lie and finished casting my spell…" the man on the ground said in a deep voice.
"You..!"
Angele was a bit mad. It was the first time he had met someone that was so tenacious.
"Come and get me!" the man said in a chilling tone. "Why did you even use the negative energy particles to increase your magic resistance, you're lucky you survived the black smoke."
"You're lucky you didn't lose your mind after overdrawing your mentality to cast that last spell."
Angele didn't want to lose this war of words.
Time was still passing, but the two were not recovering. They were still very weak and did not have the strength to fight at the moment.
"I've killed more than eight rank 3 apprentices, and you are the very first one that survived my attacks," the man suddenly said.
"Well, why don't you just let me finish you off then? I really don't want to waste any more time."
Angele looked at the man.
They stopped talking again, both of them trying their best to recover.
Two hours later, the two finally calmed down a bit.
The man with silver hair hesitated for a second, then asked, "Hey, I just realized I don't even know your name. I don't want to admit it, but you're a worthy opponent, and after I've slain you, I will make sure to write down your name in my book."
"I will live longer than you, so you should tell me your name first before asking for mine."
"You punk…" The man shook his head. "My name is Benedict, and I guess you already know I main lightning spells. Where are you from? You're pretty good."
"I'm Angele, and I main Necromancy," Angele said in a light tone.
"Necromancy… and you're using Wind energy particles?" Benedict was a bit speechless. "Well… Maybe you're talented, but don't tell me you only know two spells. I didn't see you use any other spell besides those two close combat ones."
"Really… What a freak!" Benedict did not know what else to say.
"…" Angele didn't know how to respond, either.
Benedict's headache got even worse. He looked at Angele curiously.
"Hey! Angele, are you from the Ramsoda School?"
"You know Ramsoda?" Angele nodded. "I didn't expect an apprentice from Manchester to appear in the Ramsoda Empire."
"I came from the docks, and I was planning to head back to school after taking the hearts of the elephants, but I didn't know I'd encounter a freak like you." Benedict sighed and inhaled. "You know what, since we both can't move, what if the bandits or beasts come by here? They can finish us off easily, and two future Wizards will die. Two rank 3 apprentices killed by bandits in a forest. It will become the biggest news among the organizations this year."
Angele did not say anything.
After several seconds, his expression suddenly changed.
"F*ck… You jinx!" He was almost yelling.
"No way…" Benedict heard someone's footsteps approaching as well, and he had a bitter smile on his face.
"Hey, are you still paralyzed?" Benedict asked in a light tone.
"Yea. Totally paralyzed. What now?"
Angele stared at him.
"Well, my head is still aching, and I can't do sh*t right now. However, I'd rather die with honor!" Benedict's expression turned serious, and he slowly took a yellow scroll out of his pouch.
"A real spell scroll…" Angele gasped. "Since it's on a scroll, it must at least be a level 1 spell. Why didn't you use it earlier?"
"I'll die for sure If I use it," Benedict answered. "It's one of the most mentality-hungry level 1 spells, and right now I don't have enough mentality to open the scroll and cast it. I can only release it, and we will all become its targets."
Angele was speechless.
"Wait, you could probably survive with your magic resistance. If you survived it, can you do me a favor?" Benedict asked.
"Say it."
"Tell Princess Lydia of Santiago not to wait for me to come back."
"I will do it if I survive." Angele was not mad anymore. He felt pity instead that a strong apprentice will end his life like this. "But if I die too, we will become a joke for other apprentices."
"Sadly, I really want to come back to my hometown and watch the stars." Benedict looked a bit sad and lonely while putting his hands on the scroll.
"Wait, wait. It seems like your dream will come true," Angele hurried to say, stopping him from releasing the spell. "We're lucky, they aren't bandits. They were just passing by and didn't notice us."
After several minutes, they could no longer hear the footsteps anymore.
"Alright… It's awkward," Benedict said. "You know what, we should probably let this go and stop fighting."
"Retarded lightning monkey, you think I will fall for this?" Angele sneered. "If I knew more spells, you would be dead in seconds. You even thought I was really from Manchester. How naive are you?"
Benedict started to blush. "You damn dumbass, you're a rank 3 apprentice and you only know two spells, are you kidding me?" He got nervous and did not find anything else to say.
"Are you praising me?" Angele smiled. "Or do you admit that you're retarded? I know only two spells and I almost killed you."
"You..!" Benedict was mad but it was true that he had almost lost to an apprentice that only knew two spells. He had also canceled an important spell because he'd believed Angele's words.
They argued for several hours, and it was already midnight.
The two suddenly stopped talking at the same time.
Benedict spoke up again. "Actually… I like you."
"Well, you're not that retarded I guess."
Angele smiled.
They both realized something and stared at each other while laughing.
"You don't need to do so much for the people from Vader City. We'll both become Wizards in the future, but now we're fighting for some worthless materials, is it even worth the effort?" Angele asked, laughing.
"I can say the same to you. We're strangers, and there is no point for us to kill each other. I don't even know why I wanted to kill you when I first saw you back there." Benedict laughed. "Nice to meet you, Angele." He smiled. "You're strong enough to be my friend."
"I will never waste my time with weaklings."
Angele also smiled.
He suddenly charged toward Benedict, picking up his crossguard sword, and slashed at his opponent.
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Chapter 87: Standoff (2)
Translator: Leo Editor: DarkGem/Frappe
DANG*
Benedict blocked Angele's slash with the black enchanted item he had and leaped backward.
Standing several meters away from each other, they stopped fighting.
"Monkeys are fast," Angele said in a light tone.
"Musclehead…" Benedict wiped the dust off his robe. "Since we both recovered, there is no point to stay here anymore."
"True." Angele nodded.
It took them awhile to travel back to the logging site.
Angele and Benedict came up with the conclusion that there was no point for them to die for the people that were not even directly related to the Wizard organizations and got to know each other on their way back.
Benedict was from Manchester School and focused on learning Lightning Spells. He was also very good at the fundamentals of spells; his original plan was to travel back to Manchester and prepare to become a Wizard. Although Angele was a bit behind in his studies of the fundamentals and learned a lot from what Benedict told him, he knew a lot of things Benedict had never heard of. Thus, they both acquired some helpful information from each other.
They returned to the logging site to see that the body of the first Glowing Elephant was already gone. Its blood was everywhere: the grass and tree stumps were all soaked in it. Large groups of flies were attracted to the place by the stinky smell here.
Angele crouched beside a large area stained by blood and touched it with his right palm, asking Zero to analyze the sample. "I think they left right after we started to fight. Campbell didn't start a real battle with Harland, and they both took some of the elephant's body."
"I think the other elephant is still around. Why don't we kill it together? What do you think?" Benedict asked, walking out of the bushes.
"You know where to find it?" Angele asked, turning back.
"Of course." Benedict nodded. "Also, can you give me the model of your improved Hand of Exhaustion? It's a viable close combat spell after your improved it, and I'm really interested."
Angele nodded. "Sure, I can give it to you, but I want two of your basic knowledge models. What do you say?"
"Very fair," Benedict responded.
He took out a small crystal orb from his pouch—it was about the size of a walnut. The orb was very clear, and its surface was very smooth.
Angele knew it was a Memory Orbuculum, a rare magical item that was used to store knowledge and spell models. Usually, it could only be obtained by Wizards, so he was a bit surprised to see Benedict owning one.
"Which two models do you want?" Benedict asked.
"Do you have the Basic Enchantment Knowledge Model in there?"
Angele had seen Benedict apply a buff to Campbell's sword with the energy particles, which helped Campbell to perform a sneak attack. During the conversation they had earlier, Angele had learned that Benedict knew a lot about item enchantment, and his Master was also a legendary item enchanter.
"Yea, I do, what else do you want?"
"Ranged spells. What do you have?"
Benedict patted the orbuculum lightly, and four rays of white light came out of it. Each ray of light demonstrated the basic property of a spell model.
There was a blue electrical ball, a lightning laser, a blue electrical bird, and a blinking lightning rune shown in the light.
Those models looked like holograms, and they were floating around Angele.
"Those are the ranged spells I know, pick one." Benedict shrugged.
Angele nodded and looked at the spell models. He made the decision quickly and put his right hand on the lightning rune. It disappeared right after it contacted Angele's hand.
"Lightning Rune, it's a great buff spell for ranged weapons and is also a powerful ranged spell. Good choice." Benedict smiled.
"I know what's best for me." Angele laughed.
"Good, let's trade then." Benedict threw the orbuculum into the air, and it started to float around them. There were many things appearing and disappearing inside the orbuculum; it looked like a slideshow.
Angele had read about the process in one of the books in the library, so he put his right hand's first finger on the surface of the orbuculum and closed his eyes. Benedict did the same thing right after.
'Mentality Tunnel created… Target, Benedict,' Zero reported.
'Transferring information through the tunnel. Improved Hand of Exhaustion model, transferred. Collecting: Lightning Rune model, Basic Enchantment Knowledge model. Done.' Zero was monitoring the information transfer process.
About ten seconds later, they both put down their fingers.
"How convenient." Angele sighed with pleasure.
"Of course. I killed three rank 3 apprentices for this." Benedict opened his eyes.
"Let's exchange our sigils so we can communicate through letters after we get the magic pets."
"Sure."
Angele drew a black rune in the air with energy particles. It solidified within seconds, was about the size of an egg, and was translucent. The black rune looked like a twisted snake with its mouth open while leaning forward to initiate a strike.
This was Angele's sigil he had created based on an Ancient Baren Word.
Benedict drew his sigil in the air too. It was a special round magic circle with blue electric pulses sparking around it.
They pushed the sigils, and the two sank into each other's bodies after a short travel through the air.
"Let's finish off the other Glowing Elephant. We need to hurry because I don't have much time left. I need to head back to the school," Benedict said.
"Sure."
"Make sure you write to me after you become a Wizard."
"I will."
Two hours later…
Angele was holding a glowing heart in his hands. Its edge was red, but the center of it was green.
Benedict said goodbye and disappeared into the forest.
Benedict had said that Angele needed the heart more than he did, so he only took the elephant's tusks and left the heart.
Angele had never thought he would become friends with his enemy. Benedict was strong and knowledgeable about spells. Angele really wanted to ask him a lot of things about enchanting, but he had to leave after taking the elephant out. So Angele decided to communicate with Benedict later, certain that he would be able to provide him some support later as a wizard.
Benedict had also told Angele that he would be able to become a Wizard sooner or later, but he himself would try to break the limit after he went back to the school. If he succeeded, he would become a Wizard right away.
Angele shook his head and stopped thinking, staring at the heart in his hands. The glowing heart was still beating, and it looked like there was a green flame inside. He could feel the heat just by holding it in his hands. Strangely, there was no blood on the surface of the heart; it was very dry.
Angele made a small bag from the skin of the elephant and put the heart inside it. He started to walk toward the Lennon City since he needed someone to carry the body of the elephant back.
It was early in the morning, and Angele heard people yelling his name after traveling some distance through the forest. They probably were people from Lennon City. He quickly headed toward the source of the voices.
It took him several minutes to go across the bushes and reach several soldiers walking around with extinguished torches in their hands.
"It's Master Angele! We found him!" a soldier yelled in excitement.
"Where is Mr. Harland and Mr. Tinos?" Angele asked in a deep voice.
"They're still looking for you," the soldier answered politely.
"What?" Angele was surprised. He thought they would have returned to the city already. "They're still here?"
"Yes, they've been looking for you since last night," another soldier said.
"Really?" Angele blinked his eyes. "Take me to them."
Ten minutes later.
The soldiers brought Angele to Harland and Tinos. Tinos's arm was hurt, and he looked tired. There was a bandage on Harland's right shoulder, and Angele could still see a hint of blood on it.
"Finally!" Harland walked over and hugged Angele. "I got you the heart of the elephant."
"For real? Thank you a lot! I thought the people from Vader City got it."
Angele smiled.
"I knew you needed it so we insisted on taking the heart. You need to buy me a drink after."
Harland laughed.
"No problem."
Angele turned back and hugged Tinos.
"Where is the other apprentice?" Tinos asked.
"He was not with the people from Vader City, just doing them a favor. I'm not his enemy, so we ended up finishing off the other elephant. Its body is extremely heavy, so I'll need some help to carry it back."
"The other one is dead too?" Harland was a bit surprised. "That's great news. I'll send some people there."
Harland handed over the heart he got to Angele, and Angele was satisfied with what he received. However, he had wasted too much time fighting Benedict and was exhausted. He told Harland about the location of the other Glowing Elephant, then went back to his shop with the hearts.
He needed some good rest before he could make at least one low-level enchanted item with the two hearts. The procedure was relatively easy, and he could try again if his first attempt failed.
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Chapter 88: The Auction (1)
Translator_Leo_
Editor:DarkGem, VirtualFrappe
Angele closed the door carefully, took off his clothes, and lied in bed. There was still blood and sweat on his body, but he could not resist the comfy bed.
'Zero, check my body condition,' he thought.
'Checking… Various burns caused by electricity and lightning damage. Negative energy particles have damaged your nerve system, and your ability to use spells is impaired. Your organs are failing, please take action as soon as possible, otherwise you will get some serious sequela.'
It was not as bad as Angele had thought. He had known that his body won't be able to handle all the negative necromantic energy particles that he used to increase his magic resistance for a short duration. The organ damages were caused by those electric arcs he had taken during the fight. In other words, everything was just as he had expected.
Angele struggled for a while and got out of the bed. He was drowsy, but he had to take care of his injuries first. Walking to the herb box, he grabbed some purple beans from it. He then put them into the stone-made grinding bowl on the table and started to grind the beans into powder.
It took him about a minute to make the beans into rough purple powder.
Angele opened the drawer, and there were many small test tubes lined up on a wooden rack. Most of the tubes were filled with green, blue, and red liquid or powder.
He grabbed a tube that had blue powder in it and closed the drawer. He then removed its stopper and poured all the powder into the grinding bowl. After putting down the empty test tube, he started to grind again.
After several seconds, white smoke started to come out of the grinding bowl, and Angele could smell the acrid fumes in the air.
CHI*
Angele poured some water into the bowl, and the smoke quickly disappeared. He then spooned some thickened liquid from the bowl and put it into his mouth.
The liquid was bitter and spicy, and it wasn't pleasant tasting at all.
'Positive Particle Neutralizer consumed. Time until the negative energy particles are neutralized: 17 hours,' Zero reported. Angele put down the spoon, satisfied with the result.
The Positive Particle Neutralizer was usually used to heal injuries caused by necromancy spells, and it could be easily made. Neutralizers were mostly used on normal people, thus, Angele had never thought he'd need one of them.
He didn't need to worry about the negative energy damage for now, so he looked at the elephant hearts on the table. They were the most valuable items he had obtained during the mission.
"I need to have a good rest first."
Angele shook his head, deciding not to start the procedure of making them into enchanted items yet. He threw the used bowls into the sink and walked into the backyard. There, he fetched a basket of water from the well and poured it over his head.
The chilling water from the well made him feel refreshed, and his underwear was soaked. He put down the water bucket and pointed in the air.
A light red rune appeared on the tip of his finger, then disappeared within a second.
"Ossell," Angele muttered.
Tiny red particles began glowing on his skin, and there was steam coming from his underwear. After about ten seconds, his underwear was dried and clean.
'That's one advantage of being a rank 3 apprentice. Using energy particles really helps my daily life.' Angele could use Wind energy particles to increase his moving speed, Fire energy particles to dry the clothes up, and Life Energy Particles to make plants grow faster.
He sat down on the ground and started to meditate. After ten minutes, there were green light dots floating around him. The backyard seethed and teemed with life energy.
He opened his eyes and pointed at the burn marks on his body. Groups of green light dots gathered and covered them up.
Those Life energy particles could help Angele recover faster and heal his wounds better. He was not sure if using them on himself too often would cause any side-effects, but the only thing he noticed was the itchiness coming from the wounds. He returned back to his room after patching himself up.
After entering the room, Angele suddenly had a strange feeling that something was approaching him, and it was something dangerous. He scrunched his eyebrows and every object in the room became marked with blue lines by Zero.
'Boosting your five senses… Searching for unknown signals…'
'Strange signal detected, marking it now…'
A tiny red dot dropped on the corner of the room, the distance to the signal and various other information listed by it. Angele had thought it was an object, but it was a man that was crouching on the other side of the wall.
Angele stayed calm, reading all the information about the man. The stranger was obviously stalking him, and his mission was probably to collect as much information as possible.
The stalker was using the same skill he had obtained from the thugs he'd encountered when he first came to the city, and it was the skill he had been practicing.
'Snake of the Sand Forest?' Angele guessed.
He had wondered why those people had never come to him to avenge their killed members.
Angele had taken the scroll with their secret stealth skill recorded on it from the assassin, killed those thugs in a brutal way, and had expected the organization to take revenge on him. They probably knew that Angele was weak at this moment and so decided to take action.
Angele was severely wounded and was still recovering. Those thugs probably thought it was the best chance for them to try to attack him.
However, they probably hadn't expected Angele to learn the secret stealth skill so fast that he could already detect their assassin's presence.
Angele pointed his finger at the wall, and some black smoke came out of his fingertip. The smoke went through the gap of the window and hit the assassin. Angele heard the assassin groaning while trying to escape, and the man quickly left the place.
What Angele had released was a small amount of necromantic energy; it would not do any damage to the knight-level assassins, but he was just trying to let them know that he could easily detect their presences.
Angele's expression changed. He wanted to go after the man, but he was not sure if they had something else waiting for him, and he wasn't fully prepared to fight yet. Also, he was actually happy that the organization had finally approached him—he still wanted to know if they really had the Dragon Scale Flower. Although the assassin escaped this time, Angele had special ways to trace the negative energy he had released.
But still, Angele decided to be more cautious about things.
Twelve days later.
"Ha!"
Tia yelled and swung her crossguard sword toward Angele.
Clang*
Angele easily blocked the slash with a black saber, barely moving his body.
They were practicing sword skills in the backyard together, and Tia kept attacking while Angele kept blocking. However, Angele was predicting all of Tia's moves without breaking a sweat. Still, he was happy that Tia had improved a lot after he taught her his sword skills.
"Very good, you're improving a lot," Angele praised Tia, smiling. "Take a rest, and let's have breakfast."
"Yes, Master!"
Tia was still panting. She put down her sword and bowed to Angele. It had been awhile since Angele had taken her in as his student.
She was a hard-working girl and learned things fast. She practiced every day after being taught his sword skills and was passionate about learning.
Angele wanted to know if Tia really trusted him and decided to test her by teaching her wrong ways of using certain skills. Although she looked confused for a second, she started to practice those skills without asking any questions, and Angele stopped her right away.
He trusted her a lot now. Tia was the perfect student for him, and he asked her to leave the pie house. He decided to pay her for bills and ask her to focus on practicing sword skills.
Watching Tia practicing his sword skill set reminded Angele of the days back at the Rudin Empire.
He had developed his own set of sword skills with the help of the chip, and that was the reason why he had become strong quickly. Besides the attributes, Tia was very close to the old Angele.
He slowly walked to the dining room, and Tia entered the room before him. She carefully laid down the sword and put the vegetable pancakes Angele had ordered into the plates. She also poured a glass of milk for Angele before stopping to stand by the table.
Angele liked the girl a lot. She was very thoughtful, and she always had a serious expression on her face.
After breakfast, Tia did the dishes and left. Angele decided to meditate in his room for a while.
He had already fully recovered from the injuries and now wanted to convert those hearts he had gotten from the mission to enchanted items.
'Zero, how's the progress of analyzing the Lightning Rune? Also, report the progress on all other missions.'
'Lightning Rune: 54% complete.
Enchantment Procedure Simulation: 31% complete.
Potion of Tranquility: 11% complete.'
Angele scrunched his eyebrows. 'How long do you need for the completion of the formula for Potion of Tranquility?"
'15 days.' Zero's answer was a bit disappointing.
Potion of Tranquility had similar effects to Awakening Potion—they could both help Angele increase his Mentality. The problem was that he had run out of the materials for crafting more Awakening Potions, and his body was already resisting its effect, so he decided to find the formula for Potion of Tranquility.
High Mentality would help Angele break the limit. He also needed to find the Water of Asu and the defense spell model, but he didn't have any leads on those at the moment. Benedict had only offensive ranged spells, and his defense came from his enchanted items and the special magic circle.
Angele walked toward a bookshelf by the wall and took a book from it. There was a piece of yellowed paper in the middle of it, and the words on it were all written in a special language, which normal people would never be able to read.
It was the formula for Potion of Tranquility, but it was encrypted with the Nier Code. Angele had burnt the original version and made a new one with the encryption.
He read the formula again. It was scanned and stored in the chip, but the way it was written caught his attention, and he wanted to look at it with his eyes.
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Chapter 89: The Auction (2)
Translator: Leo Editor: DarkGem/Frappe
He had had the same feeling while reading the formula of Awakening Potion. The formula itself had no secret, but it was the arrangement of runes and words that made Angele feel like those formulas were from the ancient times.
The strange feeling only occurred when Angele was reading the formula with his eyes, and he did not feel anything while checking it in the chip's storage.
He stared at the formula for a while, but could not come to any conclusion. Putting the formula back, he pushed the book into the shelf. He applied some negative energy particles onto the book, so only Wizards would be able to open it without getting hurt.
'This place is not safe enough, I probably need to find a new place to live. I can still use the shop to sell the potions I crafted and make some good money off it.'
The shop was quiet and nice, but Angele thought security was a major issue. Also, he had a lot more equipment and materials that needed a larger storage space.
The brown bookshelf had two levels. The first level had all the books in it, and two boxes were sitting on the second level. The smaller one had the red pearls Angele had obtained through the school missions. He took the other, the large black one, off the shelf with many strange lines and runes drawn on its surface.
Angele opened the box carefully. There were two beating hearts inside it, and the strange-looking hearts were glowing due to all the green flames raising out of them.
"Hearts of Glowing Elephants… I can make them into enchanted items, but I feel like it's a waste. I don't think I'll find anything like them again," Angele mumbled. "If I have all the necessary information, I should be able to use them for the cores of my servants."
Angele shook his head and grabbed the two hearts.
'Zero, do you have a better plan than making them into enchanted items?' he inquired.
'Analyzing…
Enchantment Plan A: Low-level enchanted items.
Enchantment Plan B: One-time enchanted items.'
'One-time enchanted items… I never thought of that. Are they powerful?' Angele asked.
'They will be 12.7 times more powerful than low-level enchanted items.'
Angele narrowed his eyes. 'I will make one low-level enchanted item first. If I can succeed in the first try, I will be able to…'
'Mission created, time required: 7.12 days. Energy consumed: 11.4 degrees. Mentality consumed: 9.'
Ten days later…
Night.
Carriages filled up the parking lot in front of the Mincola Auction Market of Lennon City, and many nobles were entering the auction market.
Two heavily armored swordsmen were guarding the entrance of the market. The other guards beside were well-trained and were bowing to the customers who entered through the gate.
A white carriage slowly stopped by the side of the street but did not enter the parking lot. A man with a pretty face opened the door and jumped off the carriage. He was wearing a black suit with a decorative silver chain on the right side of his chest; he looked gentle and quiet.
Another man with short brown hair got off the carriage as well. He was wearing a white tight suit, and it almost looked like he was showing off his strong muscles. The man was glancing around the crowd, and the others were all trying to avoid eye contact with him. They felt uncomfortable just by looking at the man. Their instincts told them that he was dangerous.
"Tinos, I'm in the middle of an important experiment, and the urgent matter you said was the auction?"
Angele was a bit disappointed. He stopped looking around and stared at Tinos.
"You know we missed the last auction due to my injury, but we won't miss this time." Tinos smiled. "Angele, my brother already took care of the spies from Snake of Sand Forest in the city, and their family properties are being auctioned here. Those people were rich, and they had a lot of collectibles. I think there might be something valuable to you so I asked you to come. Today is the only day that you can place bids, so it is actually urgent."
He looked at Angele and winked.
Angele shuddered and backed off a bit immediately.
"Well, I hope so. Did you find any decent house for me?"
Angele walked toward the gate of the auction market.
"I thought you forgot about it already. I found a nice manor several days ago. It is remote, and I heard there are ghosts living in it. Buyers backed off after hearing the rumors, so the price is great. I think that one fits your requirements," Tinos answered.
"I'll take it then," Angele said. "Ghosts may be scary to the normal citizens, but they are no problem for me."
"True." Tinos nodded.
He caught up and entered through the gate with Angele. Several nobles ahead of them turned around and greeted them. Most of the nobles in the city knew Tinos, and they had seen Angele talking to Harland many times, so he became famous too.
Tinos scorned. "When the Glowing Elephants were threating the citizens' lives, only the Knights in the army decided to help, while those nobles did not even provide any resources for the mission. The only thing they know is to purchase expensive decorations to make their houses look better. Without me and my brother, I can't even imagine what this city would become.
"There are three major power holders in Lennon: me, my brother, and our father. Besides us, there is a dwarf Knight, who's the leader of the infantry. When the citizens were attacked by the Glowing Elephants, he did not send even a single soldier because he wanted to make sure none of his people died. I doubt they could have dealt with the Glowing Elephants if we weren't here."
After the mission, Tinos became much closer to Angele and started to talk about all kinds of events with him.
"Really?"
Angele had wondered why they had only sent a small team to deal with such dangerous beasts, and it seemed the soldiers with them thought it was an easy mission. They probably trusted the Grand Knight Harland too much, or Harland just took whoever volunteered to come with him. It seemed he was not in control of the whole army.
They walked down the hallway. The floor was covered by a red carpet, and there were oil lamps hanging on both sides of the wall. Solid fat was burning inside them, and there were more than enough lamps to make the place bright.
Angele could smell the incense in the air.
They reached a large hall after walking down the hallway.
There were many chandeliers hanging on the roof, and there were rows of red chairs in the hall. Many customers were already sitting, so the place was a bit noisy.
There was a large sign standing beside the auction block, which said 'Mincola Auction' in Anmag. The words were very well written. It was almost like they had asked someone to write the words in a special way.
"Come, let's go to my private room."
Tinos led Angele to the left, where they entered a door and saw a staircase. They went up two floors and reached a door by the end of the corridor. A maid in red was standing there. She bowed after seeing Angele and Tinos coming.
"Only I have access to this room," Tinos explained, smiling.
After entering the room, Angele found himself at the top left corner of the auction hall. There was a large glass wall in front of him through which he could easily survey the whole hall.
There were a large sofa and several red leather chairs in the room. A large piece of white high-quality carpet was on the floor, and an incense stand was on a rectangular table. There were three incense sticks burning on the stand, and the smoke coming from the tip of the sticks made the room smell good.
"Do you like it? You can see everything in the hall from here." Tinos sat on the sofa and laughed.
The maid brought them water and some high-quality fruit wine. She bowed and left the room quickly after depositing everything on the table. Angele poured himself some wine and shook the glass lightly. The fruit wine was green, and he could smell the fragrance of fruits. It was fall, so it seemed the maid had heated the wine a bit. Angele thought it was great to have something like this on a cold day.
"There is another reason I asked you to come here." Tinos had a mysterious smile on his face. He stretched his legs and lied on the sofa, Angele just could not stop considering him as a 'lady'.
He had that strange uncomfortable feeling again and decided to stop staring at Tinos.
"What do you mean?"
"Two families will be fighting for their names here. They are almost done, and it is a story full of love and hate. The two families are enemies of each other, but their son and daughter fell in love." Tinos chuckled.
"A young leader of the family decided to sacrifice the family's fame for the girl he loved, but he failed, and his name was removed from the genealogy. However, the young man took the most important item in the family and sent it to this auction, so this put a price on his head. At the same time, this item is what the girl from the other family needs. I think she will be here tonight and try to save her love from the danger. She will try to convince the young man to cancel the auction of the item, but the young man's family has already set up traps everywhere around here. How touching..." Tinos wiped off the non-existent tears from his face and faked a sad impression.
"Yea, yea. Touching love story. How beautiful."
Angele was speechless. He stood up and walked toward the glass to check the situation down below. He sipped some wine. It was smooth as silk, and he could barely feel the liquid going down his throat, but there was still a distinctly sweet flavor of the fruits in his mouth.
Angele closed his eyes, enjoying the apple-like flavor.
"I don't care about things like this. The only thing I care is if I can find something useful to me."
"You will, don't worry." Tinos yawned.
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Chapter 90: The Auction (3)
Translator: Leo Editor: DarkGem/Frappe
Angele stopped talking and stood quietly in front of the glass, sipping the fruit wine slowly.
The room's temperature was higher than outside, and Angele decided to loosen his collar. His strong chest was exposed to the air while he looked attentively at the auction hall.
The hall got noisier as more people entered through the door. After about ten minutes, all the red chairs in the hall were filled up and the door was closed. Two guards in black heavy armor suits with axes in their hands stood on both sides of the door.
An old man wearing glasses walked toward the auction block. His hair was all white, even the on his beard. The man had a serious look on his face, and there was a gavel in his hand.
"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Mincola Auction Market. I am Pierre from the Nalin Street, and I will be your auctioneer today. I think you all already know where today's items came from, so I will stop it here. All right, everyone, the auction starts now!" The old man wasted no time and hit the sound block with the gavel.
The auction hall quieted down after several seconds, most of the people staring at the auction block. Some people were still whispering, but they were not disturbing the auctioneer.
"First item to start the auction is the Silver Sand from Merfolk. It's beautiful and very valuable," the old man shouted out.
Two strong half-naked men carried in a black metal box with two swordsmen escorting them. The latter were wearing leather armor pieces and kept glancing around.
The black box was put down by the block, and one of the men opened it quickly. The box was filled up with silver sand. The sand was very smooth and shined under the light.
"Silver Sand is one of the Merfolk's major exports. It's very rare, and it will make your skin smoother if you apply some on your body during showers. It is also great for general skin care."
Before the old man could finish his words, the ladies and girls were already getting excited.
"2000 gold coins!" a middle-aged noble lady shouted out, swinging the number sign in her hand.
"2200!" A young girl raised her sign.
"2300!" someone else shouted.
The number kept increasing during the next several minutes, and many people were still bidding.
Finally, several bidders gave up because the number was getting a bit ridiculous, but there were still people bidding.
"5000 gold coins!" a young noble man stood up and yelled out.
"6000," someone in the first private room on the second floor said.
"7000." The young man looked at the private room and increased the bid again.
"8000 gold coins." The man in the private room did not stop.
The hall became quiet after hearing the number, but the young man was still standing. He wiped off the number on the sign and wrote down something else.
"10 000!" he yelled and raised the sign. "I will pay 10 000 gold coins."
Most of the nobles shook their heads and lowered down the signs. A full box of Silver Sand cost about 6000 gold coins in regular luxury markets. It was hard to find, but they would not pay 10 000 for the sand in an auction market.
Inside the first private room.
Tinos grunted. "Seriously? 10 000 gold coins for a box of Silver Sand? Whatever. Silver Sand will be shipped to the auction market every month. Why can't this guy just let it go?"
It seemed like Tinos did not care for the sand but just wanted to win the bid.
Angele shook his head. Actually, he felt relaxed when Tinos was around. The pretty man was a bit selfish and stubborn, but he was very simple. He did not like to be treated as a high-class noble, but people would not do such thing just because Tinos asked. Most of the nobles feared him due to his position.
Beside Angele and his relatives, no one would treat him like an ordinary friend.
Tinos considered Angele as his real friend after the encounter with the Glowing Elephants. He liked Angele a lot because he did not care about his position, and Tinos thought that Angele was the only good friend he had.
"Dumb*ss!" Tinos gave the young man a hard look.
The hammer came down. No one else bid so the hammer price was 10 000 gold, and the box of Silver Sand now belonged to the young man.
"Wait!" the young man suddenly yelled. "I would like to let everyone know that I will gift this box of Silver Sand to the one and only, Mr. Tinos! I admire him!"
The young man bowed in the direction of the first private room. "Mr. Tinos, please accept the heartfelt wishes from a humble admirer!"
People in the hall started laughing and clapping their hands.
"Rogen, you are so generous." Some of the people knew the young man.
The noble girls and ladies around were staring at him enviously.
In the first private room.
Angele could not help laughing. He turned back and looked at Tinos.
"Someone's trying to please you. I'd be happy if someone just gave me 10 000 gold coins, whatever his reason may be."
Tinos had an elated look on his face.
"Humph, at least he is tactful." Although Tinos did not say anything about the young man, he looked happy, and his vanity was gratified by the young man's gift.
This was just an interesting episode to Angele. Rogen from the Michelle Family paid 10 000 gold just to please Tinos, and everyone in the city would learn about the story within one day.
The next item was an antique black goose-neck vase. The auctioneer said that the vase was more than a thousand years old and was from the Vlasov's era.
Angele was not interested in antiques at all, and Tinos did not place any bid, either. The hammer price for the vase was 2000 gold coins.
Half an hour passed. The next four items were all antiques, nothing catching Angele's attention.
"Next one is a treasure from the owner of the previous antiques. It's a leather book from the Vlasov's era, and it is more than a thousand years old!" the auctioneer introduced the item in a loud voice.
A young girl in a white one-piece walked to the stage with a silver plate. There was a dictionary-sized book lying on the plate. Its cover was brown, and the book was sealed with a leather band.
"The book is more than a thousand years old, and it represents the knowledge of the mysterious Vlasov people. Collectors of books will not want to miss an item like this!" the auctioneer shouted.
Angele stood in front of the glass and looked at the thick book, still sipping the fruit wine. He remembered seeing the Green Ear Masa for the first time when he was on the way to Marua Harbor. His father had told him about the Vlasov people. It all felt like it had just happened yesterday.
Angele recalled the sad look his father had in the ruins of Masa.
"Angele, do you know this language? I mean the Vlasov," Tinos asked, curious.
"A little bit." Angele stopped thinking and nodded.
"What's in that book then? Can you understand the words on the cover?" Tinos questioned.
"On the cover, it says 'My dearest Paul, God bless you'. It looks like a book that lists codes for certain rituals, or it may be a memoir," Angele responded.
"It's crap then." Tinos shrugged.
The bid already increased to 20 000 gold coins, and people in the other three private rooms also placed their bids. There were only four private rooms in the hall. Besides Angele and Tinos, everyone else joined the bid. The hall was noisy, and the nobles all had the excited looks on their faces.
Thwack*
The hammer came down.
"34 000 gold coins. Congratulations to Mr. Cains. The book is yours," the auctioneer shouted.
After the book, a heavy-looking white box was slowly carried to the block by four people.
"The next item is the most wanted item in this auction." The auctioneer corrected his glasses and grabbed an information sheet from the table.
"The incredible jewelry that represents liberty and dream, the most beautiful and rarest, Stone of Lisa!"
The box was quickly opened after the auctioneer finished his words. There was another smaller box inside the large box, and a girl opened the smaller box with a key, but there was another box inside.
Another girl opened the box with a different key, and a black rhombus box was sitting inside. There were many complex patterns engraved on the center of the box, and the combination of the patterns looked like a silver-blue rose.
The last girl opened the black box with a weird-looking key and opened it slowly. Rays of bright light shot out of the box when the girl lifting the lid.
People in the hall gasped after the box was completely opened.
"Impossible…"
"This is the most wonderful gem I've ever seen in my whole life…"
"Stone of Lisa… It's true that this is the most beautiful gem in the world…"
The noble ladies were in shock, forgetting to close their mouths. People stood up, and everyone praised the gem.
An egg-sized oval gem was lying on the black silk quietly, and the light it reflected was like a rainbow.
Angele stared at the gem, but he did not feel the excitement the others were experiencing. He had seen better gems on Earth, and they even looked better than this one, so he did not lose himself.
However, Tinos was fascinated by the gem.
"Stone of Lisa, the purest gem in the world. You can display it at your castle for sure, but what else can it do?" Angele shrugged.
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Chapter 91: The Auction (4)
Translator: Leo Editor: DarkGem/Frappe
"I will feel happy just by looking at it, and it will bring fame to my whole family. I'm sure If I can win the auction, my life will be more complete!"
Tinos was so excited that he almost jumped out of the sofa.
Angele shook his head, speechless.
BAM*
Someone pushed the door open from outside while everyone was still staring at the gem.
People finally stopped looking and turned back to see what was going on. They also started chatting again. A young girl in a black one-piece appeared by the door, slowly walking toward the auction block. She looked calm, and it seemed the two guards knew who she was. They hesitated to stop the girl from advancing.
"Ness! Do you know what you are doing!" a deep voice came from the third private room.
"Ness? The daughter of…"
"It's her…"
The nobles started to talk about the girl. It seemed like most of them knew her.
Tinos stood up and walked toward Angele. He looked down the glass.
"That's Ness Zweig, the girl I told you about. Finally, it begins."
Tinos had a delighted smile on his face.
"I really don't care… It's just an average sad love story."
Angele poured himself another glass of fruit wine.
"Come on, it's not just that. I wouldn't bring you here if it was just a dumb story." Tinos smiled, "Ness' lover is named Anyua, and the treasure he took from his family was really important. The item was almost the cornerstone of his family."
"Huh? Really? I thought it was the gem."
Angele was a bit surprised.
"You know about the concept gears, right?" Tinos swirled his glass and sipped some milk. Some white liquid stuck to the corner of his mouth, and he licked it off. The scene was a bit frustrating to watch.
Angele turned to the other side and nodded. "I heard the Sun of the Tribe was a concept gear, and such gears were crafted by the Wizards or Alchemists from the Vlasov's era. The amount of time required to equip the gear was reduced to the minimum, but the crafting method was long gone."
"This treasure is related to concept gears."
Tinos had a mysterious smile no his face.
"Is it? Finally, something exciting."
"You'll see."
"Do you know what you're doing?" the man kept repeating this sentence.
"I do actually, father," the girl answered in a calm tone.
"Someone, take her away!" the man yelled in anger. It seemed like something in the private rooms was making his voice clearer.
Several guards rushed out through the small doors on both sides of the hall, charging toward the girl.
"Anyua! It's a trap! Run! The auction market colluded with them, so they already know you're here!" the girl suddenly started to yell.
She struggled, trying her best to dodge the incoming guards. They did not want to really hurt her, so they were holding back.
"Ness!" A man suddenly stood up and rushed toward the girl. He quickly put down several guards, grabbed her hand, and started running toward the exit.
The handsome man had red hair and black pupils. He looked nervous. However, their route to the exit was blocked by a tall man, and the handsome man pushed Anyua back.
The tall man was wearing plate armor pieces, and his gloves were made from metal as well. The man's black hair was short, and there was no emotion shown on his face. He looked extremely strong.
The two and the tall man were not moving.
A middle-aged man in a black noble's suit walked out of the door from the side and stopped by the tall man. He was staring at the couple
The middle-aged man had a serious look on his face, and his appearance was relatively identical to Ness'. Most importantly, Angele knew the man had blood on his hands just by looking at him.
"Knight Zweig, the only Knight stronger than him in the city is my brother," Tino explained. "He is Ness' father, and he'll become a Grand Knight sooner or later. Besides my brother, Knight Zweig has the most power in the city and a lot of Knight level warriors working for him."
"Huh, sounds scary." Angele nodded. "How about the one in heavy plate armor?"
"Knight Ali, a top-level Knight. Knight Zweig saved the man's life many times during the war, so Ali decided to work for him later. His loyalty to Zweig is unquestionable."
More and more people started talking in the hall.
Angele slowly sat down on a chair and leaned back.
"The young ones are in trouble," Angele said calmly.
"Sounds like you are much older than them." Tinos laughed and looked at Angele.
"Well…" Angele remembered he was only 16 years old and smiled.
The young man was grabbed by several guards, and they hit him hard. Knight Zweig held Ness' hands tight while she was trying her best to help Anyua. She cried, screamed, but could not move at all.
"Please! Please! I beg you! Stop hitting him!" Ness's voice was raspy, and there were tears dropping down her face.
Zweig looked at one of the guards, and the guard hit the back of Anyua's head with the iron bar in his hands.
BAM*
"No! Anyua!" Ness had tears all over her face, and she almost passed out after seeing Anyua get hit in the head.
Anyua lay on the ground. It seemed like he could barely move, but he was still trying to reach out to Ness. The blood kept dripping down his chin, and the red carpet on the ground looked darker after soaking the blood.
Zweig did not care what his daughter thought and continued to tightly hold Ness's arms.
"I told you already. You'll pay for what you did. Anyua, if you hadn't ignored my warning, none of this would have happened."
Zweig stepped on Anyua's head.
Knight Ali handed a sword over to Zweig. The Knight raised it into the air, aiming at Anyua's heart.
"Farewell, Anyua."
The sword started coming down.
Suddenly, the right side of Anyua's neck started shining. A twisted red rune appeared on his neck within several seconds.
"The rune!"
Zweig's expression changed.
Inside the first private room.
Angele almost jumped up.
"That rune…"
He was surprised, and his face looked serious.
CHI*
Rays of red light started coming out of Anyua.
Someone's strange singing echoed in the hall, sounding like the voice of a siren. The ethereal voice sounded clean and attractive.
Zweig and the guards backed off quickly, staring at Anyua with fear clear on their faces.
"It's the curse!" one of the nobles in the hall suddenly shouted. "That's the curse from Holy Gear!"
Anyua was floating in the air, and the Stone of Lisa started shining as well. It disappeared from the box, turning into a red line. The red line quickly flew into Anyua's hand.
The light became more intense, almost blinding everyone in the hall. After reaching Anyua's hand, the red line turned into some bloody red liquid which covered up Anyua's whole body. Within five seconds, the liquid solidified and became a suit of red crystal armor. There were thorns on the suit's shoulder and arm pieces. The whole suit was horrifying.
Anyua looked like a strong warrior inside the red crystal armor suit.
"Holy Gear! Let's finish him off before he learns how to use it!" Zweig yelled, drew his own sword, and charged toward Anyua. Knight Ali followed after him, and the other guards started charging as well.
Anyua's eyes turned white, and he raised his hands.
Crack*
The time stopped in this space after the noise.
Everything stopped moving: the people, objects, tears on Ness' face, the blood, the falling glasses, and even the people charging toward him.
It was almost like they were frozen. The colors in the space were gone, and everything turned black or white.
Anyua's suit was still shining. It looked like he had already passed out, something else controlling his behavior. He summoned a red crystal dagger to his right hand.
He stepped forward, about to stab Zweig in the chest. Suddenly, some green light dots from the first private room caught his attention.
Anyua then turned back and looked at the second floor. Through the glass, he could see Angele moving green light dots around.
Angele stared at Anyua calmly. They were the only ones in the hall that still had color on their bodies.
The place was deadly silent.
Angele suddenly felt depressed and lonely. He felt like everyone around was dead, and the strange feeling made his heart pump fast.
The two stopped looking at each other at the same time, and the dagger in Anyua's hand was absorbed into his armor. Anyua grabbed the frozen Ness and slowly walked toward the exit.
Crack*
After they left the place, colors returned to the auction room, and everything started moving again.
"Holy Gear? That gem is the Holy Gear?" Tinos jumped up and shouted.
Angele sat on the chair quietly and narrowed his eyes. He held the handles tight, finally having experienced a similar power to the green gem again. The power that could stop time.
"But, it's not the Agility Burst…" Angele mumbled. He stood up, looked at the place where the couple had hugged each other for several seconds, and left.
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Chapter 92: Interrogation (1)
Translator: Leo Editor: DarkGem/Frappe
After what happened at the auction market, Angele asked Harland and Tinos to track down the young man named Anyua, however, there was no trace left.
It seemed like the two big families came to an agreement and stopped fighting in the city. They did not announce anything regarding Ness and Anyua's disappearance.
One month later.
In the reading room of Tinos' manor.
Angele was sitting in a chair with his legs crossed, sipping green fruit wine from a glass.
Tinos and a middle-aged nobleman sat on the other side, calmly discussing the Holy Gear.
"Holy Gear is a high-rank concept gear. However, the man disappeared before we could even notice it in the auction hall. Effects like that were probably not from the life energy drained by the concept gear. Only Wizards can manage to do something like that," the nobleman said, scrunching his eyebrows.
People like him hadn't noticed the time stopping at that moment. The only thing they knew was that Anyua and Ness disappeared in front of their eyes.
"Stone of Lisa was the concept gear, that was the most surprising thing to me," Tinos said. "A witness said he saw Anyua and Ness leave the city and go into the forest. I think we should just let them go. Legendary gears like that won't suddenly come to us, and we shouldn't waste too much time on them. Also, the curse on the Holy Gear will turn its owner into a killing machine. I don't really want it anyways."
"Without the gear, Anyua's family is definitely weakened," the nobleman sighed. "A concept gear changes the destiny of the whole family."
"Let's leave it there. How long will you stay in Lennon, Mr. Monti?" Tinos asked.
"More than ten days I think. I'm waiting for my people to come back from the docks." Monti scrunched his eyebrows again. "Master Angele, I heard you were from Ramsoda College. May I ask you a question about a strange plague?" He turned to the side and stared at Angele.
"Sure." Angele nodded, he was listening to their conversation quietly.
Monti sighed. "In the southern provinces, there is a plague going on. Within three days, blisters will grow all over the infected patients' skin, and inside the blisters, it would be not body fluid but blood. After the three days, all the blisters will explode, and the patient will die due to blood loss. Have you ever heard of a plague like that?"
Angele's expression turned serious after hearing Monti's description.
"Are you sure it is blood inside the blisters?" he asked.
"Yes." Monti nodded. "The high-class nobles have already noticed how serious this plague is, and they sent a bunch of doctors to check the situation in the infected area, but none of them have figured out what caused the infection. I think thousands of people are already infected, so the situation is bad. The plague has already wiped out a large territory."
Angele still had the serious look on his face.
"Mr. Monti, please trust me on this. Don't go close to the infected areas," Angele said in a deep voice. "If I'm not mistaken, the plague is called Blood Boil Blisters. One must have a body similar to a Knight level warrior's to survive that."
Monti's expression changed again, and he nodded. "I will make sure I don't go there. I feel uncomfortable just by listening to the rumors."
"I think about 100 years ago, around the year 1430, there was a Blood Boil Blisters breakout in Santiago, and about 100,000 people died. Many people escaped Santiago, and it took a long time for it to recover. I'd suggest controlling the infection area as soon as possible, otherwise…" Angele did not finish his sentence, but the other two knew what he was trying to say.
"I understand. The plague is being controlled," Monti explained. "The quarantine area has already been set up."
"Good." Angele nodded.
"Also, I collected some potion formulas you asked for a while ago. I'm not sure if they are what you were looking for," Monti continued. "I collected them on my way here from the capital. I didn't know why Tinos suddenly asked me to look for potion formulas until I met you."
Angele smiled. "How many formulas have you got there?"
"More than 30." Monti smiled. "I will ask someone to send them to your place."
"What's the price?" Angele nodded.
"Mr. Tinos will take care of that. He will pay me by the end of the year." Monti was not even a Knight, just a normal noble, and so was interested in meeting people with special talents. He would not ask Tinos to pay him because money was the easiest thing for him to get. He knew that it was best to do them a favor for free.
Angele earned a lot of gold coins by selling the parts he obtained from the Glowing Elephants and had decided to ask Tinos to get him some potion formulas. He knew Tinos' friend, Sir Monti, was coming from the capital, and he would be able to collect the formulas along the way. Angele had already prepared the money, not knowing that Tinos would pay for it.
"Don't worry about the money, Angele, you are my friend you know?" Tinos smiled.
"Still, thanks a lot," Angele responded.
Those potion formulas had nothing to do with the Wizard potions. They were used to craft basic potions for daily use. Angele wanted to collect data from them. They would cost him several thousand gold coins at the most.
After leaving Tinos' manor, Angele jumped into a black carriage, heading to the manor he had just purchased.
He had moved from his shop to the manor this month after paying about 10,000 gold for it. He had earned about 500,000 gold coins from the Glowing Elephants, so 10,000 gold coins were not a big deal to him. As dor the meditation, his Mentality was much more stable compared to before with the help from the potions. However, his Stamina decreased by one due to the side effects of Black Lead Potion and the sequela of the negative energy infection.
Angele did nothing besides experimenting with potions and spells recently. He also meditated and taught Tia sword skills several times. His only social activities were all related to Harland and Tinos.
Angele's Mentality stopped increasing awhile ago. Although he had gotten some more Night Honeycombs, it seemed like his body had started to resist the potion's effects, and meditating did nothing to him as well. Angele thought he had already reached the limit of an apprentice and already met the requirements to become a Wizard. For that reason, he was preparing to make sure he did not miss the summons of his school.
He still needed the Water of Asu and the defensive spell in order to break the limit. Returning to the school would be the fastest and easiest way for him to acquire them. However, there were no rumors about Ramsoda College, and Angele did not want to miss any valuable information.
It was already winter. Angele sat in the carriage, rays of sunlight hitting his hands through the window, but he could barely feel the warmth they brought. The chilling wind was blowing over his face.
"It's 1542 already… Winter is not the most pleasant season for me." Angele pulled his collar up and peeked outside through the window.
Most of the leaves had already fallen off the trees, and the pedestrians were wearing thick coats. Everything looked gray and white, even the sunlight was pale as well.
"What's the date today, Tom?" Angele asked.
Tom was the coachman specially hired for Angele by Alford. He did not know his last name and thought 'Tom' was probably just a codename.
"November the 18th, Master," Tom responded.
"18th? I think Harland is prepared then." Angele nodded. "Take me to Twisted Blue Prison. I'm not going home yet."
"Understood, Master."
The carriage sped up and turned left at the next fork in the road. Its wheels made the dry leaves dance on the ground.
Twisted Blue Prison, the only prison that held prisoners that would be executed.
The prison was at a remote location, surrounded by the forest. Many buildings were built for it, and the place was deadly silent.
Those buildings had sharp roofs, their appearances identical to those of churches. Wood fences were built outside the buildings, and there were teams of guards patrolling the area. The guards had no expressions on their faces as they walked wearing heavy black armor suits. Most of them held swords in their hands, while others had iron hammers on their back.
There were prisoners being executed every hour, and their dying screams could be heard from outside the buildings.
A black carriage was traveling toward the prison, then slowly stopped in the parking area.
"We are here, Master." The coachman was a tanned middle-aged man.
Angele opened the door and jumped off the carriage. He was wearing a black hunting suit with long leather boots.
A team of guards walked toward the carriage.
"Master Angele?" the leader asked.
Angele nodded.
"Mr. Harland already informed us, so you're allowed to enter the prison. However, the coachman needs to stay outside." The leader's face was covered by the helmet, and his voice was a bit unclear.
"I know." Angele walked past the fences and headed towards one of the buildings inside. He could hear prisoners yelling and screaming.
The atmosphere here was cold and heavy.
Angele looked around and asked Zero to analyze the energy flow in the area.
"Necromantic negative energy particles. Concentration: 65.72%."
"Nice place," Angele mumbled.
The lawn was soft, and Angele felt like walking on a carpet. He stopped by a building and knocked on the thick brown gate.
Knock Knock*
A small window on the door was opened, and a guard peeked through it.
"Master Angele, you are finally here. She's dying," the guard said and quickly unlocked the door.
"It's good as long as she's still alive," Angele responded in a cold voice.
Inside, there was a hallway with black stone flooring and sunlight coming through the small windows from both sides. The place did not smell good; it was wet and cold.
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Chapter 93: Interrogation (2)
Translator: Leo Editor: DarkGem/Frappe
Angele scrunched his eyebrows.
"That's how this place smells, I hope you don't mind." The guard smiled. "You can take this lamp with you, and it'll warm you up." He tried to hand over the lamp in his hand.
"It's fine." Angele pulled his collar up again and walked inside.
He quickly reached a stone cell after walking down the hallway. In the middle of the cell, there was a staircase leading underground. It looked like a cracked well. Angele looked down and saw torches on the walls making the underground area bright.
He could hear screams from the prisoners clearer here.
He stepped on the stairs and walked down. There were rows of empty cells on the sides. Angele could see feces and blood stains inside them. There was a rotten smell in the underground area; the place stank.
Several patrolling guards walked toward Angele and bowed to him. The captain asked the others to keep patrolling while he led the way for Angele.
They turned right after several intersections, and the smell got even worse.
The captain stopped by a cell on the left and opened it with one of the keys he carried.
"The person you're looking for is in this cell, but I suggest you don't stay here for too long. She is dying, and I doubt she'll survive the night," the captain said in a low voice.
Angele nodded and walked inside the cell.
The only 'bed' inside was a pile of wheat straws. A woman in black lay on those straws, unmoving. The stink from the feces mixed with the rotting wound smell and filled up the air. Angele's eyebrows came together again, and he felt a bit sick.
"Still breathing?" Angele kicked the woman with his boot.
The woman moved a bit and struggled for a while. She turned her head over and opened her eyes slowly. "Who are you...?" She groaned, sounding extremely weak.
Angele just noticed that the woman had a balanced body. Although her face was covered by a mask, he thought she must be a beautiful woman just by the look of her eyes.
However, he did not care if the woman was beautiful or not—she was just an object that would help him reach his goal. Also, he could not think of anything else in such a ridiculous environment.
"The last hideout of Snake of Sand Forest has been destroyed. You would've been tortured to death if I hadn't asked them to let you live," Angele said in a light tone. "Apparently, they misunderstood my order and saved the most beautiful woman for me. However, I just wanted a living one that could speak."
The woman on the ground stared at Angele. "Are you asking me to thank you for saving my life? Ha…"
"What are you laughing at? As a mortal, you should learn to appreciate my kindness."
Angele narrowed his eyes.
"Go kill yourself! You phony bastard! Insect! You think I'll trust your crap?" The woman tried her best to increase her voice. It seemed like the anger made her head clear.
"I'm not interested in your problems with the Lennon City. The only thing I care about is the Dragon Scale Flower," Angele said calmly.
"Heh… Do you really think Snake of Sand Forest is all we've got?" The woman sneered, still staring at Angele. "Wait for it, Vansalla will bring the hope to us!"
"Again, I don't care about what you do. The only thing I need is the intel about Dragon Scale Flower. Tell me where to find it, and I can think about letting you go."
Angele looked at her. Although he no longer needed the Dragon Scale Flower, he still wanted to use it to trade for other resources after he returned to the school.
For that reason, he was trying his best to find clues about the flower.
"Bastard!" the woman cursed.
"I already told you, I can let you leave if you tell me where I can find it," Angele repeated his words.
"I know where you can find it, but why should I trust you? Scum like you never keeps their promises!" The woman turned her head toward the wall.
"You…" Angele was getting nervous.
"Do whatever you want! Scum! I'd rather feed the flower to a dog than give it to you!"
"What do you want? Say it."
Angele calmed down.
The woman did not know Angele was serious and thought for a while.
"Take me out first. It's too dirty here," she said.
"Humph."
Angele turned back, walked out, and talked to the guards.
Ten minutes later.
They were taken to a lounge with a campfire burning in the middle of the room, and Angele asked the guards to leave.
The woman lied down on a long chair. Angele stared at her and said in a cold voice, "Tell me about the flower now."
"Not yet," the woman responded in a cold tone as well. "Give me a glass of milk and some bread, I'm hungry."
The guards brought her white bread and milk quickly after Angele asked.
He sat in a chair with his legs crossed, watching the woman devour the bread. She almost choked on it several times.
"What else do you want? Speak."
The woman raised her head and looked at Angele. "First, let me take a shower. Second, get me out of here. I will tell you everything I know about the Dragon Scale Flower after."
"Sure."
Angele thought the woman was not asking too much.
"Who gives you the right to release a prisoner, Master Angele!" someone shouted.
The door of the lounge was pushed open, and a tall man in white leather armor suit walked in. The man put his right hand on the handle of his sword, not looking happy.
"Who gives you the right to question me like that? Knight Ali…" Angele's expression changed, and he stood up.
Knight Ali worked for the Zweig family. He was also at the auction hall that day, but for some reason, he did not like Angele from the moment they met. And since he oversaw this prison, he had rushed into the room after hearing Angele was trying to release a prisoner.
"Without my approval, no prisoner will be released!" Ali said in a cold voice.
"Without your approval? Who are you? You're nothing but a dog from Zweig Family! How dare you question my decision."
Ali suddenly drew his sword after hearing Angele's words and stared at Angele in anger.
Before Ali could charge towards him, he heard the guards' voices coming from outside the door.
"Mr. Siv."
"Mr. Siv, you're back."
Ali returned his sword to the sheath. "You are lucky Siv is back, otherwise I would kick your arrogant ass, scum."
Angele sneered, "I can say the same."
Ali stared at Angele for a while, then turned back.
CHI*
Ali swung his right hand and a silver flash flew toward the woman on the chair—it was a silver dagger.
"You're dead!" Angele yelled in anger.
He quickly kicked the chair down and knocked the woman off it. His reaction was fast enough to save the woman's life.
Angele covered his right hand with negative energy particles and tried to hit Ali's face with it.
Ali knew Angele would go for him and quickly backed off.
Clank*
A silver broadsword blocked Angele's attack, and his hand hit the blade. The black smoke disappeared after the contact.
"Master Angele, please calm down. Knight Ali didn't mean it."
A man stood in front of Ali, wearing a white armor suit, and he started returning his broadsword back to the sheath.
"Didn't mean it? Knight Siv, I thought you were neutral in situations like this? What? You want to protect Ali?" Angele lowered his hand and spoke in a cold voice.
"I'm just following the codes. This is an important prison, and no fights are allowed here." Siv's face was covered by the helmet, and he was speaking with no emotion.
Ali's face turned pale. He stood behind Siv, finally aware that the rumors about Angele were real.
"What was that black smoke? Knight Siv, did you see that? He was trying to kill me. That black smoke must be some vicious curse. This man was trying to attack a formal Knight. I will report the event to Harland for sure!"
"Knight Ali, please calm down," Knight Siv said calmly.
Ali held the handle of his sword tight, giving Angele a hard look.
Angele did not care. "I was granted the right to give orders to the city by Lord Alford, and releasing a prisoner isn't a violation of any rule to me. You can report to whoever you want, but if you try to attack me again, I will make you pay."
Ali opened his mouth and wanted to say something in return, but he hesitated and ended up saying nothing. He knew Angele was seriously trying to kill him and decided not to provoke him any further.
He had thought that the rumors of Angele slaying a Glowing Elephant were exaggerating, but he now knew that Angele was strong after facing him in person. The power Angele had was not something Ali could handle. For the first time, he experienced the fear of fighting against a man that had a mysterious power.
"Let's go!" Ali shouted and left. Siv bowed to Angele before leaving, and it seemed like he had business with Ali.
Angele blinked his eyes and walked around.
He finally sat down after a while. The woman had already picked herself up and laid her back against the wall beside the fireplace. She was thinking about something while watching Angele moving around.
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Chapter 94: Next (1)
Translator: Leo Editor: DarkGem/Frappe
"Why are you looking at me?" Angele said. "Tell me your name."
The woman blinked, then scrunched her eyebrows.
"Jolin, just call me Jolin." It seemed she had calmed down. "You intentionally let Siv block your attack, right?"
Angele was surprised, but his expression did not change.
"I was blocked."
He did not admit it.
"Well, I think you were telling the truth. You are not interested in the political fight in the city," Jolin said. "I guess you know who's behind the Zweig family, and I can understand why you don't want to mess with them."
"You know a lot, huh?" Angele smiled., "I warned them already, and it didn't mean I was scared. There is no point for me to go into war with their whole family just for a prisoner. The loss wouldn't justify the gains."
He was still an apprentice of Ramsoda School. As long as the school wasn't wiped off the map by Northland Alliance, it would help him fight against a large family in the empire, but there were more things he needed to consider.
Also, Angele always assumed that those top families had Wizards helping them due to their knowledge about mysterious power, but it seemed Knight Ali had no idea how strong the power was until Angele attacked him. Angele decided not to fight against them until he could figure everything out.
That was also the reason why he didn't kill Ali— he was just trying to send out the message. If Ali died, Zweig would avenge him for the honor of his family, and Angele did not want that.
"Go wash yourself now, I will take you out of here." He stood up. "However, don't even think about lying to me. I will show you what hell looks like if you do anything dumb."
Inside Zweig's manor.
"Mr. Zweig! What Angele did was over the line! Twisted Blue Prison has always been under our family's control, who gives him the right to release the prisoner? Also, that woman...!" Knight Ali stood in the middle of the meeting room and was shouting in anger.
"Enough!" Zweig suddenly yelled. "Ali, you're way too impulsive for your age. We're not done with Anyua yet, and people only care about the Holy Gear at the moment! I don't care what's your agreement with Snake of the Sand Forest, but you shouldn't spend too much time on a prisoner. Also, Angele already warned you. He didn't kill you because he didn't want to mess up with the whole Zweig family. Do you really think Harland has no idea about what you're doing?"
Ali opened his mouth again, still mad. "Kill me? If he didn't catch me off guard...!"
"I said… enough!" Zweig's expression changed. He walked toward Ali and touched his neck with his right hand.
"What's this?" he asked, rubbing the right side of Ali's neck. There was blood on his fingertips. "It was very close. If Siv hadn't shown up and Angele did not stop intentionally, you'd already be dead."
Ali suddenly realized that his neck had been wounded by Angele's attack. It was a slim cut, and if no pressure was applied to it, he could not even feel the pain. There was little blood leaking out of it, and it was barely visible on his skin. It was almost like the wound was already treated, and he could no longer feel anything.
Suddenly, Ali had a chilling feeling from his back. He trembled a bit.
"How… How is that even possible!" He stepped back, his eyes were filled with fear.
"I know what Angele is trying to tell me. Don't provoke him anymore. I heard this man was from Ramsoda College, and Wizards from that school are known for their cruelty," Zweig said in a deep voice.
"So, we just let him take the prisoner away?" Ali gnashed his teeth.
"We don't have a Wizard helping us, so we're no threat to him. You can go fight him if you don't care about your life. Harland asked Angele to go into our territory, and his intention was obvious. He wanted us to fight, or at least make us hate each other. The timing was excellent too, his plan was almost perfect…" Zweig said in a cold voice. "We need to find Anyua as soon as possible! The Holy Gear was almost in our hands. I didn't expect Ness to show up there!"
Outside Lennon City, Angele and Jolin walked side by side in a forest.
Leaves blocked most of the sunlight, and everything around them was dark green. They stopped by an abandoned ruin.
The walls were cracked, and the staircases were covered by moss. A stone house was built upon a platform, and there were many climbing veins on its surface.
Angele carefully stepped on the stairs which were made extremely slippery by the moss. The place was cold and wet, and he could smell the mold in the air.
Angele's black dagger was hanging by his waist, and the metal bow was on his back. The crossguard sword was unrepairable after so many fights, so Angele had stopped carrying it a while ago.
Jolin followed Angele without saying a word. She still covered her face with a black mask but had changed her clothes to a brown leather suit after the shower. There were two leather strips on her legs, and eight iron daggers filled up the slots on the strips.
"This is the place?" Angele turned back and asked.
"Yea." Jolin nodded, her face pale, as she continued walking slowly.
"You're getting worse and need to get treated by the best doctors within four days, otherwise you'll die," Angele said lightly. "Alright, talk, what's the relationship between this house and the Dragon Scale Flower?"
Jolin struggled for a while until finally reaching a platform. She glanced around, seemingly searching for something, but a disappointed look quickly showed up on her face.
She then reached to her chest and took out a small glass tube. There was a piece of black cloth inside it.
Angele looked at her, surprised. "I thought they took away all your belongings after they caught you. Where did you hide it? How was that even possible?"
Jolin blushed after hearing the question.
"That's none of your business." She threw the glass tube toward Angele. "That's what you're looking for. The location of the Dragon Scale Flower. We found it during a mission. However, the place is dangerous. Our organization sent four groups of people to collect the flowers, a total of 100 people, but only one survived, obtaining only one flower. The others were all dead."
Angele grabbed the glass tube; it was still warm. He scrunched his eyebrows, guessing the possible location that she could hide it at, and decided not to think about it anymore.
"How can I trust you?" He lowered his voice.
"Believe or not, that's all I've got." Jolin was very calm.
Angele thought for a while and removed the stopper from the tube. He then unfolded the black cloth carefully.
There was a map drawn in white on the cloth, with many words written beside various points.
There was a skull mark on the map, and it was marked as 'Moon Gin Manor' in red.
Angele also found Lennon City on the map, but it was very far from the skull mark.
He scrunched his eyebrows. "So, the cloth was put inside the tube about a week ago, but the map was corrected various times before that. You guys put a lot of effort into it, so I will trust you for that." Angele raised his head and saw Jolin staring at him in shock. Apparently, Angele had guessed everything right.
"Just by looking at it? You're pretty good… I'm glad we decided not to attack you."
There was fear in her eyes.
"Good, you can leave now."
Angele did not care about what she said.
"Are you sure about this?"
She had not expected Angele to let her live.
"Of course." Angele nodded. "You're of no use to me anymore, and I will keep my promise."
Jolin stared at Angele for a while, then made sure he was not going to attack her. Only after that did she slowly back off. Upon reached the forest, she turned away once the forest and quickly disappeared in the bushes.
Angele stood there, looking at the black cloth in his hands.
"I hope you didn't lie to me," he mumbled and drew a red rune in the air. The rune floated for a bit, then started glowing.
Inside the forest, a red rune appeared on Jolin's back, and it looked just like the one Angele had drawn in the air. The rune was glowing as well, but Jolin did not notice its presence.
In the evening.
At some quiet housing area in Lennon City.
All the manors here were built from red stone blocks, and the streets were covered with black slate. There was a bronze goddess statue in the middle of an intersection. The goddess was holding a vase, and she was holding it down toward the ground. Many flowers were growing around the goddess, some white and some yellow.
The streets were deadly silent during the night. There wasn't a single carriage or pedestrian around. The only noise was made by wind blowing over the trees and flowers.
Several dry leaves dropped to the ground, then were blown away by the wind.
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Chapter 95: Next (2)
Translator: Leo Editor: DarkGem/Frappe
On the second floor of a manor opposite the statue, Angele was standing on a balcony with a cup of hot chocolate in hand. He was wearing black pajamas and taking sips from the cup.
He put his other hand on the railing and looked down. Only Tia and he lived in the manor. She cleaned the whole manor every day, did grocery shopping, and also cooked food for Angele. Tia took care of many things for him, and he sometimes thought he was getting lazy.
This manor, or actually the whole housing area, was haunted according to Tinos. The price of the manors here had dropped a lot, and most of the owners had moved to other places, so Angele purchased all the manors in the area.
There were about ten of them, and Angele purchased them all. He built up the mental fences around the manors and hired guards to patrol. He was paying for pretty much everything, including the workers' salaries, street cleaning, and garden maintenance.
Rumors said those manors were haunted, but Angele had not encountered any strange events yet.
HOO*
The wind was chilling. Angele sipped some more hot chocolate and walked inside the room. The hot chocolate he was drinking was made from a special plant he fell in love with it after having it in Master Adolf's house.
He returned to his bedroom and sat down beside the desk. There was flame dancing in the glass oil lamp on top of it.
Beside the oil lamp, there was a leather scroll sealed with a tight red line. Angele picked it up and broke the seal.
There were two glass sticks on both edges of the scroll, so he could open it easily by rolling them to the side.
On the scroll, some data was written with black ink:
'21st: East side of the city, four unknown targets disappeared.
22nd: Three carriages disappeared by the dock.
23rd: Hunters reported a man in a black robe disappearing by the logging site.
24th: Merchants heard beasts roaring by the west side of the forest.
27th: Three man in white cloaks left the city quickly after buying supplies.
…
15th November: Merchants found bodies of bandits outside the city.'
Angele kept reading all the logs, his brow furrowed. He spent a hefty amount of money on these logs from the mercenary guild, and almost every event that had happened inside or outside the city in the last two months was written down on it.
People in Lennon didn't know that the Wizard organization that was famous for its Necromancy and cruelty, Ramsoda College, was very close to their city. Those strange events the mercenaries had encountered did not bother them since they had no idea what those people were doing.
However, Angele knew those strange events could mean the situation had changed in his school.
"It looks like the war is almost over."
He carefully sealed the scroll with the red line again and put it into the drawer.
Based on that information, Angele concluded that some of the Wizards and apprentices that left the school were returning to it.
'Before that, I need to go to the Moon Gin Manor first. It's better if I can obtain the Dragon Scale Flowers before going back to the school,' Angele he decided, establishing the plan.
'I need something more valuable than what I have in hand to trade for the Water of Asu and the defensive spell model.' He scrunched his eyebrows again. 'Without resources, I won't get anything from the school. I need to get enough items to obtain Water of Asu and the defensive spell model first. I'll be able to try to break the limit after everything is prepared.'
The next morning, it was cloudy, and it looked like rain would fall soon.
A black carriage quietly left the city along with the others, heading to the northwest province Karin.
The black carriage was advancing slowly between golden wheat fields. Tthe wheat was already harvested, and the two horses in the front neighed from time to time. Angele sat in the carriage, looking at the wheat field.
Some farmers were piling up the straws, and some were burning the ones that were already piled up. Red flame mixed with dark smoke that curled and danced upon the ashes. Several people sat with their legs crossed, having some food while watching the straws burn.
The mountains were covered by a green rug of trees, and they were endless.
"Master, it's going to rain. Shall we find a shelter first?" Tom shouted.
"Sure," Angele responded.
"There's a mill in the front, we can use that," Tom continued.
Angele heard Tom's words and stuck his head out of the window to see a yellow windmill sitting on the right side of their carriage. It was built in the middle of the wheat field.
The windmill was slowly rotating in the wind, and Angele saw two one-horse carriages already parked by its side. One of them was red and the other white.
He could smell a hint of wheat in the air and shouted out, "Some people are already in there, park beside their carriages, Tom."
"Sure, Master."
Angele was in a two-horse black carriage without any family sigil engraved on its body.
Two people walked out of the windmill after seeing Angele's carriage approach. They pointed at it and seemed like they were talking about something.
After several minutes, Tom parked the carriage right beside the red one-horse carriage. Angele opened the door and jumped off. He then wiped some dust off his suit, still wearing the black hunting one with black boots and the dagger tied to his red belt. He looked like a high-ranking soldier with the clean suit and a serious look on his face.
The two that were looking at him turned back and walked into the windmill without greeting him. It was a middle-aged man and an old woman. The man was helping the woman walk; it looked as though she was his mother.
"Let's go, Tom. It'll rain soon."
"I'm good, Master, I'll take care of the carriage."
Tom smiled.
"Don't worry. The carriage will be fine."
Angele smiled as well. He patted the door, and some black smoke slowly went into the carriage through the gap.
"I'm fine, Master. I will just stay here."
Tom shook his head.
Angele watched him take out a raincoat from a chest and knew he was not going to leave the carriage.
He shook his head. "Well, alright."
Angele stretched a bit and walked toward the windmill.
There was a huge cogwheel rotating inside it which connected the windmill to the grinder. The sounds made by the grinder were getting louder as the wind was getting stronger.
The room was about the size of a bedroom with a closed tight window on the side. A young girl in red stood by it, peaking outside through the glass.
There were two wooden tables and some chairs in the corner. The two from before were sitting by one of the tables. The man was carefully pouring some tea into the cup for the woman, and the aroma of the tea filled up the narrow space.
Angele sniffed several times, the tea smelled like the one Tinos had gifted him a while ago. It was some expensive black tea, and he was a bit addicted to it. The aroma triggered his desire for some good tea.
Two coachmen sat in the opposite corner, whispering about something.
Angele checked the surroundings: spider webs were everywhere, and some flour was still on the ground.
People in the room looked at Angele for several seconds after he first entered the place, but no one greeted nor talked to him.
The young girl turned around and stared at him curiously. She was wearing a red one-piece and a pair of red boots, even her belt was also red. She looked like any other noble teenager, and she was holding a thin book in her hand.
The book was open, so Angele looked at it, noticing several lines. 'Griffin kissed Felica, holding tight her waist. It looked like he was not satisfied yet…'
It was just a love novel. Those love fantasies were very popular among noble girls.
The girl realized Angele saw what was in her book and blushed. She quickly closed it, walked toward the old woman, and started massaging her back.
Angele did not say anything, but walked toward the window and looked at the sky.
The rain got heavier quickly, falling in furious drops, and the daylight was gone. The wheat filled was flooded, objects in it hardly discernible.
Angele asked Zero to analyze the range and duration of the rain. Lists of information were shown in front of his eyes.
"The rain will stop at 10:12 am," Angele mumbled. The estimated time was given by Zero, and the margin of error was about five percent.
The girl heard his voice and looked at him again curiously. She took out a pocket watch out from her pouch and checked the time.
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Chapter 96: Initiation (1)
Translator: Leo Editor: DarkGem/Frappe
Angele did not care that the girl had heard his words. He just opened the window and looked at the heavy rain. It splashed onto the window, and some of the rain drops wetted the surface of his clothes.
Suddenly, Angele heard bird twittering and wings shaking by the door.
A human-sized large white bird dropped down by the door, shaking the rain off its feathers. The bird looked like a white eagle with a red beak and slowly walked into the windmill. Its translucent beak looked like a ruby, and its black eyes were human-like.
The bird looked at the humans in the room after entering the windmill.
"The rain is heavy, and I have to stay here for a while. I hope you don't mind, humans."
The bird spoke Anmag, his voice steady and deep, and he sounded like a middle-aged man.
"You can stay as long as you want, it's a public room, Handsome Eagle of Byrutium," the girl in red said after stepping forward and bowing. The middle-aged man and the old woman also bowed to the eagle.
The two coachmen stood up immediately and bowed as well; there was fear in their eyes.
The eagle nodded. It seemed like he was respected by the citizens. Then he turned his head and looked at Angele.
"My name is Conbass, you can call me Mr. Conbass. I'm going after an Ember Mouse found in Lennon City. Please report to me if you've seen it, and the King will honor you for your contribution."
Angele scrunched his eyebrows after hearing the eagle's words.
"You mean the mouse that has a fire burning around its body? The one that will leave a trail of ash behind itself as it moves?" he suddenly asked. "I didn't know creatures like that still existed."
"You know about it too?" Conbass asked Angele politely, looking surprised.
Although Conbass was one of the races that guarded the empire, it was still necessary for him to show respect to the ones that were stronger than him. Creatures from gifted races were usually born with knight-level power.
Ember Mouse was an ancient creature, and people who knew it either had a lot of knowledge or they were strong adventurers. Conbass thought people with wisdom and knowledge were respectable.
"Yes, I read about it in a book." Angele nodded. "Based on what I know, Ember Mouse's fecundity is extremely low, and they were hunted to extinction hundreds of years ago. Yet you said you're going after one...?"
Conbass nodded. "You are right. This Ember Mouse is very important for treating the plague, but I don't know the details. I'm just doing what I was told to do."
"The plague… Sorry, I didn't see it. The only thing I know is you should check the fireplaces in the city, Ember Mouse loves living in human houses."
Angele smiled.
"Really? That's some great information." Conbass looked at Angele. "Please tell me your name. If I can find it in any of the fireplaces, I'll pay you back one day."
"I'm Angele. Angele Rio."
He smiled.
The others had no idea what the two were talking about and were quietly listening to the conversation. Apparently, those people did not expect Angele to be so knowledgeable, and they were now staring at him respectfully.
Angele talked with Conbass for a while, then sat down to wait for the rain to stop.
Eagle of Byrutium was a guardian race in Ramsoda Empire. These eagles were given high ranks in the country by the royals since their intelligence level was very close to that of humans, and they all had strong bodies. They could easily hunt large beasts with their sharp claws.
These creatures shared the land with human beings, something Angele had never seen back in his hometown. Only humans lived in his father's territory, so he thought that other races with high intelligence had probably moved to other lands. He only encountered them in ancient book collections.
Eagle of Byrutium had low fecundity as well, but their situation had gotten much better in the recent years. People could see them flying around by the capital from time to time.
The rain started ceasing as time passed.
At 10:12 am., the rain stopped.
Angele wiped off the dust from his suit and walked out of the windmill. Conbass and the others followed behind him.
He opened the door and entered his carriage, asking Tom to start driving.
"Please wait for a second, Mr. Angele," Conbass's voice came from the side. He stood on top of the carriage.
"You need anything?" Angele asked.
Conbass pulled out a white feather with his beak and threw it down. Angele reached his hands out and caught it in the air.
"This is my feather. I may have some more questions for you later, so please accept it as a gift."
"Thanks."
Angele nodded. He held the feather in his hand, watching Conbass fly into the sky. He was fast and disappeared in the distance within seconds.
Angele observed the feather. Its size was much larger than of the average birds, and it was also very hard. The tip of the feather was sharp, and it actually looked like a piece of a huge leaf.
The feather's color was pure white, and it looked charming.
'I heard Eagles of Byrutium can find the location of the feathers they drop, but the effect only lasts for three days,' Angele recalled the information he had acquired from the books in the library.
'The main usage of the feather is to expel insects. Normal insects will naturally try to avoid it, so carrying it will prevent me from getting bitten by flies.'
Angele sniffed at the feather, it was minty.
"Let's go, Tom," he said, putting the feather in his pouch
Tom immediately pulled on the reins, turning away from where he was watching Conbass leaving.
"As you wish, Master."
The horses stomped on the ground and the carriage slowly left the windmill. They were moving toward the main road.
Tom and Angele traveled for more than ten days after leaving the windmill. They stopped at a town to buy supplies, then left for the northwest again after they got everything they wanted.
It was always raining on the way, and the temperature was getting lower and lower. Trees and grasses were no longer green, more and more white stones appeared on the roadside. They were not in the plains area anymore. The roads in the valleys were bumpy.
They met a lot of travelers, merchants, and carriages after just leaving the city, but there were barely any people around after traveling for several days.
15 days later…
Snow covered the mountains, and the valleys were misty. The black two-horse carriage was slowly advancing on a twisted road.
BOOM*
One of the wheels hit a sharp stone, and the carriage started shaking. The horses neighed due to pain, scaring many birds who flew into the sky.
"What happened?" Angele asked, waking up and opening the door to stick his head out.
"Master. One of the wheels cracked, and I need to replace it with a backup one. We need to stop for a while," Tom answered in a shout.
Angele scrunched his eyebrows and jumped off the carriage.
There were only pine trees in the forest. They were all very tall, and their leaves were still green. The ground was covered by both small and large stones. Some grasses under the stones were still green, but the air in the valley was cold and dry.
Chilling wind blew over Angele's face, and his skin tightened up.
"How long do you need? We are at the Moss Mountain from where it'll take us five days to reach the closest town. It's not a good idea to stay here for too long."
Tom shrugged. "Master, I will need one hour at the most."
"Alright. It's great to have you with me. I will double your salary after we get back," Angele said. "I'll go for a walk. Just yell if anything happens. I'll be able to hear it, don't worry."
"Got it." Tom smiled, then walked to the back of the carriage and started taking down the backup wheel.
Angele felt a bit cold and put on a white coat. The collar covered his neck completely, and he felt much better. He equipped the dagger and the bow before leaving the carriage.
He spent a lot of time gathering data on the way, wanting to check the plants around here to maybe find some not yet recorded in the database.
Angele walked for a while before suddenly lowering his head. He laid his back against a black pine tree and started observing a black umbrella mushroom. There were several yellow flying ants moving around it.
Those ants left quickly after Angele crouched down; the feather from the eagle was very effective.
"Outsider, please leave my Black Point Mushroom alone," a young voice came from the top.
Angele raised his head and saw a brown squirrel standing on a branch. There was a hint of whiteness on the tip of its tail.
"You're growing it?" Angele asked. "But you're just a squirrel, a squirrel that can speak. That's a first time for me.
"Of course. This is Ramsoda Empire. Many intelligent races moved here a long time ago. Not all of us enjoy city life."
The squirrel shook its butt and jumped down from the tree.
PA*
It successfully landed by the Black Point Mushroom.
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