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Chapter 257: Result (2)
Translator: Leo Editor: Frappe
A buck's head was being grasped by Hikari, its antler akin to branches of a large tree. It was surrounded by white energy particles that looked like fireflies.
The light dots were blocking all the attacks from the wizards for Hikari, with some of the weaker spells aimed at her repelled.
Angele stood on the deck and watched the fight. Most of the wizards he saw were around at the Gas stage and were casting modified spells, though no one used any secret techniques.
The nine wizards were also getting nervous because their spells were not effective.
Angele recalled the moment Reyline removed his headband. The fragrance of the flower came from some toxic gas, but it did nothing to him, and Reyline just admitted his loss. It was not a deathmatch, so Angele assumed that Reyline still had some powerful spells left. Even if the fight continued, Angele still had one more modified spell he wanted to test in a real fight. The wind buff was just one of the two spells he modified recently.
And with the petrification and a fully activated signet, he could slay Reyline easily with his close combat skills.
'Sadly, I can only use the petrification ability twice a day.' Angele shook his head.
The petrification ability would only work when the target was within the effective range of three meters, and if the target had high Stamina, the skill would only be able to stop him from moving for about one second. Furthermore, a certain amount of mana would be consumed when the skill was used.
Angele had the great harpy's ancient bloodline in his body so his resistance to poison and illusions was high. That was probably the reason why the toxic gas did not work.
He watched the wizards relentlessly attack Hikari. Angele wondered why the situation was so intense.
Several minutes later, one of the wizards suddenly fell to the ground. His face turned purple and his body was trembling.
"Brother! F*cking hell! Hikari, give me the antidote!" A muscular man in a long red robe shouted. He kept releasing red fire birds from his sleeves. There were around ten fire birds flying around above the deck.
PA*
Another wizard fell to the floor and the symptom was same as the last one.
The wizards started to faint one by one. Their face all turned purple and some of them were grunting while staring at Hikari. The spells they were channeling all disappeared.d
"That's it, wizards. Your mana will be halved as long as you're in my poison mist. Admit it, you don't stand a chance against me."
Hikari chuckled.
The wizards on the deck had already lost the ability to fight back.
Angele pursed his lips.
Hikari was not fighting like a light wizard but was fighting like a dark wizard instead.
Angele raised his hand and aimed at the main mast of the first airship, releasing a silver metal chain.
He held the chain tight and jumped onto the railings of the airship.
"Just you and me then." He jumped off the railings and walked to Hikari.
Hikari turned around and stopped laughing. Her face turned serious as she knew that Angele already had two crystal runes in possession.
Blue light dots flashed in front of Angele's eyes.
"The tooth of the Red Snow Snake and the Rhino Grass, huh? Where did you get this Purple Sabretooth poison mist from?" Angele coughed.
Hikari narrowed her eyes. "A knowledgeable potion master that can fight? Impressive."
"Don't worry, I read it from a wizard book, but I don't think a poison mist like that will work on me." Angele shook his head.
A bitter smile appeared on Hikari's face. "I'm a potion master. I'll just admit defeat if none of my potions work on you."
"Huh?" Angele was surprised. He looked at the head of the buck. It was translucent and there was a tiny black bottle placed inside it. That bottle was the source of the poison mist.
Angele looked at Hikari and used the biochip to identify the potions she was carrying. He could do that easily if her potion bottles were not completely sealed.
"Well, you're carrying a Natoros potion, a Petrification potion, a Touch of Ice, two bottles of water elements, and one bottle of ice elements, am I right?"
An average potion master would never be able to do something like that.
Hikari's expression broke its façade. She stared at Angele in shock. The white light dots around her vanished into the air.
With the help of Zero, Angele's knowledge on potions had already reached an entirely different level.
Moreover, he knew how to deal with all the potions she had.
Angele took out a tiny crystal test tube from one of his pouches. Inside it contained sticky purple liquid.
"For the elemental summoning potions, I have the energy disruption potion to interrupt the summoning process for a certain duration and I have plenty of time to attack during this period. I don't need to do anything to counter the Natoros as it's just too weak. For the Petrification potion, I can just use…Well, I'm not going to go too far on this one as the wizards on the floor are still conscious." Only the strongest potion masters knew the secret about these potions. If the other wizards had learned about the secret, Hikari would not have been able to fight back had things gone south for her.
"Ah, and the Touch of Ice. Sadly, I'm familiar with all the potions you have right now." Angele chuckled as he shook his head. "Just give me the crystal rune. It will only take me one minute to dispatch. I have one honest advice for you. Don't rely too much on potions. You can trick the light wizards with them, sure, but you won't stand a chance if you're fighting against a dark wizard."
Angele was a potion master, but he barely used any potion in fights. Using a potion was easy but when the opponent recognized the potion he was using, it would just be a waste.
The poison mist was effective on wizards with low Stamina but for someone like Reyline or Angele, they would not even notice the toxic mist in the air. Furthermore, if the opponent had higher mentality level, activating the elemental summoning potions would be nearly impossible, as the stronger mentality waves would interrupt the summoning process.
Angele only carried several potions that were concocted for a fight, but it was only for emergency situations.
Hikari stood there and slowly nodded. "Fine, I give up."
She raised her right hand and threw a crystal rune to the air.
Angele caught the rune and took out the two other crustal runes he acquired earlier.
The three crystal runes formed a palm-sized crystal shackle. It was clean and elegant.
Angele closed his eyes and several images from the crystal shackle were transmitted into his brain.
'Accepting data from an unknown source…' Zero reported right away.
Angele stood on the deck and opened his eyes after several minutes.
"Well, use your antidote first." He looked at Hikari.
Hikari nodded and took out a tiny bottle, then started applying the antidote on the nine wizards right away.
Angele returned to his own airship and he saw that Perry had already woken up. The wizards that were severely injured would be protected by the magic matrices on the airships, but they would not be able to move under the protective matrices. Angele deactivated the function right away as the competition was over.
The wizards immediately healed themselves using the prepared healing gels and spells. Angele asked the original captains of the airships to keep monitoring the direction and the speed.
The competition decided who would be the one to commandeer the airships. Most of the wizards hadn't even used their strongest damage spells.
The owner of the amulet had the power to expel wizards from the airships. Actually, they could still stay on the airships, but the magic matrices would not protect them even if they were severely wounded.
Angele would not expel any wizard for no reason. He needed everyone's strength to deal with the dangerous creatures they would encounter during the trip.
In a cabin of the leading airship.
Angele, Reyline, Hikari, and Baron sat around a long rectangular wooden table. They were all staring at a crystal orb.
The crystal orb was supported by a metal base, the image inside showed an enormous flying bee.
It was a white bee with blue spiral patterns around its abdomen. The bee looked identical to a normal bee, but it had three dark stingers.
The strange bee was flying over the snow-covered trees. Its body was about one meter long and its stingers were cutting down some of the branches.
"That's a Cloud Bee," Hikari said in a light tone. "My ancestors are from Omandis. They have kept some information of the bee in my family library. I acquired the information through the signal obelisks, but the distance was too far and some of the critical data were missing. Still, it's better than nothing.
"A Cloud Bee has three stingers, and it can deal a substantial amount of Ice damage. Its speed is fast, and its attacks are hard to dodge. There are three basic types of Cloud Bees: the worker bees, the male bees, and the queen bee." Hikari continued, "The one we just saw is a worker bee. It can deal both physical and energy damage. Male bees are much stronger than the worker bees, and I don't have any intel on the queen bee. Usually, the queen bee won't leave the nest. There will be at least one male bee in a group of worker bees, too. We must be careful."
"They're bees, right? What do they eat?" Baron knitted his eyebrows.
"They're Cloud Bees…They feed on animal flesh," Reyline responded. He was spinning a silver badge on the table.
"You said the bee's speed is fast but how fast can it travel exactly? And do they just appear in a large swarm when looking for prey?" Angele questioned.
"They usually appear in a pair of two first. That's all I know. No one has ever tested their flying speed but I'm fairly sure they're faster than our airships," Hikari pursed her lips.
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Chapter 258: The Cloud Bee (1)
Translator: Leo Editor: Frappe
Angele did not say anything but started thinking.
"Is there a way to stay away from them?" Baron wondered.
"No. Cloud Bees will attack anything flying over them and eat anything they find." Hikari shook her head.
The four wizards remained silent after the short discussion, trying to figure out the best way to deal with the bees.
Inside the room, the flame inside the oil lamp was dancing.
"I think the magic matrices on the airships can be activated to do damage." Angele suddenly opened his mouth. "But I'm not sure if it's a good idea."
"We can test it on the first two Cloud Bees that come to the airship." Reyline nodded slightly.
"How long until we reach the Cloud Bee's territory?" Angele questioned.
"We'll be there in half a month."
"Good, let's get prepared then." Angele stood up. "I'll return to my room." He pushed the door open and left.
The others stood up as well.
"I wonder how many of us will make it to Omandis," Hikari muttered.
"Good luck everyone." Baron put on his hood and stepped out of the door.
It was night time.
Angele returned to his own airship.
The deck was empty.
He jumped off the railings and stepped on the deck. Baron followed after him and jumped to the deck as well. The only thing making noise was their footsteps.
"Green, let's cut the crap. How strong is the defensive matrix on the airship?" Baron asked from behind.
"It's hard to say. I need to do some testing." Angele turned around. "But don't raise your expectations. Our enemy is strong," he warned in a serious tone.
"Cloud Bees have high Stamina and resistance. They're also good fighters. If our plan fails, many of us will die."
Although Angele was confident in his fighting skills, the stories he heard about the bees were still horrifying. He could not promise anything to the crew until he actually fought one.
"Also, there are many magic stones stored on the bottom level of the cabin. The defensive and offensive matrices are set up there as well. If we have a matrix master, the trip will be much easier. We can only fight with what we have right now." Angele sighed.
"We need to make sure the airship is not badly damaged. That's the priority." Baron added, "You, me, Reyline, and Hikari are the strongest wizards in the team. We need to collect as much information as we can when we encounter the scout bees."
"For sure."
"Alright, I'll go have some rest." Baron turned around and walked to the stairs.
Angele stood on the deck and waited till Baron left.
WOO*
A black shadow soared through the sky and landed on Angele's right shoulder. It was a night sparrow with four wings.
Angele patted its back as he stood beside the railings and looked down.
Some blue light dots were flashing in the dark forest, probably some luminous plants.
The gentle white light from the two crescent moons shined upon the land.
Angele stood by the railings and waited. About half an hour later, a man slowly walked out of the cabin.
It was a man with a serious expression on his face. He was wearing a long black robe that helped him blend into the dark background. His face was pain and his eyes were surrounded by dark circles.
"Are you looking for me?" He walked to Angele. "Finished the discussion?"
"The situation is bad. Perry healed you, right? He said you knew a lot about matrices." Angele leaned forward. "So, the matrices on the airship…"
The man interrupted before Angele could finish.
"Well, nothing I can do about that. You know what the airship is made of, right? Pinewood is hard, light, and elastic. However, its conductivity with energy is bad. I can't improve the matrices because of that," the man explained. He was the one who had helped Angele ambush Baron during the competition.
"You mean the three airships will be able to handle the damage but it's impossible to make the offensive matrices stronger?"
"Correct." The man nodded.
"Alright. Thanks for the help."
"Yeah."
The two walked down the staircase together and returned to their own rooms.
Angele sat in the room and thought for a while, but he did not come up with any viable plan.
Half a month passed in a blink of the eyes.
Angele had already communicated with most of the wizards from the three airships.
Hikari was hated by all the wizards on the first airship. Thus, she stayed in her room most of the time. The wizards on her airship also barely talked to each other after the competition.
Only two wizards asked Angele about the situation but that was the only conversation they had.
The situation on Reyline's airship was different. All the wizards respected him for his power. He also recruited an assistant, a beautiful lady around 20 years old, who was Reyline's cousin. She wanted to join the discussion between the captains. Angele had no problem with that.
Perry, Nopel, and Coach treated Angele differently after the fight. It seemed like they wanted to become friends with the strongest wizard in the team, but the other wizards just stayed in their room and minded their own business.
Angele was not concerned about the relationship between the wizards. Perry, Nopel, and Coach's skill level was below the average. He would rather spend more time with Baron and the man in the black robe.
All the functions of the airships were the same as before, but the other wizards would bow to Angele slightly after he had become the owner of the amulet.
In the endless blue sky, the three black gondolas were hanging down three envelopes, moving forward slowly.
Two white dots were flying around the leading airship.
They looked like flies moving around rotten food.
The wizards gathered on the deck of the leading airship. They were looking at the flying white dots nervously.
Angele stood in the front with a serious look on his face. The captains were standing behind him. No one spoke a word and the atmosphere was heavy.
"The defensive matrices are fully operational. I'll remove the force barrier now. Stay alert everyone!" Angele suddenly yelled. He held the amulet in right hand and shook it slightly.
A white glint flashed on the surface of the crystal.
The invisible force barriers were deactivated, and three airships were now exposed to the threat.
The pair of Cloud Bees noticed the change and stopped flying around, now rushing straight to the people on the deck.
Angele finally had a clear view of the creature when they approached.
These were two enormous bees, with white-colored bodies and blue spiral patterns covered their abdomen. Each of the bees was about two meters tall and the images of the wizards on deck reflected in their compound eyes.
"Ready!" Angele raised his right hand.
"I'll do it!" A muscular male wizard from the first airship stepped forward. There was a long iron bow in his hands.
He raised the bow and pulled the bowstring to full, then fired an invisible arrow.
CHI*
The arrow landed on one of the Cloud Bees accurately. It exploded and turned into a large sticky web, capturing the two bees.
BOOM*
The Cloud Bees failed to dodge the web and hit the surface of the deck hard, rolling several times on the floor.
Before Angele gave the next order, two wizards had already jumped onto the bees. One of them had a mace, while the other a long crossguard sword.
CLANK*
Red light and the yellow light flashed in the air. The two wizards were blown away by the impact, smashing against the railings. They struggled for several seconds before they stopped moving.
"Arian, are you alright?" Another wizard rushed to help them. "Oh, god!" he suddenly yelled.
The two Cloud Bees were trying to escape from the web. Angele asked Reyline to get ready for the possible attack and went to check on the two injured wizards.
The air around the two was freezing.
Their bodies were covered by a thick layer of frost. Angele narrowed his eyes and he saw two stingers penetrated their chests.
The half-meter-long stinger broke through the wizard's force shield easily.
An old light wizard crouched and checked the two wizards' condition. He then looked at Angele and shook his head slightly.
They were killed in one single strike.
"Their force shields did nothing…The damage is horrifying…" A female wizard's face turned pale. "And Arian's Talent skill is much stronger than mine…"
Angele pursed his lips and turned around. He saw that the two Cloud Bees had already escaped the translucent web and were now flying around above the deck.
Reyline and the several other wizards were attacking the bees using electric arrows, but the bees were so fast that they dodged most of the attacks easily. They were still flying in the air even after being hit several times.
Angele noticed that the bees' bodies were surrounded by a thin light barrier, protecting them from all the electric arrows.
Reyline and Baron were observing the light barrier as well. There were also wizards recording and calculating data of the two Cloud Bees.
Once, the Cloud Bees tried to rush down and Baron and Reyline shot them with stronger electric arrows, yet none of them did any actual damage to those monsters.
Angele asked them to increase the spell damage to over 40 degrees, but they still failed to break through the Cloud Bees' barriers. The two bees were still trying to charge to the wizards.
Angele expression turned serious as time passed.
He stood by the railings quietly while Zero was analyzing the creature.
Rows of data were being refreshed in his right.
'Simulation and analysis completed.'
Zero's mechanical voice echoed in Angele's ears, and he felt a bit relieved.
'Worker bee's data. Results are not final.'
'Strength, over 11. Agility, over 8. Stamina, over 8. Mentality, over 24. Talent skills: (2) Ice Forcefield: Created by strong mentality, can block any damage lower than 30 degrees, and all Ice damage will be ignored. (2) Damage Reduction: Every time a bee is attacked by physical skills or energy strikes, the damage will be halved. (3) Toxic Stinger: Release the stinger. Damage, unknown. Other skills, unknown.'
'Mentality over 24…' Angele finally knew why a significant number of wizards would die on a trip to Omandis. The creature was like a flying Grand Knight with extreme magic resistance and it could even deal elemental damage. The bee could also use ranged attacks if it wanted to.
"Baron! I'm ready!" Angele communicated with Baron and Reyline using energy particles.
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Chapter 259: The Cloud Bee (2)
Translator: Leo Editor: Frappe
"Got it." Reyline stepped forward raising his longbow. He did not use an electric arrow this time but pulled a strand of blonde hair off his head and turned it into a lengthy metal string of a golden hue instead.
Reyline nocked the metal string onto the bow and the black spiral rune appeared in his right eye.
CHI*
The metal string turned into a ray of golden light and was released from the bow.
Dang*
The two Cloud Bees were charging toward Reyline, trying to attack him with the stingers. The metal string penetrated one of the bees' abdomen easily.
For some reason, the bees' force shields failed to stop Reyline's strike.
The other bee increased its speed and shot two stingers toward Reyline.
CHI*
Another golden metal string penetrated the bee's body.
BAM*
The two Cloud Bees fell onto the deck, still struggling.
Reyline grunted. He held his right shoulder tight as his face turned pale. If he had not leaned to the left after seeing the stingers flying to him, his chest would've been penetrated just like the two dead wizards.
Several thin layers of white frost were expanding from his wound but Reyline stopped them right away with blue electric pulses.
"Are you alright?!" Angele ran to Reyline quickly.
Reyline's cousin, Robin, created a white flame over her palm and tried to apply it to the wound.
CHI*
The flame did nothing to it at all. Worse thing was, the white frost was beginning to climb up her hand.
"So that's the Cloud Bee's poison? Let me help him!" An old man with goatee stepped forward. He created some light green smoke by rubbing his hands and applied it onto Reyline's shoulder.
CHI*
It sounded like meat being grilled.
Reyline's face turned pale, showing how it must be a painful experience. Angele could see the sweat dripping down his chin.
The expanding white frost was finally under control.
Angele tapped on the amulet with his left hand.
The barriers around the three airships were activated again within seconds.
He turned around and walked to the Cloud Bees that had already stopped moving. Several wizards had already gathered around the bees and started observing. No one was smiling. It seemed that they encountered some trouble.
Hikari stood up as she saw Angele walking toward them.
"Not good," She spoke in a deep tone, "I checked the bees' bodies with several other wizards. Their mentality and body are very strong. Their energy barriers are stronger than the ones used by the average wizards. I think we can all agree that they're strong fighters. After all, they just took out two of our members."
"Their only weakness is the intelligence and the way they initiate the attack," a female wizard added.
"Based on the result of the fight, our team can handle a maximum number of 20 Cloud Bees. However, there will be at least 50 Cloud Bees in their patrol team…"
"We need to figure out a way to hide our airships from them." Angele shook his head.
"That's impossible. They will detect us easily with their compound eyes." Another female wizard joined the conversation. It was Coach, who was part of Perry's crew. She was initially interested in Angele before the competition, but her interest in him was replaced by fear after the fight.
"The best way to fight them is by using close combat skills but it'll be hard for us to dodge their stingers." Baron walked to Angele. "Reyline said that the Cloud Bees' barriers were only strong against ranged attacks."
"How's his condition?"
"Not a big problem. The wizard named Daren is good at treating wounds like that. The poison has stopped spreading after the dead muscle tissues were cleaned out," Baron answered in a low voice. "However, Daren said that he did not bring enough materials to the airship. He can only cure two more wounded wizards."
Angele nodded and gritted his teeth.
"When will he recover from the injury?"
"At least 15 days. The wound is fine, but the stinger damaged his nervous system. It'll take some time."
"That's worse than I expected…" Angele rubbed his temples. "I want to increase the airships' speed since the barriers will be able to protect us for some time. We must change our plan. I don't want to spend the energy on the offensive matrix. We need to hurry, or else we'll just die to the Cloud Bees…"
"Master Angele! Come here, please! Hurry!" A voice came from behind.
Angele turned around quickly and saw a young male wizard with a pyramid-shaped red crystal in hand. He was staring at the crystal with a serious expression on his face.
"What happened?!" Angele walked to the wizard and looked at the crystal.
Images were shifting on the surface of the crystal.
A large swarm of Cloud Bees was flying over the sea of trees. They were rushing to a certain direction at full speed.
"What the hell?" Angele was surprised. There were more than 100 Cloud Bees in the group. His heart almost stopped for a second.
"They're coming for us. At this speed, we will encounter them by tomorrow afternoon. It's the Cloud Bee's hunting team and there are 128 of them!" the male wizard reported in a shaky tone.
HA*
The wizards heard his words and gasped.
Angele pursed his lips and glanced around. There were 28 wizards on the deck but only several of them were good at fighting, and they could probably kill several Cloud Bees by themselves.
20 Cloud Bees would be fine, but it was impossible for them to win the fight against 128 of them.
Angele could kill around four Cloud Bees without getting hurt, but he needed to fully activate the signet and use petrification. If the Cloud Bees surrounded him and shot the stingers at the same time, his metal shield would have a hard time blocking all the attacks.
A Cloud Bee had a Stamina over 8 and Strength over 11. Their stingers were hard to dodge at the close distance and they had high resistance against ranged attacks. In addition to that, their high mentality increased their defense against the damage spells.
There were too many things to consider when fighting with the bees. Angele doubted that he could survive a rain of the bee stingers.
Cloud Bees were like a group of formal wizards that focused on one single damage spell. They were the master of that spell so the damage the spell could do was horrifying.
Angele considered the possibility of using the energy bombs, but the damage of the explosion would be greatly reduced by the Cloud Bees' talent skills and energy shields. It would just be a waste of resources and energy.
"Master Angele! Another group of Cloud Bees is coming for us!" someone shouted.
"A group?! How many of them can you see?" Angele's skull numbed.
"About…32…" The wizard replied in a shaky one.
"32?!" Two Cloud Bees had already killed two wizards and injured a team captain. Angele needed more time to figure out a viable plan.
The altitude of the airships was around 1,000 meters. Although it was possible for them to jump off the airship and land on the ground safely, there were countless mutated beasts in the mountains. Rumors had said that those beasts could kill a rank 2 wizard.
Angele hesitated, then he looked at Baron, Hikari, and the man in a black hood. They were already preparing for the incoming attack.
"Baron, Hikari, and you, stay with me. The rest of you, listen to me. Go to the railings and start putting up energy barriers once the defensive matrix is broken!" Angele walked to the main mast and shouted.
"We're the only people that can actually kill the Cloud Bees, I think." He turned around and looked at the three. "Go help the wizards by the railings if they're in trouble."
"There's only so much I can do." The man in black hood pursed his lips.
"We live together, or we die together. The Cloud Bees will destroy the airships, but you can test your luck in the mountains if you want to." Angele shrugged.
"How long till they get here?" he asked the wizard who had detected the bees.
"12 minutes, master!" the man responded right away. "I have a question, master. Is our defensive matrix…still good?"
Angele shook his head slightly and looked at him. "The matrix can only protect for about one hour."
"Alright, get ready everyone!" He pointed at Reyline who was still lying on the floor. "Carry him down to the cabin first."
Wizards were selfish, but they were smart. No one questioned Angele's decision. They quickly finished the tasks allotted to them and moved to their designated positions on the deck.
Only four people were still standing by the main mast.
Hikari returned to her room and carried a huge black pouch to the deck.
"That's all the summoning potions I have. We need to summon them all right away."
"It won't work. Elementals are much weaker than Cloud Bees. They'll perish from the stingers within seconds." Angele shook his head.
He picked Reyline's silver longbow from the floor and pulled the bowstring slightly.
'An electric enchanted longbow. The electric arrows will do around 30 degrees of damage. I can use it shoot regular arrows, too.' Angele checked the bow. He saw Baron putting on a pair of white gloves.
If Angele could fully activate the illusion signet, he could probably deal with more than ten Cloud Bees, but he decided not to take the chance until the last second. There were talented wizards on the airship and some of them could probably recognize Angele's signet.
He needed to use everything else he knew to fight for his life.
Angele took a deep breath. He thought this would be the most difficult fight he would have to date ever since he became a formal wizard.
He raised his head as he heard the noise made by the bees' wings. There were 36 tiny light dots flying toward the airship in front.
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Chapter 260: Chaos (1)
Translator: Leo Editor: Frappe
The noise from the 36 flying Cloud Bees made the wizards' skulls numb. Everyone was staring at those terrifying creatures.
The three boats were getting closer and closer to the Cloud Bee swarms.
"Get ready!" Angele shouted.
The wizards with ranged weapons and spells started preparing to launch the attack.
Countless runes and energy particles appeared on the deck. Red light, green light, blue light, golden light, and silver light mixed together and flashed in the air.
At the same time, Hikari and several other wizards summoned storm spirits, water elementals, and elementals. There were about 30 of them and they lined up on the deck.
Angele raised the silver bow high in the air and nocked a black metal arrow on the bowstring, with its tip of the arrow was coated in dark flames.
CHI*
The bowstring was pulled to full. Blue light dots flashed in front of Angele's eyes.
"Fire!" he yelled.
BAM BAM BAM*
Countless spells followed after Angele's arrow and flew toward the Cloud Bees in the air.
The Cloud Bees did not seem to care about the spells. They increased their speed and just took the damage using their bodies.
BOOM*
Things were exploding everywhere in the air. The colorful lights illuminated on the wizards' faces.
"Two down!"
A wizard yelled in excitement.
He looked relieved as he thought that their spells were powerful enough to take down the bees.
"Don't stop!" Angele raised his bow again.
However, the two dropping Cloud Bees started flying again and continued to charge toward the boat.
"The distance is too far! We're not doing enough damage!" Hikari advised, "We need to wait till they get close!"
Angele bit his lips. The arrow he shot hit a Cloud Bee accurately, but it was then blocked by the energy barrier. The bee did not take any damage although the arrow's tip was coated with Fire energy particles. Reyline's special bow increased the speed of the arrow, and Angele thought the strike would deal at least 50 degrees of damage but it did not even penetrate the shield due to the bee's talent skill.
The wizards were getting nervous after realizing that none of their spells worked.
Some wizards already started to prepare to escape. Several of them used special stealth techniques, Angele also saw people drinking potions and taking out rare enchanted items from their pouches. They would do anything to stay alive.
Two wizards were still setting up red and white magic circles under their feet as they had not yet given up.
Invisible energy waves spread to the air, covering the area around.
A Cloud Bee in the front headbutted the barrier with great momentum.
BAM*
White distorted energy waves from the defensive matrix blocked the bee's strike.
The rest of the bees arrived at the barrier as well but the magic circles from the wizards did nothing to them.
BAM BAM BAM*
The white energy barrier started cracking after being hit so many times by the bees.
Angele could see the energy stored in the defensive matrix depleting sharply through the amulet.
The silver glow covering the amulet was fading away.
He noticed that the Cloud Bees would hit the barrier using their stingers each time they approached the boat.
Those stingers were the reason why the defensive matrix was consuming so much energy.
"Get ready! The shield is breaking!" he turned around and shouted.
Angele dropped the bow to the floor and drew the scimitar, charging forward.
At that moment, three Cloud Bees penetrated the energy shield and flew toward Angele.
CLANK*
CHI*
Two strange runes flashed in Angele's eyes. He was blown away by the impact and flew to the railings.
BAM*
He hit the railings hard and spat out some blood. Angele struggled and felt dizzy.
"F*cking hell! 11 Strength is no joke. The difference is huge!" Angele supported himself with the scimitar and saw a dead Cloud Bee dropped to the deck.
The bee's left wing was petrified and the energy shield beside the wing was cracked open. Angele seized this opportunity to successfully sliced its head off.
The bee's dead body was still trembling on the floor and it made some loud noise with the petrified wing.
Angele stood up.
"AH!"
Suddenly, he heard someone grunting in the front.
He turned to the right and saw a wizard's chest being penetrated by a long black stinger. It seemed that the wizard was doing the ritual to turn his body into their energy form. However, the frost from the stinger was relentlessly spreading around the man's body, and he was having a hard time to transform himself into pure energy.
The wizard struggled and released some green gas but died before the process was completed.
Everything happened so fast that Angele could not do anything for the man.
He heard people shouting and roaring. All the Cloud Bees went through the crack and started attacking the boat. They flew around in the sky and there were wizards being killed every minute.
Ten minutes later, there were only about ten wizards that were still alive. Dead bodies lay on the surface of the deck but only two Cloud Bees were killed.
Angele killed one, and Baron and the man in a black robe killed another one together.
The noise made by the bees' wings echoed in the air.
Angele was fighting with two Cloud Bees, attacking him from both sides. He was surprised at how fast those terrifying creatures could move.
CHI*
A distorted energy wave was released from his left hand.
Angele rolled forward quickly.
The Cloud Bees' stingers missed the target and hit the floor. It was close.
Angele used petrification again as he turned around.
KA*
The bee's energy barrier failed to stop the cursed scimitar and Angele successfully hit the bee's head.
BAM*
Angele was knocked away by the other bee right after he made the first hit. He rolled on the deck for several times to reduce the damage.
'Strength increased, Agility increased, Stamina increased…Injured,' Zero quickly reported.
He activated the buff of the cursed scimitar. He could feel the power being transferred into his body. Angele's heart was pumping fast and his head was clear.
Angele roared and stood up. Four more Cloud Bees charged toward him and shot two stingers.
He heard the noise and leaned to the left immediately.
However, his right arm was still hit by one of the stingers and he almost dropped the scimitar.
Angele's right arm was paralyzed.
"Damn it!" He raised his left hand and released the illusion energy wave again.
BAM*
One of the Cloud Bees was impacted by the wave and it smashed onto the deck. Its force was so strong that it created a small hole on the floor.
"Now! Go down to the cabin!" Angele yelled and ran to the stairs.
He glanced around. There were only seven or eight people left on the deck. The bodies on the floor were all covered in white frost.
They were doing their utmost to survive the onslaught.
Angele knew that if his body was not protected by the metal barrier, he would already be killed by the bees. Their fighting capability was much higher than what he had expected.
However, the strong metal barrier failed to block the bee's stinger. The tip of the stinger was so sharp, and the damage done by the stingers was in a completely different league.
Angele was running at full speed but Zero warned him about the danger coming from behind.
The Cloud Bees were still going after him.
He had no time to think. Angele rolled forward, then drew the silver longsword and slashed toward behind him.
BAM*
He could feel that the silver sword penetrated something and the noise the weapon made sounded like wood being sawed.
PA*
A large creature jumped onto Angele's back and hit his shoulders several times.
Angele struggled for a while, but he could no longer handle the pressure as he fell to the ground.
"F*cking bee!" Angele could not even turn his head around as there was an enormous creature on his back.
The bee's forelegs were moving around his neck and Angele could see the hard shell under its white hair.
The bee stank, its body smelling like pee mixed with feces.
PA*
A drop of green sticky fluid hit the floor. It was right in front of Angele's face.
Angele's body was partially paralyzed by the bee's poison. More and more strange fluids dripped down the deck.
Several seconds later, the fluid created a small pool in front of Angele's face. He asked Zero to check the fluid right away. Angele narrowed his eyes. He struggled and dipped his left hand into the pool quickly.
He heard people grunting as he applied the fluid to the wound on his right arm.
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Chapter 261: Chaos (2)
Translator: Leo Editor: Frappe
Angele tried to get up but couldn't due to him being out of strength. The enormous body of the Cloud Bee made him feel as though he was carrying a large rock. Its abdomen was right above his legs and the green sticky fluid was still dripping down the deck.
The green fluid had the texture of a strong glue. The size of the pool in front was becoming larger every second.
BAM*
Angele heard something hitting the floor ahead.
He struggled and raised his head slightly. Long ears and thin cheeks, it was Baron.
His eyes were wide open, and his right shoulder was pinned to the floor by a black stinger. The man looked like a frozen body, not moving.
Angele crawled on the deck and slowly drew a triangular rune on the floor.
"Anubis Amanda," he chanted the incantation in a light tone.
CHI*
A translucent energy wave spread around the airship.
The wave covered all the wizards on the deck.
Suddenly, the smell and the sound all disappeared from the deck. The place became deadly silent.
The remaining Cloud Bees flew around right above the airship for a while. Several elementals were still trying to attack the bees, but all the energy strikes were blocked by their barriers.
The wizards were either frozen or killed. The survivors had already left the deck.
The Cloud Bees were not concerned about the spell Angele just cast. They grabbed the dead bodies with legs and started leaving the airships.
Several minutes later, all the dead and frozen wizards were carried away. The only things left on the deck were the corpses of the slain Cloud Bees and several bloodstains.
The Cloud Bees only wanted human flesh. The noise made by their wings was fading away, and finally, they vanished into the sky.
Angele was lucky. His clothes were soaked in the dead Cloud Bee's bodily fluid, so the other bees ignored him. One bee tried to grab him with its legs. Its enormous head and sharp jaw were right above Angele's neck. Without the strong metal barrier, his neck would've been easily penetrated.
After about half an hour, Angele's paralyzed body finally started recovering. The frost was melting, and he could feel his limbs again.
The first thing he did was to push the dead Cloud Bee away from his body.
He chopped the white furry foreleg in half and threw it away.
Goosebumps rose upon his skin as he touched the dead bee's soft abdomen.
Angele stood up and checked the dead Cloud Bee.
His silver longsword pierced through its head and a deep wound was left on its abdomen by his cursed scimitar. That was where the green sticky liquid came from.
The bee's abdomen was shrinking as its bodily fluid was leaking out of the wound. It still had two black stingers, but it died instantly and failed to use them.
"My guess was right. The bee's bodily fluid is the antidote to its poison." Angele felt relieved. He held the stinger on his right shoulder tight with the left hand.
CHI*
He pulled the stinger out and dropped it to the floor.
The stinger left a massive gaping hole in his shoulder. His bone was fractured, and the wound was deep. Good thing was that the frost from the stinger stopped the wound from bleeding.
Angele took out a glass tube that was filled with black liquid. He removed the stopper and poured the liquid onto the blood hole.
Some white smoke rose from the wound.
Angele's brows furrowed, and cold sweat was dripping down his chin.
The potion removed the frost on his wound and blood started dripping down.
Angele quickly took out some light-yellow dust from a different pouch and applied it to the wound.
His shoulder was surrounded by a green glow after the dust was mixed with the blood.
After about two minutes, a large piece of scab was formed, and it covered the whole blood hole.
'I need to have some good rest. I almost fully activated the illusion signet.' Angele sighed. He was not even sure if the illusion signet would work on those Cloud Bees. The great harpy was terrifying but there were stronger creatures even in the ancient times. He was not sure if the monsters around the mountains were inheritors of the ancient beasts.
Angele raised his head and glanced around.
He was the only one on the deck. Broken weapons and shields were everywhere. There were five Cloud Bees' corpses beside the railings and the main mast. They were all soaked in the green sticky fluid.
'If they didn't come in such a large swarm…' Angele bit his lips. He held the cursed scimitar tight and started walking around.
"Anyone? Hey!" he shouted.
Angele's loud voice echoed in the sky.
The chilling wind was blowing over his face. He suddenly detected some movement under one of the dead bees.
"Help…I'm still alive…" It was a male wizard.
Angele ran to the direction of the voice and pushed the Cloud Bee's corpse away. It was the man in a black robe, whose name Angele had never asked before.
The man's right leg was pierced by a stinger, but the bodily fluid of the bee already removed the poison for him.
However, the man's Stamina was much lower than Angele. He looked exhausted, blood was running out of his eyes, mouth, nose, and ears. He was also suffering from a concussion.
"Anyone else?!" Angele yelled again as he helped the man to stand up.
No one responded.
The two walked to the entrance of the cabin and saw two light wizards lying in the hallway but they were not moving.
The one on the left was a female wizard with long black hair. Her left palm was pinned on the floor by a black stinger, and her body was frozen.
The other one was Hikari. The female potion master lay on the floor, but the black stinger missed her neck. She was unconscious as she was still affected by the poison.
"They're still alive!" Angele helped the man to sit by the staircase and rushed to the deck. He came back after several seconds with a full beaker of green liquid. He started applying the liquid onto the two female wizards' wounds right away.
The frost disappeared from their body after about half an hour. Angele removed the security rune from the rooms and helped the man in a black robe walk into the room on the left.
"Why're you still helping us? You're severely wounded too." The man looked at Angele and shook his head. "If it's me, I'll just kill everyone and take all the rare resources they have."
"Do you really think I can make it to the other side alone?" Angele answered in a light tone, "Saving you is saving myself."
The man lay on the bed and took out some healing gel from his pouch.
"Heal yourself, alright?"
"Sure." The man nodded.
"Good, I'll go check the airships' condition." Angele scrunched his eyebrows and walked out of the door. The two female wizards were sitting in the hallway. Their faces were still pale, but they already regained the consciousness.
"Thank you for saving us. Where are the others?" Hikari asked when she saw Angele walking to her.
"The Cloud Bees carried them away. They'll be feasting today." Angele was tired. He checked his wound again.
"There are not many wizards left on the airship."
He turned to the other female wizard.
She opened her mouth, "Master…I'm Morrisa, thank you for helping me…" She stopped for a second and continued, "We heard you yelling during the fight and ran to the cabin right away, but I'm still hit by the stinger. Someone cast a spell that removed the smell and sound, so the bees didn't come for us…"
Morrisa recalled the fight against the Cloud Bees and Angele could see the fear in her eyes.
"They're terrifying! None of our spells worked! None of them! How is that even possible?! We're wizards and they're stronger than us? How?!" She lowered her head and muttered. The lady's body was trembling.
Morrisa knew the trip would be dangerous when she agreed to be sent to Omandis but the first monster she met had just killed most of the crew. Only several of the wizards survived the attack. She had lived in the peaceful Nola for too long and she found this kind of reality quite difficult to believe.
Morrisa calmed down after several minutes. "Sorry…I'm just…"
"It's fine." There was a bitter smile on Hikari's face. "It felt like a dream…but my wounds are still aching.
"Heal yourselves and have some rest. I still have something to do. The good thing is the airships are still operating like usual and we're still on the correct route." Angele nodded. "Alright, Reyline is still resting in the room I think. Go check on him after you feel better."
Hikari and Morrisa struggled for a while and returned to their own rooms.
Angele walked to the staircase and returned to the deck. He decided to double-check the dead bees.
He found several more frozen wizards but that was it. The others were all captured or killed by the Cloud Bees.
Angele checked the other two airships as well, but he did not find anyone. The third airship was straying from the right route due to the impact of the battle. He returned to the first airship after modifying the speed and direction of the third airship.
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Chapter 262: Taking the Chance (1)
Translator: Leo Editor: Frappe
The man in a black robe returned to the deck as well after having some rest. Reyline and the two female wizards were beside the railings checking the situation.
Angele gathered the four survivors around the main mast.
"Did you find any other survivors?" Reyline questioned.
"No. We only have five people left." Angele shook his head, looking depressed. "The airships are about to reach the Cloud Bee's nest soon. We need to figure out a plan right now lest they kill us all. I wish we had more time. I want to study their bodies and find out how they detect their targets." Angele rubbed his temples.
"Yeah, we need more information on those Cloud Bees." Reyline nodded. "I know it will be hard, but their strength exceeded my expectation."
The rest of the crew remained silent. So many wizards had just died. They were trying to figure out a viable plan as they were now approaching the bee nest.
"Why don't we…return to Nola?" Hikari lowered her head and suggested.
"Return to Nola? That's impossible. There are so many Cloud Bees in this area. They have just raided our ship and are thinking we were all killed. If the direction of the airships changed too much, they will realize that there are still people alive and will come back for us." Reyline shook his head.
"What should we do then?" Hikari was getting nervous.
"We have to keep moving forward. There are only five of us. We can try to hide in the airships," the man in a black robe suddenly said.
"I'm sorry but you are?" Reyline turned to the man.
"My name is Stigmaricovertta, just call me Stigma." The man's face was still pale. It was clear that he still needed some time to recover from his injury.
Stigma looked at the wizards. He knew that the strongest wizard was the leader named Green and he was certain that the leader was hiding something from the others.
Stigma could sense something dangerous from Green. He survived the fight against the Cloud Bees and even helped the survivors in a calm manner after the battle finished.
'Why didn't he use his strongest spells to kill more Cloud Bees? He could have saved many wizards…' Stigma narrowed his eyes.
"Master Green, what do you think?" He turned to Angele, then asked.
Angele pursed his lips.
"You're right. We can only proceed forward and hope for the best. If we change our route, we will be attacked by the Cloud Bees. We should leave the dead bodies of the Cloud Bees on the deck too so that they would think that there is nothing valuable left on the airship."
He stopped for a second and continued, "The only problem is I'm not sure if the Cloud Bees are the only flying monsters in the area."
"It's a bit out of topic but for some reason, my mentality increased slightly after the fight," Hikari interrupted.
"Well, it's common. The intense battles will strengthen your mind." Angele nodded. "Alright, everyone, do you have any more questions or suggestions? If not, I'll go increase the airships' speed, so we can pass the nest faster."
"We can only hope for the best." Hikari sighed. "I'll go have some rest." She turned around and walked to the stairs.
"Wait. Stigma, there's something I need to discuss with you." Angele looked at Stigma.
Reyline and Morrisa nodded and walked away. They decided to stay in the cabins of the first airship.
Only Angele and Stigma were left on the deck.
The chilling wind blew over their faces and the noise made by the envelopes echoed in the sky.
Angele walked to the railings, looking down at the endless sea of white trees. There was no other creature flying around the airship. The place felt empty.
Stigma followed after Angele and stood by the railings.
Angele looked at Stigma. "I know how you survived the attack. You pulled the Cloud Bee's corpse onto yourself, right? I think you knew how to protect yourself from the beginning." He sent the words using energy particles.
"Master Green…" Stigma had a surprised look on his face.
"Don't try to fool me. I know that the Cloud Bee did not fall on you, but its body fluid left a trail on the deck. Your chest, hands, and feet were all covered by that liquid. I don't think there's anything more to say." Angele stared at Stigma. "Now tell me who you are and what you know about the bees."
Stigma's expression turned serious. He stared at Angele for a while and finally opened his mouth.
"Well, I should've done it in a better way, but I didn't expect you to investigate the details. It seems like you're not so concerned about the bees."
"I know I can survive the fight that's for sure." Angele nodded. "But I want to know about you and why you did not share the information with the crew. You were also trying to hide from the beginning. Just tell me, who are you?"
"I can tell you that but," Stigma walked to Angele and continued, "Master Green, you must keep this secret for me."
"I can't promise you anything but I'm good at keeping secrets." Angele smiled. "Just don't lie to me. I hate it when people lie." He started emanating his undisguised mentality wave.
Stigma's brow furrowed. He noticed the changes happened to Angele's mentality wave. It was much stronger than before. He found it hard to believe.
'This guy is hiding his true power too…' he thought.
Reducing the number of the crew would increase the chance of the airships arriving at Omandis.
Stigma knew that Angele was forcing him to speak out the truth. If he told a lie, Angele would kill him without hesitation.
Angele had killed several Cloud Bees just by himself during the fight, while the rest of the crew had only killed two bees.
Stigma bit his lips.
"So you want the data on the monsters we'll encounter, right?"
"You know how to deal with the Cloud Bees, so you should know how to deal with the other monsters." Angele shrugged.
The cursed scimitar consumed the souls of two Cloud Bees. His attributes were now stronger than before. He was certain that he would be able to survive the next area.
However, he still wanted to avoid an encounter with the Cloud Bees.
Stigma remained silent.
Angele patiently waited on the side.
About ten minutes later, Stigma finally opened his mouth but he was sending the words using energy particles.
Angele put his hands on the railings and looked around. His expression changed several times upon learning what Stigma knew. He also asked several questions during the conversation.
Several hours later, they finished their conversation. Stigma sighed, looking tired.
"That's all I know. Everything is true. If you have more questions, just come ask me in the cabins." He turned around and walked to the stairs.
Stigma turned his head around as he vanished into the darkness. He saw that Angele was still standing beside the railings, thinking about something.
For some reason, Stigma sensed something familiar from the leader named Green. It was a horrifying feeling to him. Something which made him feel uncomfortable, but he could not remember if they had met before.
Stigma spent days observing the wizards on the airships, but he never found out what Green was capable of.
He knew that Angele was a strong wizard and that was the reason why he had asked Angele to ambush Baron with him. However, he realized that Angele was much stronger than him after the man successfully won the fight against Hikari and Reyline.
Angele had not revealed his true power in the battle against the Cloud Bees.
The man reminded Stigma of his master, a mysterious wizard respected by many elders.
Stigma shook his head and walked down the stairs, then he entered one of the empty rooms.
Angele stood by the railings alone, thinking about the information Stigma just told him.
Stigma's words were surprising. He thought the man was just a wizard who once survived the trip to Omandis but the actual situation was different.
Stigma was a member of a family from the Omandis.
However, his position in the family was on the edge. He was caught in the middle of a fight between the family inheritor with an enemy from a different family. Stigma had to jump onto the airship to the west coast to escape. He fainted in the cabin and when he woke up, he realized that the airship was heading to the west coast.
Although Stigma's father was the family leader, he was not strong enough to be picked as the inheritor. There were still people missing him in Omandis like his sister, his friends, and his mother, a lady who truly loved him from the heart. Stigma also wanted to meet his lover again…
He spent years working in the organization and finally got the chance to be sent to Omandis.
The information about Stigma's family was not that important to Angele. He wanted to know how to avoid contact with the dangerous monsters.
Stigma successfully arrived at the west coast from Omandis and Angele asked him why there was an airship sent to the west coast. He also wanted to know what happened to the other wizards on that airship.
Stigma said that he did not know about the details. He said that although no one questioned him why he boarded the ship, he wanted to stay out of trouble.
Angele also asked Stigma about Reyline, the Perfect Wizard of Six Ring High Tower. He wondered why such a talented wizard joined the dangerous trip to Omandis. It seemed like he was hiding something from the crew.
Stigma told Angele about the basic information of Omandis and some stories of his family.
Angele had a basic idea on how to avoid fighting with the other monsters they might encounter during the trip. He now felt more confident on making it to the other side.
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Chapter 263: Taking the Chance (2)
Translator: Leo Editor: Frappe
Angele thought for a while and took a deep breath.
'Zero, check my body condition.' he ordered.
'Checking…'
'Angele Rio. Strength, 8.1. Agility, 7. Stamina, 11.2. Mentality, 45. Mana, 43. Condition: wounded. Scimitar buff activated. Genetic limit reached.'
'My Stamina has increased from 8 to 11 and my Strength has increased from 4 to 8. The buff is incredible.' Angele patted on his cursed scimitar, looking satisfied. 'I should kill more magical creatures to make the buff even better.'
He wondered if the buff of the cursed scimitar had a limit.
However, if he somehow lost the scimitar, the buff would no longer be able to aid him. It was not something he could always rely on.
Angele still needed to improve himself.
He learned many things from the battle against the Cloud Bees. Although Angele was a dark wizard and was a good fighter, he would not be able to handle a large group of strong monsters just by himself.
Most of the dark wizards fought in similar ways. However, they all knew some special spells that would only be cast when necessary. Some had powerful modified damage spells, while some had already completed the ritual that could turn their bodies into the energy form. There were also wizards with strong secret techniques that only the inheritors of great wizard families knew of.
Average light wizards were weaker than dark wizards because they barely engaged in any real battle. Some dark wizards would ambush their targets in many ways. Light wizards could not even come up with such ideas.
Light wizards relied on their forcefield and they knew some basic damage spells. They would rather spend the time doing researches than learning strong damage spells.
That was the reason why they did nothing against the Cloud Bees. Angele thought there would be more survivors after the fight, but their spells were just too weak.
'I need to find a way to stabilize my mentality so that I can start going for the Crystal stage.' Angele shook his head. He had not yet found a better way to increase his mentality.
'Is my mentality stabilized?' he asked.
'The mentality stabilization is 65% completed,' The chip replied quickly, 'Engaging in intense battles will increase the speed of the process.'
'That's a good news.' Angele felt relieved. 'How should I increase my mentality? Check the database for me.'
'Creating the task…'
Angele walked to a dead Cloud Bee as Zero was still searching the database. He pointed at the dead body and released a ray of silver metal liquid from the tip of his finger. The liquid covered the surface of the bee and with the help of the Metal Mastery, Angele carried it back to a room down the stairs.
He wanted to check the body structure of the bee and find out its weakness.
About three hours later, someone knocked on the door.
"Come in, please." Angele turned around and recognized the visitor right away.
Creak*
The door was pushed open. Stigma was still wearing a black robe. He entered the door with a black diamond-shaped stone in hand.
"Master Green…"
"Just call me Green." Angele put down the surgery equipment beside the bee's dead body after seeing the stone in Stigma's hand.
With a flick of his finger, the water energy particles formed some clean water and washed the dirt off his hands.
"Take a seat." Angele pointed at a chair.
"Thanks."
The two sat opposite to each other.
"You're correct about the advanced meditation techniques. Many can be found in Omandis. However, they are the secrets of the families or organizations. You need to join the organizations, prove yourself to them, and send an application. After that, you will be able to acquire the advanced meditation technique, but they will make sure that you can't leak the secret to the others." Stigma sent the information using energy particles. 'And you need different resources to support different advanced meditation techniques. A large number of magic stones will be required."
"Wait, does that mean there are true inheritors of ancient wizards in Omandis?" Angele wondered.
"It's…not like what you think." Stigma shook his head. "Our system is similar, but us present wizards are still much weaker than the ancient ones. We're progressing using a different route developed by our ancestors, but to progress will require a large number of resources."
"So the problem is still the resources…?" Angele rubbed his chin and started thinking.
Stigma looked at the black stone for several seconds and handed it over to Angele carefully. "This is a part of my family's meditation technique. You can take a look."
"That's generous of you." Angele smiled.
"This is not the advanced meditation technique we talked about. I think even Reyline has something similar, but it's better than the one you're using." Stigma shook his head. "I'm not an important member of the family so I can't apply for the advanced meditation technique."
Angele nodded and as he grabbed the black stone, he noticed rows of twisted runes engraved on its surface that looked like a bunch of meaningless strings.
The runes were connected to each other. It almost looked like they were moving around. Angele rubbed his eyes and looked at the stone again, but the runes had already stopped moving.
"Thank you for the help." Angele opened the drawer and took out a glass tube with clean blue liquid inside.
He handed the tube to Stigma.
"You know I'm a potion master, right? This is a special healing gel I made. Give it a try."
Stigma narrowed his eyes and carefully accepted the glass tube. "Thanks, I'll be leaving now."
"Sure."
Angele watched Stigma leave and he locked the door.
He held the black stone in his hand and observed the runes carefully.
Angele memorized all the patterns quickly, then closed his eyes and started trying out the new meditation method.
Several days later, the three airships traveled passed the Cloud Bee's nest without a problem after Angele increased the speed. The bees did not go for them again as the five wizards all used their own stealth techniques.
The meditation technique Stigma had given helped him a lot.
On the second day after they went past the nest, Angele's mentality was finally stabilized.
Angele created another task using the biochip right away. He wanted to find out the best method to increase his mentality.
Zero helped him find the right solution when he wanted to advance to the Liquid stage. Angele believed that this time it would work too.
The analysis function and the database were the reason why the biochip was extremely helpful. The wizards had no way of collecting such large amounts of data and memorize all of them. The analysis function could provide Angele with the best solutions to his problems, too. Although there were limitations, it could still help him progress as a wizard.
Many wizards stopped progressing after advancing to the Gas stage due to various problems.
It took Zero about three days to find the best plan for Angele.
There were two possible solutions.
The first was to find the advanced meditation techniques, but it was too hard to accomplish at the moment.
The second was to kill strong monsters with the cursed scimitar. According to the simulation, it was possible for Angele to absorb some of the pure life energy when the scimitar was consuming the souls of the dead creatures. With the help of proper potions, his attributes could be permanently increased during the process. However, the method could only be used occasionally as the side effects were still unknown.
The potions used in the method were relatively easy to concoct. The only thing he needed was to prepare some special neutralizers.
Inside the room.
Rays of morning light went through the window and illuminated the place.
Angele stood beside a wooden table with a glass bottle in hand. Inside the bottle, there were several grain-sized stones. He was pouring the stones into a beaker on the table.
The beaker contained bubbling green sticky liquid.
The black stones melted and disappeared after contacting the liquid.
Several seconds later, all the stones dissolved in the beaker.
Angele stirred the green liquid with a glass stick several times and poured the solution into 12 empty glass tubes.
Quickly, the glass tubes were inserted into a shelf on the table and all of them were filled up with the sticky solution.
These were the neutralizer Angele needed to concoct the required potions. The potions were used to make sure the pure life energy from the scimitar could be successfully absorbed by his body.
"It's finally done." Angele wiped the sweat off his forehead.
He raised his right hand and a bat-shaped rune flashed on the back of his nail.
"How long until we arrive at the next dangerous area?" Angele questioned.
"Five hours later." Reyline's voice echoed in his ear. "Let's see if Stigma's method works."
"Yeah. He said that those creatures were weaker than the Cloud Bees, but we should still proceed with caution."
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Chapter 264: Snake Lizard (1)
Translator: Leo Editor: Frappe
"Did Hikari give you the information on the Snake Lizards?" Angele questioned in a light tone.
"She did. Snake Lizards live in the caves around the cliffs. There will be around 20 of them in an average-sized patrol team. A Snake Lizard is about two meters tall and its intelligence is very high. Although they haven't developed written language yet, most of them can speak. Well, anyway, they will attack the airships. That's for sure," Reyline explained.
"We're just food to them." Angele shook his head.
The two remained silent for a minute.
"Green, I'm sorry. I think it's my fault." Reyline opened his mouth again.
Angele did not reply right away. He sighed and slowly spoke.
"I checked the storages of all three airships. I have the amulet, but it has taken me some time to unlock those rooms with magic stones inside. Do you know what I found? Take a guess."
Reyline did not respond, as he probably already knew the truth.
Angele sneered. "Three airships! Not one single magic stone can be found in the storage rooms. You are also hiding something from us. All the wizards on the airships are weak. Just spit it out already."
"You're right. They want me to die on the trip. It's a death trap, to be honest. The wizards on the airships were all recommended by the elders of the Six Ring High Tower…except…you. I don't know anything about you."
"So even if we can return to Nola, there'll be assassins waiting for us, right?" Angele went straight to the point.
"That's possible."
"What about Omandis then? What if we somehow survived the trip? Will there be people waiting for us too?"
"I don't know." Reyline lowered his voice.
Angele recalled the day Ander told him about the information.
Ander should have already known that it was a death trap, but Angele did not understand why the Dark Wizard Tower did not inform him about the situation.
Stigma was an outsider to Nola and he would never be selected under normal circumstances. Reyline was probably the only wizard important to the organization on the airship but he was the target.
"Whatever. We have already survived the Cloud Bee area. We will see how it goes." Angele calmed down. "Get ready and do what Stigma said. Soak yourself in water and breathe using a straw. The Snake Lizards might just let us go."
Angele cut off the communication. He walked to the window, then he crouched and hid under the windowsill. He held the amulet tight in his hand and slowly closed his eyes.
Countless blue light dots gathered around Angele's body, turning into drops of water.
The water drops merged and formed a large water ball.
Silver metal liquid leaked out of Angele's body, creating a large bathtub. It fitted the dropping water ball perfectly.
Angele moved into the bathtub and lied down. He then created a metal straw and stuck it out of the surface of the water.
The room was silent.
Time was flying.
Ka-ta Ka-ta*
Angele suddenly heard some strange noise from outside the window.
It sounded like wings that were made of metal.
A purple human-shaped creature flew past the airship.
The creature had the body of a human, head of a snake, and wings of an eagle. There was a metallic glint on its skin.
Angele had hidden himself under the windowsill, so he did not get detected by the creature.
Ka-ta Ka-ta Ka-ta*
About six or seven Snake Lizards flew past the airship.
Those birdmen with brown skin were checking the airships with their long, slim green eyes. They were holding different types of metal weapons in hand. It seemed like they knew how to craft basic tools.
The three airships were deadly silent. The only noise was made by the envelopes.
Angele hid in the room carefully. He could see the Snake Lizards flying past the window.
They flew around above the airships for about ten minutes then finally left.
Angele followed the plan and stayed in the water for another half an hour with his eyes open.
He stood up quickly and jumped out of the bathtub.
CHI*
Fire energy particles dried his clothes as white steam rose into the air.
With a flick of his finger, the metal bathtub turned into liquid and returned into his skin.
The water inside the container fell to the floor.
Angele was not concerned about the water. He turned to the window and looked down.
The only thing he saw was a mountain covered with thick snow. There was no plant or living creature down there.
The area around the mountains was deadly silent.
The temperature inside the room was controlled by a special rune, so it was quite comfortable.
Angele moved away from the window and opened the door. He saw the door on the opposite side was opened as well and Morrisa walked out of her room.
"We're good, right? Master Green?" Morrisa was asking in a shaky tone. Angele could see the fear in her eyes.
Her long black hair trailed over her shoulders and her left hand was still covered with bandages. Morrisa's skin was pale. Angele was not sure if she was just too scared or she still needed some more time to recover from the injury.
She was wearing a long wool dress that looked identical to a white robe. There was a diamond-shaped sapphire on the tip of the white short wand in her right hand.
"Let's go take a look." Angele turned around and walked to the staircase.
Reyline, Stigma, and Hikari were already standing on the deck.
Hikari crouched beside a pool of green sticky liquid. Stigma was talking to her with his brows furrowed.
Reyline was looking at the mountains beside the railings.
The three looked at Angele and Morrisa as they stepped onto the deck.
"They took away the corpses of the Cloud Bees." Hikari stood up. "Except the one in the room, Green, the rest of them are all gone."
Angele walked to Hikari and looked at the pool of green sticky liquid. There was a trail of the liquid leading to the place Reyline was standing at. It seemed that the Snake Lizards jumped off from the airship from there.
"That's not a problem. We're still alive. That's all that matters. It seems like we don't need to fight this time," Angele responded.
"Where are we at right now? Anyone?" He turned to Stigma.
Stigma took out a fist-sized crystal orb and tapped it with his right index finger with his eyes closed.
"We'll travel past the mountains soon. The next area is the Forlorn Plains. Another challenge lies ahead," he answered.
"The Forlorn Plains?" Reyline walked to Stigma. "How long until we arrive at Omandis?"
"After the Forlorn Plains, there is the Mamba Highland then we need to fly across the Abyss Canyon. If we can survive all that, it will take us about another 10 days to get to the border of Omandis." Stigma explained, "The three areas are not populated, so we need to stay undetected the whole time. Otherwise, we'll die for sure."
"Let's clean the airship first." Hikari pointed at the pools of green sticky liquid on the deck. "I think the liquid will lure the flying beasts here."
"You're right." Angele nodded.
The five wizards conjured water and washed every corner of the deck clean.
Angele summoned several water elementals using Hikari's potions. The water elementals were created by pure water energy and they were very helpful when cleaning floors.
They started at morning and finished by the afternoon.
It was getting dark outside. The sun hid itself behind the thick clouds and the atmosphere was heavy.
The wing was soaring in the sky.
Under the dark clouds, the three airships lined up in the air. The airships were surrounded by white energy barriers and their direction was controlled by the green energy flows around them.
Quickly, the airship left the snow mountains and entered a forest with sparse trees.
Angele stood beside the railings and looked down.
Between the gaps of the trees, he could see several white monkeys running around.
The last rays of light brightened up the area below.
"Huh?" Morrisa found something. She sounded surprised.
She turned around and yelled, "Hey, come here, what's that?" She pointed down.
The others that had been checking the landscape by the railings ran to Morrisa after hearing her words.
Angele walked to Morrisa quickly and looked at the place she was pointing at.
A pink light dot was flashing between the green trees.
"What's that?" he questioned.
"Let me see what I can do. Give me a second." Morrisa drew a circle in the with her short wand.
Several red dots mixed in yellow light dots were released from the sapphire.
The light dots stopped in the air for a second, then it flew toward Angele and moved into his eyes slowly.
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Chapter 265: Snake Lizard (2)
Translator: Leo Editor: Frappe
Angele's sight blurred for a second. He could feel the heat from his eyes. When he looked toward the direction again, he could now see what was happening clearly.
"It's an…altar. A stone altar." He recognized the object right away.
A gray altar sat quietly in a remote area. There was no one around it.
Green veins and black roots twisted around the altar. It looked old and the gray stone base had already started cracking. Some dried yellow leaves were blown into the air by the wind.
A pink crystal rune was floating over the stone altar, which looked like a crystal accessory.
It was a triangular crystal rune made from the pink crystal. A crescent moon, a math symbol, and a money symbol were marked on its three corners.
There was an eye-shaped rune in the center.
The eye-shaped rune was supported by a tiny scale.
The crystal rune was the source of the pink light dots.
"What's that?" Angele wondered.
"I don't know," Stigma saw Angele staring at him and answered. "Those altars are common in the remote areas. Legends state that they were built by human beings. No one knew how to use those floating crystal runes. The runes will regenerate automatically if they're removed from the altars. It's a mystery."
"You're from Omandis yet you don't know about those crystal runes?" Hikari wondered.
Stigma shrugged. "Yeah, I'm from Omandis but it doesn't mean I know everything."
Morrisa applied her eyesight buff to all the wizards and they started checking the altar altogether.
"Stigma, did you see the altar on your way to Nola?" Reyline asked.
"Yeah, but it was a different one. There is more than one altar in the area. Mutated creatures stay away from the altars for some reason, which as I have said, is a mystery," Stigma explained.
"Sadly, I can't go down there and check the altar myself. I'm curious." Angele said what everyone was thinking.
"If we can survive the trip, we can go check those altars together later. What do you say?" Hikari asked.
"No problem," Stigma responded right away.
"Sure." Morrisa nodded. She was the weakest one of the five wizards, so she would love to join the team created by the stronger wizards.
Angele narrowed his eyes and looked at Reyline.
"I don't have a problem with it."
"I'll join you too then." Reyline nodded slightly. He only cared about Angele's opinion since he had been defeated by the man before.
If the five wizards could successfully survive all the dangerous areas, they would gain a lot of practical experiences that would help them succeed in Omandis.
Angele was not certain that the methods provided by Stigma would work every time when they encountered dangerous magical creatures.
"Alright, it's dinner time. I have some pork on the boat. We can barbeque those. What do you think?" Hikari smiled.
"Sure, I have many spices. I can make a great dry rub." Angele chuckled, "I love barbequed pork. It's nice that you brought some meat to the boat. I didn't even think too much about food when I boarded the boat."
"A wizard like me can't live without some decent food," Hikari responded. "It'll be even better if we have some fruit wine."
"I have several bottles of Horito Beer with me," Reyline said in a light tone.
"But before that, we have some problem to take care of." Angele suddenly drew his cursed scimitar. The blade was coated with a green glow.
The other four wizards hesitated for a second and glanced around.
Under the dark clouds, there were more than ten Snake Lizards coming after the boat. There were iron spears and swords in their hands, and Angele could see the greed in their green eyes.
"We should've stayed in the rooms a bit longer." Stigma's expression changed. "These monsters can detect living beings more than a thousand meters away. I didn't expect a second patrol team." He pulled the black dagger out of the sheath.
"Morrisa, go hide in the cabin." Hikari threw two potions to the floor. The potion bottles rolled several times on the ground, leaving a trail of black liquid behind.
CHI*
Two liquid tall white men spawned from the potions. Their bodies solidified quickly, and sharp ice shards emerged out of their shoulders.
The two elementals looked like two tall human beings that were equipped with ice armors. They did not have eyes, ears, and noses. The only thing they had on their faces was a mouth. They were saying something, but Angele could not understand the language. It sounded like some random runes.
"Go!" Hikari pointed at the approaching patrol team of the Snake Lizards.
The two ice elementals floated in the air and started charging toward the Snake Lizards. Their hands turned into ice blades.
Once Morrisa heard her, she rushed to the stairs. The Snake Lizards did not notice her at all.
Reyline raised his longbow to the air and pulled two strains of hair off his head, turning them into arrows.
As Angele held his cursed scimitar tight, he lowered his body and charged toward the Snake Lizards.
Ka-ta Ka-ta Ka-ta*
He was running at full speed on deck.
Angele rushed to the railings and jumped into the air while releasing the distorted illusion energy wave.
BAM*
He did a backflip in the air and slashed forward. A Snake Lizard that was flying to him was forcefully struck by the cursed scimitar.
The Snake Lizard was wielding a black iron spear. It grunted after taking the hit, but it started charging toward Angele right away. The monster blinked its eyes and released two green laser beams.
CLANK*
Angele blocked the iron spear with the cursed scimitar. He quickly leaned to the left and dodged two green laser beams. He supported himself with some wind energy particles and slashed forward again.
KA*
The blade hit the Snake Lizard's chest, ripping through a thin energy barrier.
A green glint flashed upon the scimitar as the Snake Lizard grunted again. The blade cut through its chest and left a deep wound on its body. Angele could see the monster's strange green organs through the opening.
The two laser beams hit the deck and left two burnt holes on the floor. They somehow managed to damage the extremely hard wooden surface of the deck.
The wind energy particles suddenly disappeared. Angele was falling down with the severely wounded Snake Lizard.
BANG*
He smashed onto the deck and rolled several times on the floor. Angele created a metal shield behind him to reduce the impact and quickly stabbed the scimitar into the center of the Snake Lizard's chest.
He stood up quickly. Angele could feel the chilling energy being transferred into his body from the cursed scimitar. His attributes were increased slightly again.
He took out a glass tube from the pouch right away and swallowed all the green sticky liquid inside.
It was spicy and salty. The liquid had the texture of a spicy slime.
Angele felt uncomfortable drinking it and even almost vomited, but he still forced himself to swallow it.
Green light flashed in his eyes and something happened to the chilling energy flow right away. Angele turned around and stared at the dead Snake Lizard. He asked Zero to analyze the creature.
Blue light dots flashed in front of his eyes before it disappeared within seconds. Angele looked at the monsters' corpses and turned around to check the situation.
Reyline had killed three Snake Lizards just by himself and he was fighting with another one using his own twin scimitars. Those monsters were much weaker than the Cloud Bees.
Stigma killed two Snake Lizards and he was still fighting with his black dagger.
Hikari and the two ice elementals attracted the attention of the other Snake Lizards. She created several energy barriers, but it looked she was having some trouble.
There was no time for him to think any longer. Angele held the scimitar in his left hand and gouged the dead Snake Lizard's eyes out with his right hand quickly.
The two green eyeballs looked like two dirty emeralds. They were soaked in the creature's blood.
Angele closed his eyes and threw the two eyeballs into his mouth, chewing them several times.
His mouth was filled with the sweet juice leaking out of the eyeballs. He drank them all.
"Rua! Rua!"
The rest of the Snake Lizards noticed what Angele just did and started shouting. Angele was not sure if Rua was the dead monster's name or if they were just angry. It seemed that the eyes of the Snake Lizards held a special meaning to them.
Green glows appeared around their eyes. All of the Snake Lizards were now enraged. They stopped fighting with their current opponents and rushed toward Angele together.
Angele's expression changed. He raised his right hand and conjured countless silver needles. The silver needles gathered together and flew to the approaching Snake Lizards at full speed.
BAM*
The silver needles fiercely struck the Snake Lizards. Rays of green light and silver light flashed in the sky.
Angele was blown away by the impact, causing him to smash onto the railings on the other side of the deck as he grunted in pain.
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Chapter 266: Result and Barbeque (1)
Translator: Leo Editor: Frappe
The silver needles hit the Snake Lizards directly but none of them did any actual damage.
CHI CHI CHI*
Several green laser beams were released from the monsters' eyes.
Angele was one second late. A large piece of skin was ripped off his left hand, revealing the bloody flesh beneath it.
He grunted as he could feel the intense pain coming from the wound.
"Ah!" Angele heard someone yelling from the entrance of the cabin.
He struggled for a while and raised his head. The female wizard named Morrisa was being attacked by a sword-wielding Snake Lizard. The white energy shield around her was starting to crack.
"Help me! Please! Help me!" Morrisa was almost crying. She fainted in the fight against the Cloud Bees and had survived mainly due to her luck. She realized that those Snake Lizards were extremely strong.
At the same time, some of the Snake Lizards realized that there were weaker targets than Angele and started to attack the other wizards again. Stigma's strength was weaker than the monster attacking him, and his dagger had been taken away.
Stigma tried his best to avoid being stabbed by his own weapon. Angele could see the cold sweat dripping down his chin.
Angele's brows furrowed. He hesitated for second and quickly took something out of the pouch.
"Light of Thorns!"
BAM*
A golden light ball exploded in the air. Countless golden lasers were released to every angle and the bright light illuminated on the surface of the deck.
The golden lasers disappeared within seconds.
PA PA PA*
About four Snake Lizards that were still attacking Angele fell to the ground. The one in front of Morrisa fell to the deck as well. Morrisa was breathing heavily. It was a terrifying experience for her.
The Snake Lizards had high Stamina. Although their bodies were burnt black, they were still alive. However, all of them were paralyzed.
Angele lowered the scimitar and applied some healing gel to his wound. He walked to one of the dying Snake Lizards and gouged its eyes out with the right hand.
He threw the two eyeballs into his mouth with no hesitation.
"Ah!" The Snake Lizard was screaming in the intense pain.
CHI*
Angele stabbed its forehead with a silver longsword and the screams stopped right away.
He chewed the eyeballs several times and swallowed them as though he was eating normal food.
Angele drank another neutralizer and walked to the second Snake Lizard.
The only thing making a noise on the deck was his footsteps.
The Snake Lizard that was fighting with Stigma was hit by the golden laser in its chest. It fell to the floor and died.
Stigma took a deep breath after the threat was eliminated.
There were two Snake Lizards that dodged the attack by luck. They turned around and tried to escape.
BAM BAM*
Two arrows made of strains of blonde hair hit the back of the two monsters' heads and they fell down right away. Reyline slowly lowered his longbow.
Angele had already finished gouging all the eyes out of the Snake Lizards on the deck.
"I guessed that you were a dark wizard. It seems like you really are one." Reyline walked to Angele with his brows furrowed.
"What? Many light wizards were once dark wizards, right?" Angele was not concerned. "Does anyone have drinkable water?"
The rest of the crew walked to Angele as well. They had watched Angele swallow all the Snake Lizards' eyeballs and found the scene a bit disturbing.
"What's the matter? Sure, he's a dark wizard but he saved us." Stigma took out a water pouch and handed it over to Angele.
"Thanks." Angele opened the pouch and used the water to rinse his mouth.
"That's true. Many strong light wizards were once black wizards." Reyline nodded. "But watching you eat all those eyeballs is still making me sick."
"Yeah." Hikari shrugged. Her face had turned pale. "Sorry but it's just a bit disturbing to watch. Ah, actually, my master did something similar once. I thought he was just joking when he told me about it." She looked at Angele.
"It's fine. I understand." Angele smiled.
Morrisa leaned against the railings but did not say anything. It looked like she was trying to keep a distance from Angele.
"I have a question. Those golden lasers…are from a magic device, right?" Reyline asked in a low voice.
"You're right. It is a magic device." Angele knew he could no longer hide it.
"Light of Thorns, huh? It's a famous magic device in the Labyrinth College but I won't question how you acquired it."
"Magic device…"
Reyline was the only one who recognized the spell, while the rest of the crew looked surprised.
Angele shrugged but did not say anything. He had to use it considering the situation. There were only five wizards left on the boat. He knew that he could not survive the trip just by himself. Morrisa would die if he had hesitated at that moment.
He also wanted to use the cursed scimitar to absorb all the souls of those magical creatures. Activating the magic device was the best choice. Otherwise, the battle would take much longer to finish.
Angele got what he wanted. He saved the crew and acquired all the souls he needed.
They started cleaning the deck together after this conversation.
The wizards did not seem to care too much about the magic device as they returned their rooms after the corpses of the Snake Lizards were taken care of.
Angele closed the door once he returned to his room.
He walked to the window and looked down. There were not many trees on the plain and some mutated deer were running around.
Blue light dots flashed in front of Angele's eyes and his attributes were displayed in his sight.
'Strength, 12.5. Agility, 11.2. Stamina, 13.4. Mentality, 51. Mana, 50.'
He drew the cursed scimitar slowly. There was a silver glint on the surface of the wavy blade and the weapon was surrounded by a green glow.
The green glow quickly climbed up Angele's wrist. It looked like parasites that were trying to get into his body.
PA*
Angele put down the scimitar on the table.
CHI*
The green glow left Angele's body right away and returned to the blade.
Angele's attributes were plunging as the buff was no longer affecting him.
After about five seconds, Angele's body shrank slightly in size. He stared at the numbers with a blank expression on the face.
'Strength, 3.9. Agility, 5.5. Stamina, 8.2. Mentality, 45.1. Mana, 45.'
'Yeah…This is my true attributes without the buff…'
Angele suddenly noticed that there was still some energy from the scimitar left around his chest.
The energy was being consumed slowly. He saw his Mentality increasing slowly.
From 45 to 46, then from 47 to 48. It stopped at 48.4.
'It actually worked!' Angele was satisfied with the result. 'Extracting the life energy is effective. My mentality has increased by 3. That's the essence of 7 Snake Lizards. Incredible…'
Angele could feel the energy around his chest disappear when his attributes increased.
'Zero, create a task. How much mentality do I need to reach the Crystal stage?' he ordered.
'Task created, simulating…'
Angele awaited the results patiently.
After about 20 minutes, the chip gave him the answer.
'Crystal stage requires you to have a Mentality over 71,' Zero's mechanical voice echoed in his ears.
'What are all the requirements then?'
'Requirement 1: Mentality over 71.'
'Requirement 2: A refined magic circle. Use it to remove the impurities from the mentality.'
'Requirement 3: You need more than 52 years to get used to the dense mentality. You can speed up the progress using advanced meditation techniques.'
Angele finally understood why the advanced meditation technique was so important.
The basic meditation technique was used to help wizard apprentices and formal wizards to increase their mentality. The advanced meditation technique was mainly used to help wizards speed up the process of getting used to higher mentality level.
The advanced meditation technique and the basic meditation technique were two completely different systems. That was the reason why the wizards at the west coast failed to develop it.
Angele stayed in the room and kept checking his body condition.
It was getting dark outside and night arrived quickly.
The crescent moon hung over the sky quietly.
Angele stood beside the window, listening to the noise made by the wind and the envelope.
He was alone in the bedroom and he felt relieved for some reason. The moonlight illuminated on the shell of the dead Cloud Bee and the shell looked like pieces of dirty crystals.
Angele was on an airship traveling through an unfamiliar area. He knew that the only person he could rely on was himself.
He walked to the bed and lied down. The soft blanket was cold, and he enjoyed the peaceful moment in his private space. The room was small, but the locked door made him feel safe.
Angele could still smell the stench coming from the Cloud Bee's corpse.
Thud thud*
"Green, are you already asleep?" Stigma's voice came from outside.
"Not yet." Angele got off the bed and unlocked the door.
Stigma stood by the door with an emerald plate in his hands. There were some barbequed meat and salad on the plate. The fat on the meat was caramelized well.
The fragrance of the meat rushed into Angele's nose.
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Chapter 267: Result and Barbeque (2)
Translator: Leo Editor: Frappe
Stigma pursed his lips into a smile. "Hurry up. We need your spices. And thanks for saving me today."
"We're in the same boat. I can't survive the trip just by myself." Angele chuckled. "You don't need to thank me."
"I don't care about your intention. You still saved me." Stigma showed Angele the plate. "Come join us. You're our leader now. We should have some rest."
"Sure." Angele stopped for a second and realized that it was the barbeque party they talked about earlier.
"Reyline is preparing the wine. We can start the party right away with your spices." Stigma looked at him.
Angele was a bit depressed, but he was being cheered up at the thought of the party.
Although Angele was alone most of the time, he still wanted to engage in some social activities from time to time.
He turned around and grabbed the spices and he also released the night sparrow from the cage. There was no problem as it could find food by itself.
The party was held on the deck.
The five wizards built a small campfire around on the floor and sat around it.
The dark deck was brightened up by the flame and the clear moonlight. The flames in the campfire were crackling and the chilling wind was blowing over their faces.
Over the fire, there was a black metal rack with about ten meat skewers lined up on it. The meat was cut into even sizes. Its smell was making people drool.
Reyline had a brown bamboo basket in hand. There were five long translucent bottles with clean green liquid inside.
"It's an aged sparkling wine that tastes somewhat like beer." He gave the bottles to the wizards.
The meat started sizzling as Angele sprinkled the seasoning over it. A rich pepper fragrance permeated the air.
Angele grabbed the wine bottle and put it down on the side.
Hikari found some wooden planks and built a small shelter to block the wind. It was cold during the night.
"Half a month till we reach the next hurdle. We have plenty of time to prepare. My method should be perfect this time. Just wait a bit longer before you leave the cabin." Stigma bit on a meat skewer and drank some wine from the bottle. "That's some tasty meat."
"Horito Beer, huh? Love the green color." Hikari removed the cork and took a sip. "Great, how long was it aged?"
"42 years." Reyline drank directly from the bottle as well.
"I'm about to advance to the next stage soon, I think."
"Next stage?" Hikari put down the bottle, looking surprised.
Stigma stopped chewing the meat and looked at Reyline.
Morrisa lowered her head upon listening. It seemed like she was just jealous of Reyline's achievement.
"Yeah, the Crystal stage," Reyline added. "I'm preparing the magic circle for the ritual. The materials I need are already on the boat. I can start the process five days later if everything goes as planned. It would great if I can succeed but if I fail I don't mind being killed by the monsters we'll encounter."
"The intense battles have increased my mentality. I'm feeling more confident now." Hikari nodded. "Light wizards like us are used to the peaceful environment. Like Green said, the battles will strengthen our mind."
"Well, nothing has happened to me." Stigma shook his head. "I agree that the battles are intense, but my mentality barely increased."
Angele sat beside the campfire, staring at the burning flames and started thinking.
His mentality did not increase after the fight against the Cloud Bees and the Snake Lizards. He already gotten used to intense battles a long time ago.
Although Angele's mentality was not increased, the buff from the cursed scimitar could still increase his attributes. With the life energy extraction, his mentality would increase at a much faster rate than the others.
He already knew how to stabilize his mentality. If he could find the advanced mentality technique, the only thing he needed to do was to hunt magical creatures using the cursed scimitar. Reaching the mentality required for the Crystal stage would, by then, become easy.
The others were still chatting about their progression, but Angele did not say a thing.
He took a bite of the roasted meat and ate some salad. The caramelized fat of the meat was rich and satisfying. The salad was well-seasoned, and the crispy green vegetables helped reduce the greasiness of the meat.
"Like I said, if we can survive the trip and reach Omandis, we'll be treated well by the organization." Hikari nodded slightly. "I reached the Liquid stage about 30 years ago. Now that my mentality level is finally increasing again, I'm certain that I can advance to the Crystal stage in several years."
"The ritual won't be a big problem to you if you have enough resources. Wizards of west coast rely too much on resources as that's the only way to increase our mentality. Potions, special magic circles, and materials. They're very expensive," Reyline added.
"That's right. The situation for wizards in Omandis is different," Stigma interrupted. "The mentality level is not a big problem but they all have a bottleneck to deal with. I left the family a long time ago, but I still have some intel on that. Advanced meditation techniques can help wizards increase their mentality level, but those techniques are separated into several levels. Your mentality will increase each time you finish a level. Some wizards' mentality might even be bound to a certain element."
"Bound to an element?" Angele heard this, and he turned to Stigma. "What's that?"
"Green, do you know master Ivana or master Flan Jones?" Reyline questioned.
"I've met master Flan several times." Angele nodded. "Wait…Is that the reason why I can't even look at her mentality wave?"
"You're correct. It's Ice mentality. The property of master Flan's mentality changed when she was still a rank 1 wizard. The advanced meditation technique is probably related to the Ice energy particles." Stigma nodded.
"Why didn't she teach the technique to her inheritors then?" Morrisa suddenly asked.
"The Oath. The best way to make a wizard to keep his promise. It's a mysterious power that can be planted into a wizard's mentality. If a wizard violated the Oath, their own soul will be devoured. It's a painful way to die," Stigma explained. "Master Flan and master Ivana are probably affected by the Oath, they can't just teach others their advanced meditation techniques."
"Tell us more about Omandis, Stigma," Angele said in a light tone.
"Omandis…?" Stigma had a bitter smile on his face. "My family is at the border of the area. I'm not even an important member. I barely know anything about Omandis."
"Well, you definitely know more information about the place than us. What should we do after reaching Omandis?" Angele kept asking.
Stigma remained silent for several minutes. He was trying to organize his thoughts.
The others waited around the campfire patiently.
"There's no country in Omandis. Wizard organizations and families all possess their own territories. I once found a map in my father's study and there were more than one hundred wizard organizations marked on it. There were also many wars going on before I left." Stigma finally opened his mouth.
"Wars? Why would they waste resources on something like that?" Hikari was confused.
"The population in Omandis is much larger than you thought. There can be more than one million people living in a city. Wizards and mortals share the same living space together. Mortals know that they're ruled by the wizards. It's like peasants and nobles. Ah, and there are many talented wizards in Omandis," Stigma explained. "Some strong wizard apprentices broke the limit when they were under 20 years old. Can you imagine seeing a ten-year-old wizard?"
"
I became a formal wizard at 47, by the way." He shook his head slightly.
"I became a formal wizard at 23," Reyline said. "And that's about 40 years ago…"
"50," Hikari said in a light tone.
"41 for me." Morrisa joined the conversation as well.
Angele nodded slightly. "I became a wizard at about 20 years old, too."
He was one of the most talented wizard apprentices in history yet there was someone better in Omandis.
"Many wizard apprentices will stop at rank 3 for a long time. That's normal. They need to be prepared before trying to break the limit." Stigma pursed his lips.
"You can choose to become a solo adventurer after arriving at Omandis. Go to the wizard towers and accept missions. You can also join my family and apply for advanced meditation techniques in the future," he continued.
"I thought you said it was hard to get those applications approved." Angele wondered.
"Well, I'm not sure about other wizard organizations, but my family separated the techniques into several parts. It's much more complicated than basic meditation techniques that you will encounter many problems during the process. The better the technique is, the faster your mentality will increase. Some of the advanced meditation techniques may even grant you special abilities. The wizards in Omandis are at a totally different level. I never told anyone about it in Nola. Besides the Talent Spells, we also have the special ability of the meditation technique and the help from the enchanted items or magic devices." He stopped for a second and looked at Angele. "The ring you have is considered as a decent magic device even in Omandis but you can find people willing you trade you their magic devices for rare resources. It's a different world."
"Interesting." Angele narrowed his eyes. It seemed that Omandis was the sanctuary for wizards. A better place than Nola most likely.
"The wizards of Omandis also fight in a completely different style. They use many instant-cast spells. The power of their Talent Spells and the special abilities of their advanced meditation techniques will decide the outcome of a battle most of the time. Wizards of west coast rely too much on high-level enchanted items and magic devices. That's how they cast their spells instantly."
Stigma stopped for a second, then he continued, "Never mess with a wizard for no reason. Simple ambushes won't be effective when the wizard has strong Talent Spell or magic devices that provide multiple energy barriers. The higher a wizard's mentality is, the more high-level enchanted items he'll be able to activate at the same time. A wizard from my family is famous for his defensive abilities. The old man can put up four energy barriers at the same time. It's almost impossible to stab him from the back."
The wizards listening to Stigma's explanations all looked surprised.
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Chapter 268: The Eye of the Storm (1)
Translator: Leo Editor: Frappe
"You mean activating four enchanted items at the same time…? At the west coast, wizards considered powerful can only activate two. And our enchanted items usually can't change the outcome of a battle," Reyline said in a light tone.
"Yeah, the situation is different." Stigma shook his head. "The wizards in Omandis have higher average mentality level. They have also developed methods in order to control the enchanted items better. The effects of the items can be buffed with less mentality required to activate them."
"Interesting…Do you mean rank 1 wizards like us are considered as weak in Omandis?" Hikari's brows furrowed.
"Correct, except Green. He's a strong wizard and he has a magic device. Green is still a strong wizard in Omandis." The other four wizards looked at Green right when Stigma finished speaking.
Angele had finished one meat skewer and he put several more onto the metal rack. "You already know that I'm a dark wizard. That's why I can fight better. It shouldn't be surprising. Stigma, I'm still curious about your family. Can you tell us about it if you don't mind?"
Stigma hesitated for a second before he nodded. "Sure. It's not a big deal."
He drank some wine from the bottle and started explaining.
"My father is the head. It may sound exciting, but he has more than ten sons. Only one of us is a 'pureblood' human being while the rest are all mixed blood, including me. He loves the 'real' human being much more than he loves us. That guy is also considered as the true inheritor in the family. The situation is quite complicated.
"The only people who cared about me were my mother, my young sister, and a friend named Liana. I really miss them." Angele could see the tinge of loneliness from Stigma's eyes.
"I wasn't a talented wizard apprentice. I spent years before I reached rank 3. I successfully broke the limit after I arrived at the West Coast. I was always the target of the bullies in the family. Only my sister and Liana helped me, but they are talented and important to the family. I think they have already become formal wizards. I miss my mother. Her body condition was bad when I was still Omandis…I wasted too much time in Nola. I wish they still remember me…" Stigma sighed with mixed feelings as he recalled the days he had spent in Omandis and Nola.
"We're getting close. Just pay them a visit. You're already a formal wizard, so your family members should respect you." Hikari smiled.
"You don't understand. Although I'm at the Liquid stage, there are many wizards in my family that have already reached higher stages or ranks. My sister has the family backing her up and she's talented. It's highly possible that she has already advanced to the next rank." Stigma lowered his head. The light from the flames brightened up his cheeks.
"It'll take her some time to advance to rank 2 from rank 1 no matter how talented she is." Hikari shook her head.
"Well, let's talk about something else, the atmosphere is getting heavy here. What do you guys plan to do after we arrive at Omandis?" Hikari changed the topic.
The five wizards stayed around the campfire and finished the food and had a long conversation.
Angele returned to his room, but he was still thinking about what Stigma said about the wizards in Omandis.
If Stigma was telling the truth, it meant that they had instant-cast spells other than Talent Spells.
With the magic devices and advanced meditation techniques, the wizards in Omandis must be extremely powerful. Angele was a strong wizard in Nola, but he would be considered weak in the central continent.
Angele lay on the bed quietly with blue light dots flashing in front of his eyes.
He asked Zero to simulate a battle between him and the wizards from Omandis. If the opponent had just three instant-cast spells, Angele could still win the fight. He could cast about three powerful spells instantly as he had the chip. It was his advantage during the battles.
Angele could understand why Stigma wanted to return to Omandis so bad. He wanted to prove himself to the family. Stigma reached the Liquid stage, so he was no longer a burden to his friend and his sister.
In the next ten days, the five stayed in their own room and prepared for the incoming challenges.
They created ice cubes and put them on the deck, so the third challenge did not even detect them.
For the fourth challenge, Angele increased the speed of the airships and asked the wizards to stop breathing for three minutes. They survived that with no problem as well.
It all came to the last problem.
In the endless blue sky, three airships were slowly advancing in the air.
Five light wizards were standing on the deck of the first airship. They were glancing around and exchanging information using the energy particles.
The airships slowed down quickly and floated in the air.
The golden sunlight brought warmth to the deck and illuminated on the white robes the wizards were wearing.
"The biggest problem of the trip is ahead," Stigma spoke in a serious tone. "The Eye of Al'akir. there's no dangerous creature around it but it can be considered as a natural disaster."
The other four wizards looked at the scene ahead with serious expressions on their faces.
The sky was beautiful and clear over the airships.
However, dark clouds covered the area ahead. There was an enormous tornado connecting the land and the sky and it was spinning slowly.
Yet, the tornado was quiet. Angele could not hear it making any noise.
The gigantic column of twisting air blocked the view of the plain down the airship. The only thing in the wizards' sights was the seemingly endless sea of drifting clouds.
There was only a tiny gap between heaven and hell.
"This is the last challenge we have and it's something complicated. First, we need to wait for the wind to weaken so we can travel around its edge," Stigma explained. "Moreover, there are large groups of storm spirits inside the tornado. They're created by mother nature and they're way powerful than the ones created by potions. Stay alert everyone, they can use electric pulses and they come in large numbers."
"Sounds like a lot of trouble," Hikari shook her head.
"Yeah, the Cloud Bees and the tornado are the most difficult challenges in the trip. We can dodge the creatures, but we can't dodge the tornado." Stigma nodded.
"Can't we just change the route a bit?" Angele asked.
"No. The area around the tornado is the safest place here as the strong flying creatures can't get close to it. We have to win the fight against the storm spirits." Stigma shrugged.
"Alright then. It's about time, increase the airships' speed." Reyline opened his mouth. He had successfully advanced to the Crystal stage after surviving the fourth challenge, but he still needed to stabilize his mentality.
"Sure." Angele nodded and activated the amulet in his hand.
The three airships were surrounded by green energy particles and their speed started increasing.
The gray tornado was getting larger and larger in Angele's eyes as the airship approached it.
After several minutes, the wizards could hear the violent storm roaring.
Angele felt like that his ears were covered by a thick blanket. The strong pressure from the wind was making him uncomfortable. He was having trouble inhaling air.
The furious wind scratched his face like blades of swords.
The envelopes of the airships were leaning backward and the green energy particles were trying its best to keep the airships stable.
The airships looked like three tiny ants moving around a large gray hourglass.
The five wizards lowered their head and hid behind the railings. Angele was still checking the situation ahead from time to time.
"Get ready! They're coming!" Stigma shouted.
WOO*
Many vortices jumped onto the deck and formed many tall storm spirits within seconds.
The storm spirits looked identical to human beings, some of them were male and the rest was female. They were naked, and their skin was covered with blue electric pulses.
"Invaders! Die! In the name of Al'akir, I shall destroy you!" The leader of the storm spirits shouted in an ancient language. It was a female storm spirit. Her eyes were white, and they were glowing. Countless electric pulses gathered in her hands and formed a lengthy lightning spear.
The blue spear looked like a long lightning bolt and it was sparking.
"Die!" She threw the spear to the wizards.
"Let me handle this!" Reyline stepped forward. "Protect Green! Make sure he can control those wind energy particles from the matrix!"
The spear drew a straight line in the air and flew toward Reyline. He had already prepared the energy barrier. However, the direction of the spear changed as it approached the airship. The spear turned to the right and flew toward Angele.
Angele's expression changed. Blue light dots flashed in front of his eyes, and he was holding the amulet tight in his hand. The amulet was the key to this challenge. He needed to make sure that the direction and speed of the airships were perfect as the terrifying tornado was right beside them. If the wind energy particles lost control, the airships would be dragged into the eye of the storm. No one would be able to survive that. Even the storm spirits had no idea what was in the eye of the tornado. The pressure of the wind would tear all invaders apart.
Angele already did the simulation before the storm spirits jumped on the deck. Their chances of survival were lower than 0.1% if the airship was hit directly by the tornado.
He was focusing on controlling the airship like in the plan they had discussed. It was hard for him to keep the airships stable while traveling around the edge of the storm and it was nearly impossible for him to defend against the attacks from the storm spirits.
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Chapter 269: The Eye of the Storm (2)
Translator: Leo Editor: Frappe
The lightning spear flew toward Angele, who then realized that it was the metal barrier around his body attracting the lightning, and he took a step back right away.
Hikari was the first one to act. She drew a silver arc in the air and the arc expanded to a large light screen. The screen dropped right in front of Angele.
Stigma moved Angele quickly and stood right beside him.
"Wizard's Brew!" He shouted as he raised the left hand. Some black substance spurted out of the center of Stigma's palm and formed a black wall.
They created the barrier just in time. The lightning spear hit the silver light screen right away.
Crack*
The lightning spear penetrated the wall, but its size shrank in half. The remaining of the spear then hit the black wall and disappeared.
"Go! Take them out! The weak one behind the barriers first!" the female storm spirit leader shouted.
About ten storm spirits started gathering lightning pulses in their hands, conjuring various types of weapons. The ones in the back were using lightning longbows, while the ones in the front were charging forward.
Reyline raised his longbow, releasing three arrows created by strains of hair. However, they were blocked by the lightning bolt shot by the female storm spirit leader.
Hikari and Stigma were standing beside Angele. Morrisa was casting some weak defensive spells for the three wizards in front of her.
Suddenly, five lightning arrows left the bows in the storm spirits' hands, flying toward Angele.
BOOM*
Blue lightning pulse danced around the deck and the light illuminated on the whole airship.
Angele was still focusing on controlling the airship. He had to hide behind Stigma and Hikari.
CHI*
One of the arrows penetrated the barriers created by the two wizards in the front and was about to hit him.
"Damn!" Angele leaped backward quickly, hitting against the railings. He barely dodged the attack.
BAM*
A blue lightning pulse left the arrow and struck Angele's body fiercely.
His face paled as he ran to the right side. It took several seconds for the lightning pulse to leave his body.
It seemed that only the leader was intelligent. The other storm spirits looked confused, unsure if the arrows hit the target or not.
They stopped moving and looked at their bows.
KA*
Stigma jumped to one of the storm spirits, stabbing him in the neck.
The storm spirit fell to the floor as he pulled the dagger out. Stigma rushed toward Angele and started putting up a barrier again.
Hikari followed right after Stigma. There were still storm spirits charging toward them. Reyline wanted to help but he was busy fighting with the female leader.
Angele was running around, trying to dodge all the ranged attacks. The three airships were still moving in the right direction. The strikes from the storm spirits could deal about 30 degrees of damage. The lightning pulse only hit Angele because of his metal barrier.
The storm spirits were weak, but their power was buffed by the tornado. They were moving much faster due to that reason.
Stigma and Hikari were not fast enough to keep up with them.
BAM*
A lightning arrow pierced the floor.
BOOM*
The arrow exploded and turned into countless lightning pulses.
Angele quickly rolled to the left to dodge the strike.
However, he saw two lightning swords coming from the front as he raised his head up.
"Green!"
"Watch out! Green!"
Hikari and Stigma shouted nervously.
The two blue swords hit the deck furiously.
BOOM*
Angele rolled several times again to dodge the attack, but he was hit by the lightning pulse again. Zero was warning him about his body condition constantly.
The two storm spirits roared and rushed to him.
"You're dead! Invader!" The one on the left his sword again.
Angele bit his lips. He could not fight back since he was focusing on controlling the Wind energy particles. If the airships moved to the wrong direction, all the wizards on it would be killed by the terrifying tornado.
The airships finally went around the edge of the tornado and were about to enter the safe zone while the storm spirits charged toward Angele.
Angele sighed in relief. He was enraged by the storm spirits and really wanted to fight back. He only needed to wait a bit longer. The safe zone was just right ahead.
BAM BAM*
The two lightning swords hit the floor again. Angele managed to dodge the swords but was again hit by the lightning pulses.
'Warning! Warning! Your organs are being damaged…Please find a cover and heal yourself…' Zero's mechanical voice echoed in his ears.
There was no way for Angele to dodge all the lightning pulses. He could not just deactivate the metal forcefield. Although he put most of his metal weapons in a non-conductive box before they approached the storm, his metal barrier was still bringing him trouble.
"Almost…We're almost there! After the airships left the storm, I'll f*ck those elemental bastards up!" Angele gritted his teeth and started running around the deck. The two storm spirits were chasing after him.
"Hey, Ruby brothers! Hurry up! He's the weakest one here and yet you can't even finish him off?!" The female leader shouted at the two storm spirits. She was still fighting with Reyline.
"Weakest one?! I'll show you what I'm capable of in a second! I'll cut your heads off and make them into wine bottles!" Angele dodged another strike from the Ruby brothers and exchanged words with the female leader.
"Ha? You? Come at me! I'm waiting for you!" The female leader sneered and licked her lips.
BAM*
Angele suddenly felt an intense pain coming from the back of his waist. He was almost paralyzed.
He turned around and realized that he was hit by one of the storm spirit archers. The arrow turned into lightning pulses after landing on Angele's body.
"Hey, come cut our heads off and make them into wine bottles! Ha!" The Ruby brothers laughed and slashed forward. "The only thing you can do is to run around like a monkey!"
"F*cking hell!" The lightning pulses paralyzed Angele's body for a second and he failed to dodge the slashes coming from the Ruby brothers.
"Crap." Angele tried to move but his legs were still recovering from the injury. He could only watch the swords falling onto him.
BAM*
Suddenly, a man in a black robe rushed toward Angele and blocked the attack for him. He was blown away by the impact and hit the railings on the side.
"Stigma! I'll make you pay!" Angele was furious, as he had begun screaming maniacally.
Finally, Zero notified him that the airships were about to leave the tornado.
"You're dead!" Angele narrowed his eyes. He could stop focusing on the Wind energy particles in half a minute. He wanted to slay all the storm spirits that attacked them.
"Retreat! Everyone! We're leaving the tornados!" The female leader suddenly gave the order.
"You're lucky!" The Ruby brothers stopped chasing after Angele and the swords in their hands disappeared into the air.
"Let's move!" The storm spirits moved away from the wizards quickly. They jumped out of the railings and turned into gray vortices, heading back to the tornado.
At that moment, the airships successfully moved away from the tornado and entered the safe zone.
He quickly returned the amulet into his pouch.
"Who's running now?!"
He rushed to the railings.
The gray vortices had just left the railings and were about to fly away.
Angele raised his right hand.
"Reyline, longbow, please."
Reyline threw his longbow toward Angele without hesitation.
PA*
Angele caught the longbow steadily.
He pulled the bowstring to full.
CHI CHI CHI*
Three lightning arrows left the bow right away. Angele then raised his left palm and released some distorted energy waves.
"Light of Thorns."
Golden laser beams appeared in the air as soon as Angele finished his words.
The gray vortices were stopped by the lightning arrows for a second and the golden lasers pierced through them.
The vortices stopped and returned to the deck. A group of storm spirits appeared on the floor again. Most of them were damaged by the lasers from the Light of Thorns.
The female leader watched Angele drop the longbow to the ground. She stared at the man with hatred in her eyes.
"How's that even possible…" she muttered.
She thought Angele was the weakest member as he was being protected by the others and did not think that the man could injure them in their elemental forms.
Black rune flashed in Angele's eyes. He walked to the storm spirits and sneered. "Where are you going? I haven't changed my mind yet. I'll cut your heads off."
CHI*
Angele rushed toward the storm spirits and slashed forward with the cursed scimitar.
CLANK*
The storm spirit in the front tried to block with his sword but failed. His head dropped to the floor.
The other storm spirits realized what just happened and they started attacking Angele.
Angele leaped to the left, dodging two lightning arrows, and blocked one lightning bolt with his scimitar. He rolled on the ground and jumped onto the Ruby brothers.
The Ruby brothers raised their swords at the same time and charged toward Angele.
Suddenly, Angele's body blurred in their sights and disappeared. He then appeared from the right, swinging the scimitar forward.
KA*
Angele did not look back. He jumped to the female leader right away.
The Ruby brothers grunted, and their bodies were separated in half.
"No!" the female leader shouted furiously. The silver blade of the incoming cursed scimitar reflected in her eyes. Countless lightning pulses surrounded her body. Their color was turning from blue to purple.
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Chapter 270: Arrival (1)
Translator: Leo Editor: Frappe
BAM*
The scimitar hit the purple lightning pulses around the female leader.
The lightning pulses were trying to stop the silver blade from going through.
The black rune flashed in Angele's eyes again and the cursed scimitar successfully crushed the lightning pulses.
CHI*
The blade hit the female leader's neck, leaving a long deep wound on her skin. The blood of the storm spirit was blue, and the strange liquid was sparking.
A black dot appeared in the center of the female leader's chest and it started expanding within seconds. She was being petrified.
"Electrify!" The female leader shouted. The lightning pulses around her hair exploded, turning into two large, blue shells.
The shells were trying to clap Angele. The female leader raised her lightning spear and swept forward.
Angele leaned to the right and dodged both attacks.
With the buff from the cursed scimitar, Angele's Stamina and Strength were increased to an incredible level.
Some more illusion energy wave was released from the signet. Angele lowered his body and charged forward. In the female leader's sight, it looked like there were two Angeles moving around her.
She hesitated and decided to use the shells to block the one behind him and attack the one in the front with the lightning spear.
CHIN*
The two Angele she saw all vanished into the air, both of them were just illusions.
The female leader suddenly felt the intense pain coming from her stomach. It was Angele, who then pulled the scimitar out of her body.
"You…" She opened her mouth but failed to finish speaking.
Countless cracks appeared on the leader's pale body. The blue blood was leaking out of the wounds and her skin was coated in a blue glow.
BOOM*
The female leader's body exploded like a large water ball that was filled with blue liquid.
The blue lightning pulses mixed in the blue liquid and they splashed everywhere on the deck.
Angele struggled several seconds as his robe was soaked in the blue liquid. A thin layer of silver metal shield covered his skin and hair.
Countless lightning pulses were running through his body.
Reyline and Hikari had already finished off the rest of the injured storm spirits. Morrisa dragged Stigma to a corner of the deck. She put up a white light screen to block the splashing blue blood.
The blue blood on the deck evaporated and disappeared into the air after several minutes.
The silver metal shield on Angele's body melted and the liquid was absorbed by his skin. His skin was still smoking. Although he had dodged the lightning pulses, he was still suffering from the previous injuries.
Angele took out the amulet from the pouch and checked the boats' condition. He made sure that the boats were still accelerating and he walked to Stigma quickly.
The white light screen created by Morrisa slowly disappeared.
Stigma leaned against the railings. His face was pale, and blood was running out of his mouth. Morrisa was treating the deep wound on his waist carefully.
The man took the hit from the female leader for Angele. His waist had been crushed, and Angele could see the bloody flesh. Morrisa had removed most of Stigma's broken bones around the wound. Fortunately, the high-temperature lightning pulse burnt his wound after so Stigma did not lose too much blood.
"Are you alright?" Angele crouched and asked in a light tone.
"It's painful but it won't kill me." Stigma forced a smile on his face.
"The lightning damage is the main problem but at least there's no internal bleeding," Morrisa explained. "I did some basic treatment and removed the lightning damage. I need someone to help me with removing the burnt muscle and skin before applying the healing gel to his wound."
"What's the requirement? I want to help." Angele wondered.
"You must know how to control the botanic energy particles perfectly." Morrisa looked at him.
"I can do that." Hikari walked to Morrisa. "I'm good at controlling botanic energy particles and I know how to cast healing spells."
Reyline followed after her and they crouched by Stigma.
"Sure." Morrisa nodded. "I'll start the surgery now."
"Alright."
White glows surrounded their hands and Hikari started drawing green runes in the air.
Morrisa created a white light scalpel and started removing the dead muscles around Stigma's waist.
There was nothing Reyline and Angele could do, so they waited on the side quietly.
After about half an hour, the surgery was completed with no problem. A part of Stigma's waist was removed and Hikari was using her healing spells to help the muscles grow back.
Several minutes later, the muscles and skin returned to their original shape. Hikari took out a purple potion from her pouch and handed it over to Stigma.
"Drink it, you'll recover faster."
Stigma was still weak. "Thanks," he said.
"We should be the one to say thanks. You protected Green at the right time. Without you, our boat will crash and all of us will die." Hikari pursed her lips. After all, the tornado was too terrifying.
"Yeah, you did a great job," Reyline said in a serious tone. Although there was a blank expression on his face, the wizards knew that he was grateful for what Stigma did in the battle.
Angele took out a glass tube from his pouch. Inside it was some purple dust.
"It's my special healing dust. You used the potion version before. Consume 3 grams of the dust every day. It will help you recover."
Stigma grabbed the glass tube and he knew how valuable the medicine was. The potion cured him within several days the last time and it was the best healing gel he had ever used. The purple dust looked like an improved version of that potion.
"I appreciate your help a lot. I didn't expect you to do that for me." Angele looked relieved. He would have to give up the amulet to fight back if Stigma did not block the attack for him. The only way to regain strength at that moment was to stop focusing on the control of the boats.
"Go back to your room and have some good rest. You will have to stay in bed for half a month, I think."
Reyline helped Stigma return to his own room. Angele, Morrisa, and Hikari started cleaning the deck.
The dead storm spirits only left small piles of blue dust on the floor.
Angele walked to the area where the female leader died.
He found something different in the pile of blue dust from the leader.
It was a blue bead.
The bead had the smooth surface of a pearl and had the similar size as an eyeball.
Angele crouched, brushing away the blue dust, and grabbed the blue bead.
He observed the bead closely. Its surface was reflective, and it was still warm.
"The Ash Bead of Storm." Hikari walked to Angele and recognized the item in Angele's hand. "Green, be careful with it. It's a rare item but it's fragile. The Electric wizards love it. Large amounts of Electric energy particles can be stored inside the bead and help its owner to cast more spells. You're lucky. It seems like the female leader was very close to her next rank."
"Ash Bead of Storm? So it's only good for Electric wizards, right? Will it be useful to Reyline? Can I find a way to use it?" Angele stood up and asked.
"Reyline is different and he has something similar to that. Keep that to yourself. I'm not sure if you can find a way to use it. Maybe you can make it as the core of certain magic circles or matrices." Hikari shook her head. "You can also trade it with the wizards in Omandis for something else. I'm sure this thing is valuable to any Electric wizards."
Angele nodded and put the blue bead in his pouch carefully. He coated the surface of the bead with some silver metal to harden it.
"Well, I wanted to keep my promise and cut their heads off, but they turned into dust after they died." Angele shook his head slightly.
"Come on. I've never seen any people cutting elementals' heads off…" Hikari chuckled. "We're leaving the storm area, right?"
"Yeah, it should be safe now." Angele nodded.
The three wizards walked to the railings and looked at the stormy area.
The grey tornado connected the land and the sky. It was surrounded by thick clouds and the wind was soaring.
The noise from the storm was barely noticeable and Angele's ears were no longer hurting. The tornado looked slow and peaceful from the deck.
"Finally, we're getting close to our destination." Angele sighed.
"Yeah, this place is crazy, but the fight was relatively easy." Hikari nodded.
Morrisa stood on the side quietly, not saying anything.
The three enjoyed the great view of the enormous tornado in front of them.
"How many wizards have the chance to look at the Eye of the Storm so close?" Hikari laughed.
Suddenly, her expression changed.
"Wait, what's that? Holy sh*t!" Morrisa shouted in surprise.
Thousands of white vortices left the tornado and they were moving to the boat at full speed.
The vortices looked like the bees leaving their nest at the same time.
Countless storm spirits were coming out of the tornado.
They were flying to the boats furiously.
"Run! I'll increase the speed!" Angele realized what was happening. He shouted and ran to the main mast.
Ten thousand, twenty thousand, one hundred thousand, or two hundred thousand? They had no idea just how many storm spirits were pursuing them. Their sights were filled with storm spirits. The tornado almost looked like a base of the storm spirits. Angele never expected something like that and Stigma did not mention anything about it.
Angele took out the amulet. The red and green energy particles appeared in the air and gathered around it.
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Chapter 271: Arrival (2)
Translator: Leo Editor: Frappe
The energy particles sank into the amulet and created a translucent light cylinder, connecting the main mast and the railings.
"Reenslanvarea!" Hikari invoked the incantation. She made a strange hand gesture and countless green energy particles gather in front of her chest, creating a large green light ball.
She pushed the green light ball to the main mast.
CHI*
A green light cylinder emerged out of the ball and connected to the amulet in Angele's hand.
CHI CHI*
Two more light cylinders connected to the amulet, one was black and the other was blue.
Reyline and Stigma were standing by the entrance of the cabin. They noticed the situation as well.
Reyline was gathering the blue lightning pulses around his hands and Stigma was releasing a ray of light that was formed by some black energy particles.
The green, blue, and black light cylinders connected to the amulet in Angele's hand. They looked like three glowing chains.
The red and green energy particles around the amulet started spinning, then it moved to the center of the amulet and created a tiny vortex.
The amulet turned all the energy particles into a white light cylinder and transferred the power to the matrices in the airships.
Between the thick gray clouds.
The three airships were advancing slowly. A thin layer of white barrier appeared around them as the Wind energy particles started accelerating their speed.
The storm spirits had revealed their true forms and they were riding on storm clouds. They were chasing after the airships with various types of weapons in hands.
A Four-wing Night Sparrow was flying through the thick clouds, heading toward the storm spirits behind the airships.
WOO*
A muscular male storm spirit had a long blue spear in hand. The man had a black earring on his left ear and he flew by the night sparrow at full speed.
"Ha!" The storm spirit roared, and the distorted sound wave was visible around his mouth.
The night sparrow was hit by the sound wave and it almost lost its balance.
Countless storm spirits flew passed the night sparrow, drawing countless blue arcs in the sky. They were still going after the accelerating airships.
"WOO~WOO!" A storm spirit with a scar on his forehead shouted in a high-pitched voice.
The night sparrow flew around the clouds and glanced at the three airships.
The clouds under the storm spirits' feet left trails of lightning pulses in the air and those lightning pulses were moving to the airships as well.
The night sparrow swung its wings, then it turned around and started returning to the airship.
"HA!"
A storm spirit beside the bird lowered his body and hit it with a trident.
The bald man sneered and raised his trident into the air. The dead night sparrow was skewered on top of the three-pronged spear and its blood was dripping down the handle of the weapon.
"WOO!" The storm spirit shouted. "For Azus!" His voice sounded like a lion roaring.
"For Azus! For Azus! For Azus!" All the storm spirits around him started to yell madly.
The dead night sparrow was burnt into ashes by the lightning pulses and it disappeared into the air.
Angele suddenly opened his eyes. The terrifying look of the bald storm spirit left a deep impression on his mind.
The airships finally passed through the thick clouds and left the storm area, entering a blue sky over a green plain.
Countless storm spirits stopped by the edge of the thick clouds, watching the airships leave.
The bald man with a trident in hand was standing in the front all the storm spirits. The man had a pair of sharp eyes above his aquiline nose. Angele could see the craziness in his eyes.
He glared at the leaving airships and raised his right hand.
Suddenly, the airships visualized in front of the man's eyes and he slowly moved his hand toward the illusion of the airships.
An enormous blue hand appeared from the thick clouds and it was moving toward the three airships in the front.
The airships looked like three black tiny ants compared to the translucent hand.
The hand suddenly slapped down.
BAM*
The two airships behind were crushed into pieces by the hand. The airship in the front had barely dodged the attack but part of the railings was still damaged. Black wooden pieces scattered in the air as the airship escaped.
On the last airship.
Angele slowly lowered the amulet. The surface of the item was covered with tiny cracks.
He turned his around and checked the situation.
Angele could still feel that the bald man's cold sight falling upon him. He visualized the scene that the man was backed up by countless storm spirits.
"Ah…" Angele closed his eyes quickly and tears were dripping down his chin.
"Finally, we made it out!" Stigma walked to Angele with the help from Reyline. Morrisa and Hikari followed after them. Angele glanced around, and he knew that the crew was still trying to figure out what had just happened.
The bald storm spirit was at a different level. The rank 1 wizards on the airship just could not understand how the storm spirit reached out to the airships. Angele was certain that if the slap hit the airship they were on, they would all be dead.
"Stigma, why didn't you tell us about this? That was a huge number of storm spirits. How did you survive the trip to the west coast?" Hikari took a deep breath and looked at Stigma.
"I don't know…" Stigma shook his head. "I didn't encounter that many storm spirits on that trip…This area is controlled by the elemental lord Al'akir. He's a kind storm giant and he will never ask his army to attack the airships. The ones we fought on deck were rogues." Stigma bit his lips as he recalled the terrifying scene.
"Angele, how are your eyes? Your bird enraged him, I think." Hikari turned to Angele.
"I'm fine." Angele opened his eyes and nodded. He opened his hand and showed the crew the broken amulet. "The amulet is finished."
The amulet perished in the air and turned into white smoke. The white smoke rose from Angele's palm and disappeared into the air.
"Well, we need to find a place to land then." Stigma shook his head. "Good thing is that we survived the Eye of the Storm, but we need to travel across one more dangerous area without the airship until we reach the residential areas for the wizards…"
"Which area?" Angele wondered and looked at Stigma.
"The Abyss Canyon, but don't worry, my family has a guard post here. Just a heads-up, the place is filled with scumbags from other races. Robbers, murderers, assassins, and thieves are everywhere. Prepare to fight and don't let your guard down. My sister once told me, 'Trust no one in the canyon.'"
"I thought you said the place isn't populated?" Reyline asked in a light tone.
"Well, it's not populated by human beings. The place is a mess and it's extremely dangerous. I've never entered the canyon myself either." Stigma nodded.
"We just survived all the challenges, so I have nothing to fear." Hikari chuckled.
"Actually, the Abyss Canyon is great for us. Remember the thing Reyline said? There might be assassins waiting for us at the original destination." Angele lowered his voice.
"You're right. Let's enter the canyon and disguise ourselves. It's probably our best choice right now." Stigma pursed his lips.
"Prepare to land then, let's cool down the envelopes," Angele ordered.
In the endless blue sky, there was a gray airship slowly landing on the green plain.
There were many dead trees on the plains and several gray creatures that looked like groundhogs were jumping around them. They were looking at the dropping black airship curiously.
The green grasses covered the yellow mud on the plain.
There was a humongous green tree that looked like an umbrella standing in the center of the plain quietly.
The black airship landed on an empty ground in front of the tree slowly.
BAM*
Yellow dust and mud were blown into the air as the airship hit the ground
It was noon. The sunlight was flaming hot. The dust dropped onto the land after several minutes and the sky became clear again.
Many tiny yellow dots appeared on the horizon. Those strange-looking creatures heard the noise and wanted to check the situation.
Under the large tree, a group of tiny white things climbed up the branches.
They flew through the gaps between the leaves, exposing themselves to the eye-blinding sunlight.
It was a group of human-shaped origami with wings on their back. They also had long paper pigtails over their heads.
There was nothing on the origami girl's face. The long white robes on their bodies were made from paper as well. They looked simple but elegant.
Most of the origami girls were hiding under the tree leaves and looking at the enormous airship in the front.
The origami girls were flying but they did not make any noise. They just stared at the black airship in the shadows under the tree. The scene was quite strange.
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Chapter 272: Moving Forward (1)
Translator: Leo Editor: Frappe
KA*
Suddenly, a ladder was lowered down by the railings, connecting the airship and the land. Some yellow dust was blown into the air again.
Several people wearing white robes climbed down the ladder. The eye-blinding sunlight illuminated on their bodies.
There were three male wizards and two female wizards. All of them were carrying black leather travel cases.
"The place is deadly silent," a man with short brown hair muttered. He was walking at the front of the crew. The man had a pair of golden glowing eyes and there was a silver metallic glint on his skin.
"The origami girls…" a man with black hair said in a serious tone. He noticed the gray paper girls that were hiding in the shadows. The origami girls were staring at the wizards quietly.
"We need to move, now!" he added. The man looked nervous. "Green, turn right. Hurry!"
"Why? Are you afraid of paper monsters? Come on, Stigma, you're a Liquid Stage wizard…" Angele noticed those origami girls under the tree as well.
"Well, legends say that the origami girls live in a tree that has a large clock on it. A distorted black shadow will start winding up the clock and the origami girls will leave the tree to hunt any living beings in their range. The only way to get rid of them is to kill the dark shadow hiding under the tree. The origami girls come from nowhere and they're endless." Stigma had a serious expression on the face. "Didn't you see that the other creatures choose to stay away from this tree?"
The wizards heard Stigma's words and reconsidered the situation.
"Let's leave then."
Angele nodded slightly.
"An altar! Let's go there!" Hikari pointed at the left side of the tree.
Angele turned to the left and glanced around. He saw a grey stone altar sitting in an empty area quietly.
A cross-shaped yellow rune was floating over the altar. It looked like a yellow bead with four sharp needles. It was crystal clear.
Yellow smokes were rising from the rune constantly.
The five walked to the altar together quickly.
Stigma was checking the origami girls from time to time. He wanted to make sure that they were not moving.
Reyline held his dual scimitars tight in his hands, glancing around and checking the situation. The three male wizards formed a triangle around the two female wizards.
The origami girls stayed patiently under the trees, staring at the wizards curiously. There was nothing on their faces, so Angele was not sure if they were just waiting for the dark shadow to wind up the clock.
The five wizards felt relieved when they arrived at the altar. They sat down around the stone base and started checking their gears.
Angele sighed in relief as he sat down on the stone base of the altar.
According to Stigma, those altars would never be attacked by magical creatures and the runes would regenerate if they were taken away, but no one could explain why.
Stigma sprinkled some green dust over his black dagger as he started talking.
"Get ready everyone. Make sure you can find the needed spell materials if we engage in any battle. The place is dangerous, but first, I need to confirm our current location. I didn't expect to see the origami girls here."
"How long do you need?" Reyline wondered.
"About 15 minutes."
"I have a bad feeling about this." Reyline knitted his eyebrows. "Something isn't right about this place. I think we need to leave the area before it gets dark."
"You're wrong this time. Although the place is dangerous, we need to take our time and find a reference point first before we move. We might get ambushed by some random scumbags if we accidentally entered their territories." Stigma shook his head.
"What do we do then?" Hikari grabbed Morrisa's hand and asked in a light tone. "Morrisa is a great healer and she can sense the life energy in the air. She's not feeling well now which means…"
"Yeah, the life energy in the air is weak. The place makes me sick but I'm not sure if it's the death energy. It feels like something different," Morrisa explained.
"Let's move now." Angele made the decision. "We need to get away from those origami girls first and see if the situation changes. Maybe they're the reason why Morrisa isn't feeling well."
Reyline, Morrisa, and Hikari nodded, but Stigma still had a different opinion. After having a short conversation with Angele, he decided to follow the group's decision.
"Alright, let's move along the airship's original route. We should be fine." He stood up.
The three male wizards formed a triangle around the two female wizards again and started advancing.
Quickly, the five disappeared over the horizon.
WOO*
The gentle wind blew over the altar.
The gray stone base suddenly started to decay in the wind.
The crystal rune disappeared, and the stone base of the altar cracked, losing its light.
Several seconds later, the stone altar turned into a tiny pool filled with some black sticky liquid. A rotten smell permeated the air.
Blop*
In the center of the dark pool, a pale face of a woman with long hair illuminated on the surface of the water. The woman opened her dry grey lips but did not say a word.
An origami girl fluttered her wings and slowly stopped by the edge of the pool. She turned her paper head around and stared at the direction that the five wizards were heading to silently.
Five white robes were advancing slowly on the endless plains.
There were several red and black birds flying around right above the endless plain. The birds had red eyeballs and they looked like mutated vultures.
Angele noticed several vultures standing on the branches of dead trees staring at them. The noise coming out of their beak was making him anxious.
Reyline raised his head and looked at the vultures that were flying in the sky. He connected the handles of his scimitars, turning them into a longbow.
Stigma eyed Reyline and put his right hand on the man's longbow.
Reyline slowly lowered the longbow as Stigma shook his head.
Angele was checking the surroundings constantly as he walked. There were blue light dots flashing in front of his eyes.
'How's the task?' he questioned.
'Scanning completed. Checking the unusual forcefield… No results. Please leave the area immediately.' Angele was disappointed at Zero's response.
He moved his right hand to the handle of the cursed scimitar. Some green energy flow climbed up his arm right away.
'Check my body condition.' Angele ordered. He collected all the blue dust left by the storm spirits after the fight and consumed most of it in several days. The blue dust was necessary for the life energy conversion process.
The extraction of the life essence from the storm spirits was slow. He had asked more than ten times as the team advanced. By then, the task was finally finished.
'Life essence from the storm spirits successfully absorbed. Attributes increased. Checking…'
'Angele Rio. Strength, 15. Agility, 13.4. Stamina, 17. Mentality, 55.3. Mana, 54. Buffed by the cursed scimitar.'
He was surprised by the result. He hadn't expected for the life essence of the storm spirit to be so effective.
'Remove the buff and check my condition again.'
'Checking…Angele Rio. Strength, 6.2. Agility, 6.7. Stamina, 10.2. Mentality, 53.4. Mana, 50.1.'
'Incredible…The numbers are unbelievable.' Angele was satisfied with the result. The power made him feel more confident about himself.
With the buff, his Stamina had reached 17 units and he did not even need to apply any healing gel to his wound. It would take about half a minute for the wound to stop bleeding and he only needed to rest for several days to fully recover. A strike that could kill an average wizard would only injure him slightly.
The increase in Strength was also helpful. Angele was certain that he could easily trade hits with a mutated magical beast with such power.
Most importantly at this rate, his mentality would reach the requirement for the Crystal stage soon. Angele's Mentality was increased by about ten units during the trip.
He heard Morrisa saying something and stopped interacting with Zero.
"I feel much better now. The thing that made me sick is gone I think. It must be the origami girls."
"Sounds great. Those origami girls are controlled by some mysterious power. We're lucky that they didn't go after us. Well, we're getting close to the Abyss Canyon." Stigma pointed forward.
There was a cliff in front of the five wizards and the warm wind was blowing over their faces.
They walked to the cliff and put down the travel cases.
Angele looked down and saw a terrifyingly deep crevasse. It was dark and quiet.
The cliff on the other side was more 1,000 meters away. The pine tree on that cliff looked like a dark green dot.
"Wait, let me check if there's any trap," Angele said loudly.
"Sure." Stigma and the rest of the team stepped aside.
Angele stood by the edge of the cliff and crouched. He grabbed some mud and threw it into the crevasse.
The mud was scattered by the wind like a yellow ribbon and disappeared into the air.
"Hibis…Listen…Suffer…Wind…Dream…" Angele invoked an incantation and pointed forward with his right hand's index finger.
A weak green string that looked like a beansprout emerged out of the tip of Angele's finger, flying to the other side of the crevasse. The string was not affected by the strong wind at all.
"It's a modified spell great at detecting energy movements. The green string can disguise itself as a live human being," he explained as he controlled the flying string.
"Much better than my wind elemental potion. You finished casting the spell in seconds." Hikari nodded slightly.
They watched the green string flying in the air quietly.
Several minutes later, the string arrived at the cliff on the other side.
CHI*
Suddenly, a distorted shadow flashed in the air and swallowed the green string.
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Chapter 273: Moving Forward (2)
Translator: Leo Editor: Frappe
The five wizards were surprised by what they just witnessed.
Angele pursed his lips. He tried to find the green string but nothing could be traced.
"What's going on?" he wondered.
Stigma narrowed his eyes and shook his head. "We need to find another route. I don't even know what's on that cliff. There's a town called White Mist around the canyon. We can find human beings living there. We should go ask them about the situation."
Angele was not familiar with the area, so he decided to follow Stigma's advice. The five wizards started heading to the right.
Good thing was that the team carried enough food and water. They could stay on the plains for about two more months.
The path to White Mist Town was dangerous. The first several days were peaceful but they were tracked down by a herd of strange beasts in the next ten days. The creature looked like a mutated leopard with burning flame at the end of its tail. The leopard had hard fur, high speed, and its paws could deal Fire damage.
Angele did the test. The leopard's fur could easily block the physical damage dealt by a person with Strength points lower than seven. The fur could only be damaged by extremely sharp metal weapons.
Reyline cast several spells after he realized that his physical attacks did not work but those leopards were sensitive to the energy particles and they dodged the spells easily as well. Only the instant-cast spells were fast enough to hit them but only Angele's instant-cast spell was powerful enough to damage them.
Hikari was almost injured by those leopards. Morrisa and Hikari's spells needed time to prepare. Morrisa was a good healer but could not fight and her summoning potions took too long to prepare.
Stigma and Reyline's close combat skills were mainly used to defend against the strikes from the mutated leopards. Angele was the only one killing those creatures. With the buff from the cursed scimitar, his Strength had reached 15, and he could easily slice the leopards into pieces.
After several battles, Angele had killed more than ten mutated leopards and he had successfully extracted some more life essences.
His Strength was increased to 17, Mentality was increased to 57.4, and his Stamina was increased to 20.
17 points of Strength brought Angele incredible power. He missed a slash once and the cursed scimitar left a deep crack in the ground.
The high Stamina increased Angele's defense and recovery. He was once bitten by two mutated leopards on the shoulders, but the wounds were quickly healed, and his bones were not even damaged.
The mutated leopard had a Strength of 6 but they could barely do any damage to Angele. His Metal Mastery was also improving as his attributes rose in digits.
The metal forcefield improved and Angele was able to control more metal creations at the same time.
He concluded after doing many tests that the metal forcefield would be more powerful and easier to control if his Strength and Stamina increased. The amount of mentality and mana he had would only affect the metal creation ability.
Angele's attributes were increased to a whole different level but sadly, the cursed scimitar reached its limit and the buff could no longer be strengthened. Although he could still absorb the life essences of the creatures, his mentality increase slowed down again.
It took the five wizards about half a month to reach the White Mist Town Stigma had mentioned.
On the edge of the Abyss Canyon, there was a small forest with yellow trees. Tiny grey bushes filled up the gaps between the gaps between those trees.
The wizards followed after Stigma as they went across the forest, then they finally saw the town.
White Mist Town was surrounded by some yellow trees and there were more than 100 old houses in the town. The view of the place was blurred by the white mist in the air.
Most of the houses in the town had red roofs and grey walls. The roofs were decaying naturally due to the weather and their color was fading.
The walls were covered with black marks and cracks. It almost looked like the houses got burnt.
White sand covered the dark mud on the ground and there were green mosses everywhere.
It was getting dark.
The sky was blocked thick dark clouds and it was about to rain.
Black rusty iron fences lined up around the town and they were connected by large grey piers. It looked like a long black string with grey dots on it.
The entrance of the town was an arched white gate.
The town was empty. There was no one around and it was deadly silent.
The five wizards entered the town through the stone gate. They stepped on the white sands and made some soft noise.
Stigma was walking in the front of the team.
"The place has probably been abandoned a long time ago." He glanced around.
He peeked through one of the broken wooden windows on a house but the only thing he saw was darkness.
"It's late, why don't we spend the night here? What do you think?" Hikari advised. "I need to find a place to take a good shower. The water energy particles are making skin dry."
"Let's go to the biggest house then. You can probably find a nice bathroom there." Reyline knitted his eyebrows. "I need to take a good shower with some real water too."
Angele and Stigma had long noticed that Reyline was an introvert during the trip.
Reyline would only talk when it was absolutely necessary. He liked to keep the things to himself and he would not ask for help even when he was in need. That was the reason why people in Nola thought that Reyline was a short-tempered person.
Usually, people's conversation with Reyline would end awkwardly as he did not like chatting too much. Some people thought that Reyline got mad at them. They then spread the rumor saying that Reyline had a strange personality and he was hard to deal with.
The situation with Morrisa was different. She was the weakest wizard in the group and she relied on others' protection. Although she wanted to join the conversation, she knew that it was better to let the other wizards make the decision.
Stigma, Hikari, and Angele were the most talkative people in the team.
The five walked to the tallest building in the town quickly.
The building looked like a church and it had three levels. There were two stone staircases built by the entrance. They could enter the building from either the right or the left side.
The building was protected by some rusty fences but most of them were broken.
Creak*
Hikari pushed the door open.
BAM*
The wooden door fell to the ground and blew the dust on the floor to the air.
Angele covered his nose and coughed several times.
"Let's do some cleanings first." Angele shook his head.
They started checking the building's structure right away.
Angele stood in the living room and observed the surroundings while talking to Stigma.
"I need to do some preparation and see if I can get in touch with my family." Stigma lowered his voice. "We're very close to the other side of the crevasse. I think my communication rune can reach the guard post."
"You're returning to your family?" Angele asked.
"I need to visit them no matter what." Stigma nodded. "My sister, my mother, and my best friend…I'm sure they're waiting for me…"
"Ah!"
Suddenly, Morrisa's scream echoed in the building.
"What's going on?!" Angele and Stigma's expressions changed. They rushed to the direction where the scream was coming from and saw Morrisa ran out of a room with a pale face.
Her eyes were wide open, and her body was trembling. Morrisa jumped to the two male wizards quickly like a rabbit.
"What happened? Morrisa?" Angele patted Morrisa's shoulders and asked her.
Ka-ta Ka-ta*
Hikari ran down the stairs from the second floor quickly after hearing the scream.
"Are you alright? Morrisa? What did you find?"
Reyline entered the building from outside, looking confused.
They gathered in the living room and waited for Morrisa's answer.
Morrisa pointed at the bedroom she entered and started explaining in a shaky tone.
"Right in that room! I saw a woman on a bed. Her neck was stabbed by many thick metal needles. There was blood everywhere!"
"How is that even possible? I didn't…" Angele was surprised. "Let's go check the bedroom. Stay alert!"
They entered the bedroom right away.
The room was relatively small. On the bed, the yellow blanket was moved to the side and some dark marks were left on the surface of the sheet.
Hikari walked to the bed and checked the black marks.
"It's blood." She nodded.
"A specter?" Reyline looked at Angele and Stigma.
"What do you think?" Stigma asked. It seemed that he did not know how to deal with the situation.
Angele pursed his lips. "I have a matrix that is said to be useful against ghosts. I checked the rune system in the matrix. I think it can at least tell us if the place is haunted. I'll give it a try, but I need someone to help me."
"Let me help you." Hikari stepped forward. "Ghosts are hard to deal with. We need to check the area immediately. I've encountered a similar situation in the Dark Red Highland, so I have an experience fighting against specters."
"Huh?" Angele looked at Hikari curiously. It was the first he was seeing another wizard that had survived the curse of the ghosts.
The ghosts in this world were mysterious and strong. An average wizard could easily be killed by a strong curse. Only the souls of strong or special individuals could stay in the world.
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Chapter 274: White Mist Town (1)
Translator: Leo Editor: Frappe
Angele nodded. "Let's start then. I'll teach you part of the incantations. You just need to chant them when I…"
He opened his mouth and sent the words using energy particles.
Hikari listened to the message quietly, looking surprised. They finished communicating within minutes.
"Let's start then?" Angele looked at Hikari.
"Sure."
Angele walked out of the room and returned with a black dagger in hand. A dark red glow surrounded the tip of the blade. He crouched down and started drawing a magic circle on the floor.
The other wizards moved aside and made space for him.
It took about ten minutes for Angele to finish the circle.
It looked like two hexagrams that crossed each other and were surrounded by complicated runes.
Angele stood up and nodded at Hikari.
They started invoking the incantation in a low voice together.
The light from the runes faded gradually and several seconds later, the whole magic circle disappeared from the floor.
Angele's expression changed as he spoke.
"The magic circle is doing its work, I think. I memorized the magic circle that I saw. If nothing happens, it means the place is safe. However, if a human-shaped shadow appeared in the center of the circle, it means that there are ghosts here. The size of the shadow indicates the strength of the ghosts. Weak ones have the size of a nail and strong ones are about the size of a finger. Strong specters can easily kill an average rank 1 wizard with their curse."
Hikari nodded slightly after hearing Angele's words. Reyline, Morrisa, and Stigma stood by the door. Their expressions turned serious as they waited for the result.
Several minutes later.
CHI*
A small light dot flashed in the center of the magic circle and exploded.
The whole room was illuminated by the eye-blinding light.
A tiny shadow slowly appeared in the rune surrounded by a white glow and it was stretching its back. The shadow was about the size of a bee. The white glow around it started turning red as its body solidified.
Angele's expression changed.
"Run!" he suddenly shouted. "Run! Right now! Don't stay in this building!"
The five wizards rushed out of the bedroom.
Angele had no time to explain. His face turned pale as he led the team to the main entrance.
"What happened green? What does that red shadow mean?" Stigma asked as he ran.
"Leave the place first. Find your travel cases. We need to go right now!" Angele replied in a nervous tone. He ran out of the building without looking back.
Reyline followed after Angele without saying a word.
Hikari hesitated for a second, then she grabbed Morrisa's hand and rushed out of the building. Stigma found his travel case quickly and left as well.
The five wizards headed to the entrance of the town after moving away from the building.
Angele was checking the surroundings constantly.
The tension was building up and the wizards were getting nervous, as they tried to figure out what had just occurred.
The white mist was still floating in the town and Angele's sight was blurry.
They walked down the street quickly and returned to the arched stone gate.
Angele sighed in relief as they stepped out of the gate. He turned around and looked at the street of White Mist Town.
The chilling wind blew the dried yellow leaves into the air from the ground. The town was deadly silent, and he could not detect any movement.
"So what was that red human-shaped shadow?" Hikari asked.
"I don't know, to be honest, but something is wrong with this place." Angele shook his head. He raised his right hand and saw a strange black box on his palm.
Angele was surprised.
"Whose box is this? Did I take your item by accident?"
"Not mine." Hikari shook her head. "Morrisa, come take a look. Is this yours?"
"No." Morrisa shook her head right away. Her face was still pale after the terrifying experience in the building.
Angele showed the box to Reyline and Stigma, but it seemed like none of them was the owner.
"Impossible…I didn't grab anything when I ran out of the bedroom…" Angele tried to recall what he did before leaving the building.
Suddenly, an image of a woman with a long white hair flashed in his head. The woman was staring at him in front of the building's main entrance. The woman's hair covered half of her face and the muscles on her face were twitching.
"What the…" Angele held his forehead tight with his left hand. An unpleasant feeling was making him dizzy.
He shook his head and did a quick check on the black box.
Golden veins were engraved on the lid of the box.
"We need to leave now. Hey, Green, what happened? Are you alright?" Hikari noticed that Angele was suffering from pain.
"Nothing…My head is aching…" Angele responded in a low voice.
"Are you cursed by the ghost? How strong is this thing…?" Reyline asked with his brows knitted.
"Ghosts are much stronger than you think." Hikari nodded. "The one I met in a ruin on the Dark Red Highland can…"
Angele's head was still aching, and his ears were ringing. Hikari, Reyline, Morrisa, and Stigma were having a conversation, but he could barely hear anything. It took about ten minutes for those symptoms to go away.
The voices of the wizards became clear again.
"Is there another town ahead? Stigma?" Reyline looked at Stigma after listening to Hikari's story.
"It will take us at least half a month to reach the next town."
"You're overreacting I think. It's just a ghost…We have five wizards here." Reyline did not understand why Angele acted as if he could barely move.
Reyline had read about wandering souls from many wizardry books and learned that ghosts could be eliminated easily with pure energy strikes. He did not believe that wizards could be killed just by their curses.
"Why don't we just eliminate the ghost and have some rest in the town? We need some good rest. The trip is tiring. What do you say?" Reyline asked in a calm tone.
He then turned to Angele and said, "Sorry, Green. I trust you as a team leader, but we have already reached the central continent. Since Stigma is familiar with the area, I think we should let him lead the way."
"It's rare to hear you talk so much." Angele finally recovered from the dizziness. He slowly lowered his right hand. "And sure, make Stigma the captain if it's best for the team. I'm fine with that."
Angele was the leader on the airship since he won the competition and became the owner of the amulet. They had already abandoned the airship, so he thought that it was fine if the others did not want to listen to him. However, the way Reyline made the suggestion was a bit strange. Angele did not understand why he wanted to stay in the town.
"Stigma, you make the decision. Should we stay here or look for the next town?" Reyline turned to Stigma.
Stigma hesitated. He wanted to make the best decision for the team but Reyline was losing his patience.
Reyline had already reached the Crystal stage and was confident that he could win a fight against Angele. His mentality was strong enough to fully activate the secret technique of his family. He wanted to be the one to lead the team, but Stigma came from Omandis and the man knew a lot about the area.
Angele wanted to leave the town as he knew how strong the ghosts could be but Reyline thought that eliminating the threat would only take minutes. Reyline was the Perfect Wizard and he did not want to put shame on his title.
Stigma thought for a minute and finally gave the answer, "Reyline is a Crystal stage wizard. I think he's capable of fighting the specter. There are five of us and we only have one enemy. I think we should go back to the town."
Reyline was the only wizard that had reached the Crystal stage in the team, but Angele doubted if he had already mastered any level 2 spells. It seemed like Stigma did not want to argue with Reyline since they still needed to travel a long way together.
Angele had a blank expression on the face, still thinking about the black box.
The box appeared from nowhere and there were too many questions with no answers.
'What is this box? Where did it come from? Why me?'
The biochip had no record on when this box appeared.
Zero was not helpful when it was about ghosts. When there was not enough information about the unfamiliar object. The chip would not consider it as a threat and that was the reason why Zero did not warn Angele about the box in advance.
Angele pursed his lips when he listened to Stigma's words. "Let's separate into two teams then. I'll just stay here. There's no way that I'm going back to that building."
"Green, are you serious?" Reyline asked in a serious tone.
"Yeah, I am." Angele nodded. The unusual red shadow indicated that the ghost was different from the ones he had encountered before. The town was probably its territory.
"I'll stay with Green," Morrisa interrupted.
Hikari nodded and looked at Reyline. "I'll enter the town with you. You're a Crystal stage wizard now. I think you can deal with that ghost. Your pure energy strike should be strong enough for that."
"Alright then. I'll wait for you with Morrisa." Angele nodded.
"Green, I thought you were a brave man." Reyline shook his head. "Whatever, let's not waste time."
He turned around and entered the town with Hikari and Stigma right away.
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Chapter 275: White Mist Town (2)
Translator: Leo Editor: Frappe
"Stigma!" Angele suddenly shouted as the three stepped into the gate.
"What?" The three wizards turned around at the same time.
Angele raised the black box in his right hand.
"Can you believe this? I'm sure that the box is not mine, but someone put it in my hand. I don't even know when it happened. Think twice before you act." Angele stopped for a second then continued, "I believe that if the specter can insert the box into my hand without being noticed, it will be able to stab a dagger into my heart before I can fight back."
The three hesitated for a second but Reyline shook his head.
"Green, I'm not the same wizard who was defeated by you. Fear will stop you from progressing."
"It's not fear," Angele replied calmly. "You don't have to take the risk. We survived all the challenges and Omandis is right in front of us. You can't fight what you can't see."
"Admit it. You're afraid of this thing." Reyline pursed his lips as his sight fell upon the box on Angele's right palm. "Why did the specter give the box to you instead of us?"
Angele remained silent as he had no answer to that question.
"Come on, there's no point in arguing right now. It's not a big deal. We're still a team." Stigma tried to cool things down.
"Let's go." Reyline shook his head and turned around, vanishing into the white mist of the town. Stigma had an apologetic smile on his face. He nodded slightly then entered the town with Hikari quickly.
Angele and Morrisa waited outside the town quietly and watched the three wizards disappear into the mist.
It was getting darker. The clouds thickened, and the wind was getting stronger.
"Why didn't you go with them?" Angele wondered.
Morrisa hesitated for a second and responded.
"The scene I saw in the bedroom was…horrifying. To be honest, I'm just modifying the healing spell models in the Six Ring High Tower. I'm not good at fighting and I hate it. However, I'm sensitive to ghosts and sometimes I can see things that others can't see…"
"Huh? Even when they don't want you to see them?" Angele narrowed his eyes.
"Yeah, I know that the box isn't yours. It gives off the same feeling as the woman I saw in the bedroom. Why don't you just try to throw it away?" Morrisa responded in a light tone.
Angele recalled the challenges he encountered during the trip. He had some troubles with the Cloud Bees and storm spirits, but they dodged the other ones easily after listening to Stigma's advice. Morrisa was a weak light wizard, but she helped a lot when Stigma was severely injured.
Angele wondered if the whole thing was set up by the Dark Wizard Tower. The organization might want to see if he could survive all the challenges and successfully reach Omandis in one piece.
Angele shook his head and sighed with mixed emotions. "Let's find a place to stay around the area and wait for them to eliminate the ghost."
"Alright."
They walked into the forest and found a small empty ground.
Angele used his Metal Mastery to take down several large trees and cut into planks. The planks were then tied up by metal strings and stabbed into the mud.
About half an hour later, a small wooden shelter was built up. The walls and roof were covered with a thin layer of silver metal. He wanted to make sure that the shelter was good enough to handle the possible storm.
The shelter was relatively small, but it was good enough for two people to stay inside.
With the accurate measurement provided by Zero, Angele did not waste any of the wood. He finished building the shelter before night came.
Taking down the trees and connecting the planks were not a big problem to him.
Angele stood in front of the entrance of the shelter, staring quietly at the White Mist Town through the gaps between the trees.
Morrisa found some dried branches. She wanted to make a small campfire and make some food.
Angele played with the black box in his hand as blue light dots flashed in front of his eyes.
Suddenly, he threw the black box into the air.
The box drew an arc in the sky and disappeared.
He applied so much force that the black box was thrown back into the White Mist Town.
"What…are you doing?" A female voice came from behind.
Angele turned around quickly and saw Morrisa looking at him with dried branches in arms. She opened her mouth, yet nothing was coming out of it.
It felt like someone had covered his ears with two thick blankets.
Several seconds later, Angele could finally hear Morrisa's voice again.
"Master Green? Are you alright? Master Green?" Morrisa was confused as she pointed at Angele's feet. "Your box is on the ground."
Angele was surprised. He looked down.
The black box was lying on the grass quietly beside his feet. It almost looked like the box was dropped by Angele accidentally.
The scene sent a hint of chillness to Angele's heart. He was sure that the box was thrown away.
The first voice he also heard was not from Morrisa. It was a deep and hoarse voice, a woman speaking in a shaky tone.
"Nothing, I dropped it by accident." Angele picked the box up.
"Alright, I'll go prepare the food and the soup." Morrisa nodded, then she turned around and entered the shelter.
'Zero, show me the record. I want to see what happened to me exactly.' Angele took a deep breath and ordered.
'Loading the record…'
Several seconds later, Angele's eyes were blurred for a second, and the event that had just happened visualized in his sight. The scene started from when he was still playing with the black box.
Angele looked at the image quietly.
He stood in front of the wooden shelter and dropped the black box by accident. It looked like that his body was paralyzed for a second and Morrisa talked to him after picking up the branches around the bushes. They had a short conversation and nothing else happened.
Angele's expression changed. He could not believe that the record did not show him throwing the black box away.
Zero usually used the reflection of energy waves that were released by Angele to record the things happened around him. It was nearly impossible for the record to be wrong. If Angele's memory differed from what was recorded by the chip, there would be only one way to explain it.
Something changed his memory and made him think that he threw the box away, but the box was just simply dropped to the ground.
"What the hell is going on…This why I hate ghosts…god." Angele sighed. He tried to open the box, but it was impossible. It was sealed completely, and the lid was fake.
He had been cursed by ghosts multiple times and knew it was nearly impossible to eliminate them completely. Angele was a formal wizard with high attributes and was confident that he could dodge the curse this time.
He returned to the wooden shelter and had some mushroom soup cooked by Morrisa.
Night had befallen them.
The wind was hitting the door forcefully. It almost sounded like that there were people crying in a high-pitched tone outside.
Angele sat down by the campfire, trying to contact Stigma using the communication rune.
A sunflower-shaped black rune flashed upon his nail. It was Stigma's communication rune.
"How's the situation?" Angele questioned.
"We're doing good. Reyline checked the whole building and nothing happened. We're having some food right now," Stigma responded.
"Stay alert. I'm sure the ghost is still around. Remember the black box we talked about in the afternoon?"
"Yeah, why?"
"I threw it away but one second later, the box appeared beside my feet," Angele spoke in a deep tone.
"It returned to your feet?" Stigma sounded surprised. "Come on, don't try to scare me. It's not funny."
"I'm not joking…"
Angele stood up and looked at Morrisa. The lady was too tired and had decided to have a nap.
Angele stepped out of the door and continued the conversation.
"I'm sure I threw it away, but…"
Suddenly, a familiar man appeared in his sight.
Short black hair, pale face, black robe, and a black dagger tied to the belt.
It was Stigma.
The man's face was covered in blood. He ran to the wooden shelter at full speed.
"Run! Green! Run! It's coming! Oh, god!" Stigma shouted.
"Hey, Green? What happened?" Stigma's voice was still being transferred from the communication rune. "Alright. Our mushroom soup is almost done, but it's bland. We need your spices…"
Angele looked at the man that was still running toward him and listened to the one talking through the rune. His skull numbed.
"What the hell? You're an illusion?"
"Green! Listen! We need to leave now!" Stigma struggled, and he almost fell to the ground.
Angele did not move an inch. He was still trying to figure out which one was the real Stigma.
The message from the communication rune indicated that Stigma was having mushroom soup with Reyline in the building but the one in front of him was covered in fresh blood.
"Are you Stigma? Show me some evidence!" Angele asked in a deep tone and took one step back.
"God damn it! Not this again! The bastard tricked me and Reyline using the same method." Stigma was having trouble breathing. He quickly activated the communication rune on his nail.
CHI*
A black twisted snake rune flashed on the back of his nail. It was Angele's communication rune.
At the same time, the voice from Stigma's communication rune changed.
"Green? Are you still there? What happened?" The voice was deep and hoarse. It sounded like an old lady speaking in a shaky tone.
It was a woman imitating Stigma's voice.
"Damn! Which one is real?" Angele's brow knitted. He stepped back again slowly. Blue light dots flashed in front of his eyes.
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Chapter 276: A Twist of Fate (1)
Translator: Leo Editor: Frappe
Angele had been tricked by illusions several times but the Stigma in front of him looked exactly like the real one.
The voice coming from the communication rune was still hoarse, but it was possible that someone interrupted the message using strong energy waves. He was still having a hard time trying to figure out who he should trust.
Blue light dots flashed in front of Angele's eyes. He asked Zero to scan Stigma.
The chip confirmed that the Stigma in front of him was real based on the mentality wave the man was releasing but Angele still had his doubts.
"Anything else? I want better evidence," He questioned in a deep tone.
Morrisa heard the noise and stepped out of the shelter. She saw Stigma talking to Angele and walked to the two wizards quickly.
"Stigma?! What happened? Come here. I can help you!" White glows surrounded her hands and she was about to cast some healing spells, but Angele stopped her.
"Seriously?" Stigma had a bitter smile on his face. He glanced around and lowered his voice. "You know what? I'll meet you at the Mandu Airport. Keep going south after traveling through the Abyss Canyon. We need to move now no matter what."
Stigma calmed down a bit and continued, "It seems like the town is the ghost's territory. I felt much better after leaving the town."
"Well, I told you it was hard to eliminate. Where's Reyline and Hikari?" Angele wondered. "You entered the town together, right?"
"I don't know. I saw Reyline drinking wine in the living room after taking a shower and something went wrong. I don't even know if that was the real Reyline." Stigma shook his head.
Angele narrowed his eyes. He was still trying to figure out a way to verify Stigma's identity. The whole matter was just too weird.
He stared at Stigma and he was getting nervous.
The temperature at night was low and the chilling wind was scratching his face.
Splash*
Lightning struck the land and it was followed by the sound of thunder.
"Let's meet up at the airport then." Angele opened his mouth. "We…nevermind." He had one final glance at the town. The place was still blurred by the white mist.
The only things he could see were the edges of the houses. It was deadly silent.
"Sure." Stigma nodded. It was the best choice.
"Wait, take this!"
PA*
Angele threw a glass tube that was filled with pink dust to Stigma.
"What's this? Ah, the healing dust? I haven't finished the last one yet." Stigma took out a similar glass tube after finishing his words.
"Good, I can confirm that you're the Stigma I know now." Angele nodded slightly. "No one else can concoct my healing dust. It's rare and complicated. No matter how strong the ghost is, it can't copy the memory of a Liquid stage wizard so easily."
"What should we do now?" Stigma looked relieved.
"We still need to leave the area as soon as possible." Angle pursed his lips. "But let's try contact Reyline using the communication rune at the same time. Don't say anything about the information you get after you finish the conversation with him."
"Good idea." Morrisa nodded. "We can check our identities again." She was listening to Angele and Stigma's conversation quietly. Morrisa was still hiding behind Angele, staring at Stigma nervously. She was confused about the situation.
Stigma sighed with mixed emotions, but he agreed to the plan.
CHI*
Blue light flashed on the back of the three wizards' right hands. Reyline's communication rune looked like an electric pulse.
Angele took one step back, glaring at Morrisa and Stigma.
He started sending the messages.
"Are you there? Reyline?"
No one replied.
"The communication rune is activated. Please respond immediately if you received my message. Is Stigma still with you? He didn't tell me what happened inside the town," Angele continued.
Still no answer.
"Reyline?" Angele suddenly stopped. He heard someone breathing from the other side. It was weak, and the noise sounded a bit strange.
"Reyline…" Angele's expression turned serious. "Are you still alive?"
Angele wondered if the person on the other side was the Reyline he knew.
"Make some noise if you're still alive. Any noise! Come on!" He was getting nervous.
PA*
He heard something move on the other side and it sounded like an object dropped to the ground.
Angele narrowed his eyes. He raised his head and looked at the other two wizards.
Stigma and Morrisa looked confused. It seemed like they were still trying to contact Reyline.
"Nothing here."
"Same."
The two looked at Angele and shook their heads.
"F*ck it! I want to save them. Let's head back to the town," Angele spoke in a deep tone. He held the cursed scimitar tight in his hand and walked into White Mist Town.
"Damn, for real? I don't want to go back." Stigma shook his head.
"I want to leave this place too, but I think they're still alive." Angele slashed the scimitar forward several times. Although none of them listened to his advice, they still survived five challenges together. And in the worst case, he was certain that he could survive the attack from the ghost.
He had never won a fight against a ghost, as he only attempted to escape most of the time. However, he decided to go back and fight this time. Angele wanted to overcome his fear of the curse. This was his chance.
Morrisa hesitated. "I'll stay in the shelter and wait for you…Sorry."
Stigma applied some healing dust to his wounds and followed after Angele.
Angele did not wait for Morrisa. He increased his speed and arrived at the arched stone gate of White Mist Town within minutes.
He stood by the gate and waited patiently. Stigma took a deep breath and held his black dagger tight in hand.
The lightning looked like fire in the sky. They brightened up the whole town for several times.
Angele nodded slightly and started walking around the town.
He observed the rusty iron fences carefully. Stigma was checking the surroundings constantly.
They reached the other side of the town after several minutes.
Angele found a well-organized graveyard with white tombstones lined up in front of them.
It was a relatively large graveyard. Angele counted more than 300 hundred tombstones. They just sat there quietly.
He could smell death in the air.
Angele activated the communication rune again. The blue glow around the rune illuminated on his face.
He entered the graveyard and started checking the tombstones. It seemed like he was searching for something.
Suddenly, he stopped by a tall white tombstone.
Splash*
Another lightning struck the land. The light illuminated on the epitaph and picture of the tombstone.
'Arisma Justin – The legendary female wizard of destiny.'
The words were written in a clean and elegant style. They were painted in silver.
Arisma must be the female wizard lying in this grave.
Angele looked down. He used the light from the communication rune to brighten up the picture.
It was a portrait painted by a skilled artist.
It was a pretty lady wearing a white wizard hat. Her eyes were green, and her skin was fair white. The lady had a gentle smile on her face and it looked like she was staring at the ones who came to pay respects to her.
Angele narrowed his eyes. The woman in the picture was making him uncomfortable, and he had a feeling that she was still alive. He observed the picture from different angles, but her sight just would not move away from him.
"Stigma!" he shouted.
PA*
Angele heard something hit the ground from behind.
He moved to the left, then he turned around and saw Stigma fainted on the ground.
Angele walked to Stigma and took out the black box from his pouch. He asked Zero to scan the area and he made up his mind after reading the report.
"I apologize for disturbing your sweet dream, master wizard," Angele muttered as he stared at the tombstone of Arisma.
He walked to the tombstone with the scimitar in hand.
KA*
He started digging without any hesitation.
About five minutes later, Angele dug a large hole in the ground.
There was no coffin, no cinerary casket. What lay there were two human beings.
It was a female wizard and male wizard in white robes. Angele recognized them right away.
"Hikari and Reyline!" Angele's expression changed. He followed the direction given by Zero after scanning for mentality waves, but he did not expect to find them here.
He raised his left hand.
Two silver strings emerged out of the tip of his index finger and tied the two wizards up. Angele lifted them up and created another silver string to support the fainted Stigma.
Angele wasted no time and started carrying them back. He asked the chip to scan his surroundings constantly as the situation was bad.
Strangely, nothing happened on his way back. Thus, he felt relieved.
Angele returned to the wooden shelter and saw Morrisa hiding behind an energy shield in the corner.
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Chapter 277: A Twist of Fate (2)
Translator: Leo Editor: Frappe
Morrisa stood up right away after she saw Angele step into the shelter. Hikari, Stigma, and Reyline were supported by the metal strings. They had not regained consciousness yet.
"Master Green, are you alright?" Morrisa thought for a while, but she was not sure where to start.
"I'm good but we need to leave, now!" Angele responded quickly as he put down the three fainted wizards. "They're still alive. Can you wake them up? Hurry."
Wizards were strong enough to survive for a long time in an environment with low oxygen. The energy particles stored in their bodies would help them.
"Got it." Morrisa nodded right away.
Quickly, the three were woken up by Morrisa's spell.
The sky rumbled again, and the thick clouds were dragged down by the heavy downpour. The visibility outside the shelter was bad and the raindrops were hitting the roof intensely. It sounded like tiny stones hitting a large metal board.
Angele stood by the door quietly. He was thinking while staring at the White Mist Town.
"Thank you for saving me." Hikari's voice came from behind.
"It's fine. I noticed the movement through Reyline's communication rune. That was how I found you," Angele responded in a light tone. "I've encountered the ghosts several times. You should've listened to my words."
"Reyline?" Hikari hesitated for a second and walked to Angele.
"No, it wasn't me. My communication rune was not even activated" Reyline stepped out of the shelter and walked to Angele as well. He looked confused.
"We had some food and I went to bed after taking a shower in that building. The next time I woke up, I was inside this wooden shelter." Reyline shook his head slightly. "I slept for a whole day I believe." He looked at the ground as his brows furrowed.
"Hikari told me that you found us in the same grave. Green, are you sure you're not joking? I believe I was sleeping in the building…"
"It's not a joke," Hikari interrupted. The experience was terrifying. She did not even know when they were moved into the grave.
Reyline remained silent for a second and continued, "I owe you one, Green."
Angele looked at Reyline. He was surprised that the man swallowed his pride and appreciated the help.
"I have a question. Have you ever heard of the wizard of destiny? It should be a female wizard named Arisma," Angele asked.
Reyline and Hikari traded eye contact, looking confused.
"The wizard of destiny?" Stigma's voice came from the shelter. He stepped out of the door and walked to the group. "Only the strongest wizards in the central continent will be given a title like that. Where did you find this name, Green?"
The man had a strange expression on his face.
Angele turned around and stared at Stigma.
"From a tombstone. Stigma, there are so many questions I want to ask."
"I don't know…" Stigma shook his head. "I fainted once when I escaped the town. It felt like someone was following me. I can hear its footsteps, but I can't see it. I cast my strongest spell but it didn't work. The wounds are the consequences of my own spell."
Angele narrowed his eyes and kept staring at Stigma. He noticed something different, but the others were still confused about the whole situation.
"It's fine. Stigma, take us out of here please."
Stigma was trying to understand why Angele was pressuring him. They traded eye contact and decided to not to talk about the truth at the moment.
"Sure." Stigma nodded. "Let's not waste time."
"Well, what are you trying to hide from us?" Hikari pursed her lips after listening to the conversation.
"Sorry, but I can't tell you about it right now." Stigma shrugged.
Hikari shrugged as well. "It's fine. Let's pack our items and leave."
Reyline did not say anything. He walked straight back to the wooden shelter.
The five wizards packed their items up and left White Mist Town in the rain. They traveled across the Abyss Canyon and headed to the plains.
White Mist Town slowly disappeared from the horizon in the heavy rain.
Stigma was still glancing at the town and he looked a bit depressed.
Reyline was walking at the front, Hikari and Morrisa were in the middle, while Angele and Stigma were at the back.
"Why are you looking at the town? Are you already missing it?" Angele transmitted his words using energy particles.
Stigma glared at Angele and shook his head. "How much do you know?"
"I know everything that you know, I think," Angele responded in a light tone.
The conversation ended there.
The visibility on the road was bad. Angele could barely anything. They were heading in a direction pointed by Stigma.
The wizards all made sure that their energy shields were active.
The rain lightened gradually as time passed.
They found a safe area in a small forest and built a woodshed. Morrisa built a small campfire and the wizards started drying their clothes using Fire energy particles.
Angele and Stigma sat beside the campfire for a while, then left using some random excuses.
The two wizards traded eye contact and nodded slightly.
They walked in two different directions and entered the deep forest.
Angele walked for a while and made sure that no one was following him.
He then stopped and took out that black box from the pouch.
The patterns on the surface of the box had disappeared. Instead, there was a black twisted picture.
It looked like a pair of hands raising up a diamond-shaped crystal. The picture was simple but abstract and it was painted with solid golden lines.
Angele held the box in right hand and put his left hand on the lid.
PA*
The black box was opened easily.
Inside was a black spinning ball of gas.
'What else do you want from me?' A hoarse female voice echoed in Angele's ears.
He was not surprised about the voice. It seemed like he had already studied the box.
'Are you sure about this? I'm just a rank 1 dark wizard and you're a great wizard. I'm also not that talented. I don't think I can…' Angele responded calmly.
'I won't even approach you if you don't have the Key of the Shadow…' The female voice sounded impatient. 'The battle between me and Arisma lasted for decades and it won't end just because we're dead. Arisma found a decent guy to be her inheritor. I need to leave my territory right away. Otherwise, she will ask her student to kill me later. Anyways, you and I are one now. There's no point in talking about this.'
'At least tell me your name…or your title.' Angele pursed his lips.
'Title? I don't even care. People will give you a bunch of random titles when you reach a certain level. You want to do research on me and I understand that, but I won't tell you anything.'
'Well, I apologize but I don't want a random person to live in my body if I have the choice.' Angele chuckled.
'Kid, you're lucky. Arisma chose the man named Stigma and I chose you. Only good things will happen. There won't be any consequences I can assure you. I'll go have some rest now. Don't disturb me unless it's something really important.'
The female voice disappeared.
Angele shook his head. He tried to find out which part of his body was this 'legend' living in using many different methods but none worked. The black box was just helping them communicate with each other.
"Arisma, the wizard of destiny…" Angele narrowed his eyes and decided to do some research on that name first.
He had too many secrets to hide but it seemed like the 'legend' in his body could not detect the biochip. Angele did not fully trust the words said by that woman.
He tested several times and confirmed that the woman did not notice he was chatting with Zero.
Angele checked the surroundings again and started heading back.
He needed to reconsider the situation.
Stigma's soul was partially taken over by Arisma. If the voice did not lie to him, Stigma would no longer need to rely on his family. He could walk the same path as the ancient wizards and he would become one of the strongest wizards in the history.
After about fifteen minutes of walk, Angele saw Stigma heading back to the camp as well.
He noticed that Stigma's Mentality had already doubled, and the man's mentality wave was much stronger than before.
Angele was surprised. Stigma waved his hands at Angele, but he did not stop.
"Green, don't get surprised. I know that I'm different now," Stigma said calmly but Angele could see the happiness on his face.
"Are you still the Stigma I know?" Angele narrowed his eyes and questioned in a light tone.
"People will change, Green, just like you and me. But I'm still the one that survived all the challenges with our team."
"What's your plan now? Head back to your family?"
"No, I'm not strong enough. There are three rank 2 wizards in my family; my father and two elders. I won't even be allowed to talk in the family meetings with what I have right now." Stigma shook his head.
"Just tell me if you need help." Angele lowered his voice. Stigma took a hit for him back on the airship and Angele considered the man as a friend.
"I will, thanks."
Angele watched Stigma walk to the campfire and he wondered what would happen after Stigma returned to his family.
"My next destination is the city with an air transportation site in the central continent." Angele took a deep breath.
"Good, I haven't been to a city with live human beings in years," the hoarse female voice suddenly interrupted.
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Chapter 278: The Central Continent (1)
Translator: Leo Editor: Frappe
'We're from the west coast and it's my first time visiting a city in the central continent. Is there any advice you can give me on that?' Angele modified his mentality frequency and responded.
He had to chat with the woman using mentality waves and they needed to be on the same frequency. Angele was certain that the reason why the woman did not notice the conversation between him and the chip was the special frequency.
'The west coast? Wizards still live in that poor area?' The woman sounded surprised. 'The resource points are weak and the wizards there aren't talented. You won't be able to advance to the next rank there.'
'It sounded like you lost your physical form not so long ago…' Angele narrowed his eyes, west coast should be strong in the ancient time.
'Don't think too much about it. You saw that, right? Stigma already became stronger after talking with the old bastard Arisma. His mentality is now strong enough for advancing to the Crystal stage. What do you think? Are you jealous?'
'Jealous? Yeah, I'm jealous but I have my own plans. I think the fundamentals are important. Increasing mentality too fast will be a big problem in the future.' Angele had a blank expression on his face.
'Come on. Everyone knows that, but the problem is, what is the future you're talking about? Your progression is so slow that you won't even make it to the future. Advancing to the next stage or next rank as fast as possible will be a better option. The higher your rank is, the longer you'll be able to live, and you'll have plenty of time to solve all your problems. You won't pass on such a great opportunity if you're a real wizard." The woman chuckled. "What do you say? You want me to help you?'
'I don't even know your name. I can't just trust you like that.' Angele stood by the campfire and saw Hikari having a conversation with Reyline. Angele did not draw too much attention, so he walked to the bush and made it look like that he was searching for herbs.
The woman hesitated for a minute and finally spoke, 'Just call me Henn.'
'Alright, master Henn. I have several questions to ask. First, what is the Key of the Shadow? How did you get into my body?' Angele wondered.
'You don't need to worry about how I got into your body, but I'll die if you're killed.' Henn chuckled. 'For the key…You have a special key, right? That key is called the Key of the Shadow. All the core members of the Axis of Time have one. Who did you steal it from? There are a whole group of shadow beasts in the key, so you should take advantage of that.'
'What exactly is this Key of the Shadow?' Angele questioned.
'The Axis of Time was the strongest organization that ruled the whole west coast. The situation was totally different back then. The resource points are rich and the wizards there were gifted. 15 keys were crafted and were given to the 15 wizards in charge of the most important areas. The keys were used to open special doors and yours is one of them. I don't know what the key can do but it can stop the energy from leaking. This feature will help me to preserve my power regardless of time. However…'
'What?'
'It seems like someone has left a rune on the key. It means that the owner of the key is not dead yet. He'll track you down sooner or later.' Henn sneered.
'Track me down? Ha, I already arrived in the central continent. I don't think the owner of the key is strong enough to survive the trip. It will take him a long time to get here. I'm confident that I can win the fight against a weak wizard.' Angele shrugged.
'You're right. Maybe this one lost his power, too…'
'Master Henn, I'm curious, how did you and master Arisma lose your physical forms? You must be a strong wizard, right?' Angele tried to dig deeper.
'Well, there's nothing for me to hide. Arisma and I were ambushed by a group of bastards. At the most intense moment of our battle, some people attacked us from behind. I'm counting on you, kid. You need to avenge me,' Henn responded in a cold tone.
'Me? A weak rank 1 wizard?'
'You want the advanced meditation technique, right? I have it. I also have many strong spell models, some secret techniques, my research results, and all the treasures I collected…I'll guide you and help you progress faster if you can kill all those bastards for me. What do you think?' Henn's offer was charming.
'Advanced meditation technique, huh?' Angele remained silent for a second and continued, 'I don't think I'm strong enough to kill your enemies right now. Don't you think that you should give me part of the advanced meditation technique first? It's my priority.'
'When you reached your limit, I'll make a fair trade with you, ha.' Henn finished the word and cut the conversation off.
'Master Henn?' Angele tried to contact her again, but it seemed like she did not want to say anything else.
'Not bad.' Angele did not expect to meet a soul with such a strong background. He could acquire the advanced meditation technique without having to contribute to a large organization.
The only problem was the mentality.
With the life essence extraction method created by Zero and the cursed scimitar, he would be able to reach the required mentality level quickly and the ritual was not hard to prepare.
Angele made the decision and returned to the campfire, starting his daily meditation.
The others finished their conversation and started meditating as well.
The next day.
They started traveling again.
A large forest appeared in the front after the five wizards traveled passed the Abyss Canyon. The trees were taller and larger.
The vivid green of the tree leaves filled Angele's sight.
The mountains on the far side separated the land from the sky.
After about half a month of traveling, the five wizards finally saw some other adventurers walking on the road.
There was a spark in the flame as a dried branch was thrown into the campfire.
In the deep forest, the mist of the early morning permeated the air.
Angele sat by the campfire quietly. He was throwing dried branches into the flame, trying to make it stronger.
The rest of the team was also resting by the fire. Reyline and Morrisa were meditating. Stigma was sleeping under a large tree. Hikari was organizing her potion bottles, colorful materials and strange items lined up on the ground. She checked them every day.
"As a potion master, it's important to check if all the potions are still good. I never saw you do that, Green." Hikari shook her head and looked Angele.
"Well, I'm not a potion master. I treat potion concocting as a hobby." Angele chuckled. Zero could do the job for him. With the scanning function, he could check the condition of the potions easily.
Hikari thought that Angele had some secret techniques. She stood up and turned around. "I'm going for a walk. There might be valuable materials around. "
She suddenly stopped after hearing a loud noise coming from the sky.
Angele noticed the noise as well. He raised his head and looked at the sky.
It was early in the morning. A white airship was passing by slowly in the endless blue sky. It was heading in the same direction as Angele's team.
It was a spindle airship and its body was painted in white. The sails were covered with blue stripes and their sizes varied. Angele noticed the green energy particles around the ship's body.
There were people looking down by the railings.
It seemed like they were having a conversation while pointing at a certain direction.
"Ciro Family's airship. We're getting closer." Stigma suddenly opened his mouth. "An airship like that will only lower the altitude when it's approaching the landing area. We won't even be able to see it when it's still traveling to the destination. The airship is protected by a special stealth barrier, so we can only see it when it's about to land."
"Let's start moving then. We can have a good rest when we reach the city," Angele suggested.
"Sure."
"Sounds great."
Reyline and Morrisa heard the conversation and stopped meditating.
The five wizards packed up quickly and headed to the direction the airship was traveling to.
They walked out of the forest by noon and saw a wide road ahead.
"That's it. The Alayah Road." Stigma walked down the incline and stepped onto the road. The rest of the team followed after him.
There were several lumberjacks entering the forest with axes on their back. The presence of the wizards did not draw much attention. Angele saw gray carriages passing by.
On the other side of the road was an enormous farm.
The crops were dancing in the wind and there were many farmers working in the area. There was also a windmill on the far side and its white blade was spinning slowly.
Stigma led the team to a stone road sign quickly and stopped.
The other wizards in the team had no knowledge of the central continent. Therefore, they decided to follow Stigma's order. They did not even know what language was used here.
There were several characters engraved on the surface of the gray stone.
Angele compared the characters to the languages stored in the database, but nothing worked.
"What language is this?" he asked.
Stigma smiled as he explained, "It's one of the universal languages in the central continent called Metia. It's very easy to learn. We'll reach the city after several days. I can transfer the knowledge to you on the way. I have several crystal orbs here."
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Chapter 279: The Central Continent (2)
Translator: Leo Editor: Frappe
"We can talk on our way there." Stigma watched a white carriage pass by. "We can try to find a carriage after you finish learning the language. Also, the wizards in the central continent are not restricted wear black or white robes. They can wear anything they want. The dressing rule here is simple. Even mortals are allowed to wear long robes."
Hikari was confused after hearing the explanation. "How can you show others that you're a wizard then?"
"Badges or special accessories. All members belonging to wizard guilds, organizations, families, and Anfaria High Council are given specific badges to wear. The Anfaria High Council is the highest authority in the central continent, but the members of the council are selected from the strongest families or organizations. They will only argue for their own benefits." Stigma continued to explain, "The central continent is divided into three areas. The Tarry Rive, the Molten Rive, and the Anfaria Alliance. We're approaching the Tarry Rive which is my hometown. We can visit my family guard post together if you want to, then I can show you around the area."
"I'll pass." Reyline shook his head. "We can contact each other through the communication runes. Worst case, we can still use the signal obelisks. There are obelisks here too, right?"
"Yeah, the building techniques of signal obelisks are developed here." Stigma nodded.
"I'll pass too. I have my own plans since the central continent is my dreamland…There are several places I need to visit first." Hikari did not make it clear but she has something in mind.
"I'll pass too, sorry." Morrisa shook her head. It surprised Stigma a bit.
He then stared at Angele.
"Well, I have my plans too." Angele shrugged. "Sorry, I'll visit you when I have the time."
"No worries. Come by anytime." Stigma pursed his lips.
Angele noticed that the mentality waves Stigma was releasing had already weakened. It seemed that he had already learned the way to hide his true power. People would consider him as a wizard apprentice if they did not know his background.
"Are you going back to your family like this?" Angele sent a message using energy particles.
"Of course. I need to lay low before my goal is completed," Stigma responded right away.
Reyline was thinking about something on the side, while Hikari and Morrisa were also communicating using energy particles.
"It's her advice if you know what I mean." Stigma nodded slightly.
The five wizards were on the same team but the relationship between them was still different. Hikari spent more time with Morrisa and Angele talked with Stigma a lot. Reyline only joined the important conversations but he was a talented wizard and Morrisa talked with him the most.
However, Reyline was not interested in Morrisa. He showed more respect to Angele after being saved by him.
"Just tell me if you need any help," Angele replied.
"Don't worry. I'm different now…" Stigma chuckled. "I'll be able to protect my mother, my sister, and my…" He sounded happy.
The two remained silent after talking.
Stigma then took out a fist-sized crystal orb and started transferring the knowledge about the language into it.
The four wizards acquired the knowledge quickly and started practicing the pronunciations.
Wizards were typically fast learners and learning a universal language was not a big problem to them.
It took them about just several hours to learn the basic words and daily conversations.
Stigma stopped a random carriage and gave the merchant several black metal coins. The merchant agreed to transport them to the city right away.
Angele stayed in the carriage and started checking the time with the merchant.
The biochip's time function needed to be adjusted when Angele reached a different time zone. He used to carry the crystal clock with him, but it was too much trouble.
It was three in the afternoon and the road was getting crowded. They started seeing pedestrians on the way.
Multiple airships flew past them as they advanced. It seemed like the airport was quite busy.
The carriage passed by one of the landing areas for the airships and the road became even wider. Several convoys of merchants were leaving the landing areas with their large carriages.
There were full and empty carriages entering and leaving the landing area all the time.
The road was getting more and more crowded.
Several days later, the carriage finally arrived at the edge of the central continent, at the air transportation city in the Tarry River area.
The sun was setting, and the orange light illuminated on the land.
Most of the areas in the city were covered by well-organized gray and white buildings. A blue river was running down the center of the city.
It looked like a piece of gray paper that was divided into two areas by a long blue string.
A tall black metal tower and an enormous arena were built on different sides of the river.
The white arena and the black metal tower brought some color contrast to the city.
Gray and white houses, mansions, hotels, various types of stores were built beside the streets. There were so many of them that the gaps between each of the buildings were small.
Under the dim sunlight, there were several pedestrians walking on the quiet street beside a whole row of houses.
The men were wearing red leather skirts and the women had a strange eye-shaped paint on their foreheads.
A tall man wearing a long white robe stood in front of a yellow door beside a large white square. He glanced around, and his sight fell upon a muscular man in a red leather skirt.
The man shook his head and knocked on the door carefully. There was a silver metallic glint on the surface of his skin.
Thud thud*
No one answered.
The man's brows furrowed and knocked on the door several more times.
Still, no one answered.
He took out a small badge from a pouch.
It was a golden square badge with luxurious red decorations on its surface.
Complicated red strings were engraved on the front side of the badge and there was a tiny hole in the center.
The man threw the badge into the air and caught it but nothing happened, then he tapped on it several times.
Finally, a small black skull slowly appeared from the hole in the center.
Crack*
The door of the house opened itself after making some noise.
A red-haired man with a long beard stuck his head out of the door, staring at the man in a white robe.
"You are…?" He narrowed his eyes and looked at the golden badge in the man's hand. It seemed like the badge reminded him of something.
"Ah! You must be Green! God! Come in please." He opened the quickly.
Angele had said goodbye to his team and followed the direction pointed by the badge. The badge had been sent to him by a member of the Dark Wizard Tower, which helped him find the correct place easily.
He followed the man into the room and closed the door. The living room was dark, and it was a mess.
The sofa was covered in dirty clothes and wine bottles lined up on the floor. A strange smell permeated the air.
"Sorry, I don't have time to clean the room." The man rubbed his nose. "I thought you already…"
"You think I'm dead, right?" Angele responded in a calm tone. "The challenges, are they set up by the elders?"
"Yeah…You're right, but we didn't expect the storm elemental lord to be so mad. It should've been an easy challenge…" The man pursed his lips and shook his head.
"The storm spirits were a trouble, yeah, but the trip was way too dangerous. I joined the organization as a potion master and I got tested multiple times. What would happen if I wanted to join the organization as a combatant? What challenges would I face?" Angele sounded disappointed. "You already knew that the trip was a trap for Reyline, right?"
"You don't need to worry about Reyline. Since you made it to the city, our members will contact you as soon as possible. I already took care of the wizards that were trying to ambush Reyline. I can assure you that you're safe. The badge is a special enchanted item which can protect you from fatal damage by sending you to a different dimension where you'll be able to survive in that space for 30 days. You should trust us more," the man explained.
"Is that so?" Angele narrowed his eyes.
"It was an accident. We don't even know how the storm spirits were enraged, and I'm not a formal member of the organization. I'm just here to contact you, so I have no answer to your first question. I'll tell the people in charge that you made it to the city alive. Please wait here. Someone will come pick you up after they received the message."
"Sounds good." Angele nodded.
'Ha! You're a strong potion master? Why didn't you tell me about it?' A hoarse female voice suddenly echoed in Angele's ears.
'You're surprised?' Angele remained calm and responded after adjusting the frequency of his mentality waves.
"Yeah. You're a potion master and you're part of the Dark Wizard Tower. It seems like obtaining advanced meditation techniques is not a big problem to you.'
'You're right.' Angele pursed his lips into a smile.
'But are you sure they will give you a good advanced meditation technique?' Henn was mocking Angele.
'I don't think so, they want the high-quality potions that I can concoct. They will, at most, fulfill my request but with low-quality resourses,' Angele responded, 'You'll give me the best one, right?'
'I don't remember promising you that.' Henn chuckled. 'The Dark Wizard Tower is a strong organization, but I don't know too much about them. Just make sure that…Whatever, I'm not afraid of them. There's one thing you need to know about their meditation techniques, it's special, very…special…ha…'
'We're in the same boat. You help me, and I'll help you. I think we have already reached the agreement on that.'
'Well, you're right. But you need to do something for me first before I give you a good advanced meditation technique.' Henn went straight to the point. 'We'll talk about it later.'
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Chapter 280: New Start (1)
Translator: Leo Editor: Frappe
'Members of the Dark Wizard Tower usually have two identities. They're the shadows in the light, so you must find yourself a cover.' Henn continued, 'The Dark Wizard Tower shouldn't have strict organization rules, so they can do whatever they want. The Dark Wizard Tower recruits assassins and asks them to collect the needed intel. Many wizards chose to accept their offer since they needed an easier way to acquire rare resources. In hindsight, it's an organization that hides in the shadows.'
'Interesting…' Angele did not expect the organization to be like what Henn had just said. 'I thought they wanted to train me as a potion master…'
'You're talented. They want you to accept the offer first, so it's understandable,' Henn responded in a light tone. 'The members of Dark Wizard Tower are everywhere in the central continent. Don't worry. The thing I want you to do for me is not related to that organization. I'll tell you what to do when the time is right.'
Angele listened to Henn's words as he talked with the man with a long beard. He wanted to learn more about the city and the organization.
"There's a division here and since you're an elite member from the west coast, someone from the council was sent here to welcome you. However, we miscalculated the date and he had to leave…" The man lowered his voice.
"So, I'll have to wait here until the next one comes?" Angele wondered.
"Yes, you need to join the next team. You can use the time to check out the city and purchase some souvenirs. The place is very unique." The man smiled.
"I don't really care." Angele shook his head. "How long will it take?"
The man answered as he wrote down something on a black crystal board. The characters would disappear every time he finished writing a word.
"14 to 15 days, I suppose."
"Is it possible to exchange for the crystal cards here?"
"Yeah, I can do that for you," the man responded right away. "I'll give you a discount if you need the service."
"Alright then, I'll exchange some crystal cards for the central continent's currency." Angele took out several crystal cards from his pouch.
The night was about to fall.
People in the arena were cheering for the fighters and people were still walking to the entrance from the square.
They were all wearing leather outfits and some of the noble-looking women were holding paper fans in hands. They were speaking Metia with a local accent and they were talking about the fight going on in the arena.
The carriages from the streets turned right, then parked on an empty ground beside the entrance.
The kids were playing around the river, giggling while chasing after each other.
Angele pushed the door open and left one of the houses beside the street. He was wearing a long white robe and he checked the time.
"It's 8 o'clock already? I need to find a place to spend the night."
He looked at the street and scanned the pedestrians using Zero. Angele narrowed his eyes and he looked surprised.
'They're all mortals? Why aren't they affected by the radiation?'
'The purification towers cleansed the area and they can prevent the mortals from being injured by the radiation energy,' Henn responded. 'You know this is not the poor west coast, right?'
Angele nodded slightly. He was not mad about the way Henn talked to him. He turned right at the corner.
He walked to a relatively quiet street by the river after crossing the bustling square.
Several old men were chatting under a tree. It seemed like they just finished their dinner.
After about ten minutes of walk, Angele found a tavern on the street. The tavern's name was engraved on a bronze board and it was called The Wanderer.
There were many customers leaving and entering the tavern. Angele saw the pink light inside and he heard ladies giggling.
He knitted his eyebrows as he walked to the tavern.
DING*
A half-naked muscular man pushed the door open and Angele held the door before it closed. He stepped into the tavern quickly.
The bell on the door was ringing all the time.
People were cheering and yelling in the bar.
The dim pink light only brought minimum visibility to the space. There were several women wearing sexy outfits sitting on the male customers' legs, and some of the shy customers were led into the private rooms by the waitresses.
The smell of cheap perfume permeated the air.
Angele moved to the side and tried not to block the people that were moving to the bar.
"I want a room." He walked to the counter and spoke in a deep tone.
The waitress behind the counter looked surprised.
"Sure." She glared at Angele and lowered her right hand. It seemed that she was checking his identity. Her expression changed when she finished the procedure.
"Wendy! Lovely Wendy! Come here and help this customer!" The waitress yelled.
Several seconds later, a girl in purple appeared from the hallway. She eyed Angele with a blank expression on her face.
"Follow me, please."
Angele nodded and followed after her.
First, the two went past the noisy bar and hallway. They then went upstairs twice and walked past multiple rooms and hallways guarded by soldiers. Finally, Angele arrived at a dark and quiet hall.
There were about ten people sitting in the hall.
Several of them were sitting together but the rest was all waiting patiently alone. Their outfits varied, some were half-naked.
Their dressing styles were different from the residents on the streets. They looked identical to the people at the west coast.
It seemed that the people in the hall were not concerned about Angele's presence. Two other people entered the hall before him and they just sat down in the chairs.
The light in the hall came from the four dim oil lamps on the round counter in the middle. The tiny orange flames barely brought any warmth to this mysterious space.
"Master Batall said you could stay here for as long as you want but you need to pay for the services. You can check in at the counter on the other side and accept some missions if you want to." Wendy finished the explanation, then she bowed to Angele and left.
Angele nodded slightly and walked straight to the counter.
"I want to check in."
"Master Green, right? The boss has already arranged a room for you. The room number is 101. Please carry this badge with you." A handsome waiter handed a small black badge to Angele. The engraving on its front side looked like a man with a bird's head.
"The badge will guide you to your room. This is the Dream Inn. We assure you a safe and comfortable stay." The waiter smiled.
Angele rested for several days in the Dream Inn and spent some time getting familiar with the city. He then started searching for dangerous magical creatures around the area.
Sadly, the areas around the city were safe since they were guarded by the families or organizations in charge. If he wanted to find a large group of magical beasts, he would have to leave the safe zone.
It would take Angele too long to travel to the danger zone, so he decided to accept some missions from the inn.
The Dream Inn was created by the Dark Wizard Tower. Its members could accept quests there. The inn was the center of the underground world in the city.
Most of the missions were related to assassinations.
"Are you sure you want to accept a one-star mission?" the waiter asked in a light tone.
"Yes." Angele nodded.
"Sure. Based on your request, I'll find you a suitable target…" The waiter started checking a thick pile of leather paper.
He quickly pulled a paper out and handed it over to Angele.
"I think this is a good target for you."
Angele grabbed the paper and read it through.
"Good, I'll take this one." He tapped on the paper.
The information on the paper was simple: 'Assassinate wizard Neil within two days. Reward, 120 black coins.'
The black coin was the universal currency on the central continent. One black coin could be exchanged for one crystal card or 700 regular magic stone coins. Magic stone coins and black coins could be used in most of the stores in the city. There were several other types of coins here but not of them were as valuable.
It also mentioned that the wizard named Neil just broke the limit and became a formal wizard. His address, daily routine, and family members were all recorded on the paper. It seemed like Neil was discussing the price of a specific item with a merchant from the Molten River.
'Hey, you don't have to do dirty works like this, right?' Henn's voice echoed in his ear.
'You're correct.' Angele shook his head. The number of the crystal cards and black coins he had could be used to purchase a lot of resources. He accepted the mission only because he wanted to extract the life essence from the targets. He would be able to increase his mentality faster.
'I have my own reasons.'
Creak*
Suddenly, the door of the hall was pushed open, and the emotionless waitress named Wendy entered the room. Two men wearing long black robes followed after her.
Angele turned his head around and narrowed his eyes.
It was the fourth time he saw Wendy bringing people to the inn. Most of them were new members that were selected from different areas. Only the most talented wizards would be recruited as formal members.
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Chapter 281: New Start (2)
Translator: Leo Editor: Frappe
The innkeeper was the red-haired man named Batall and the main function of this division was to send the new members to the proper departments.
There were more than ten people living in the inn at the moment, including Angele, and they were all sent to the division from other areas. The main hall of the inn was becoming busier and busier at present. Batall was a mysterious wizard in the eyes of the locals but he was nothing compared to the elites that were selected by the organization. He needed to make sure that everyone was happy with what they got.
Most of the elites here were rank 1 wizards but they were young. They were important new blood to the organization and they might be promoted as the core members in the future.
Angele watched Wendy explain the basics to two new members. Upon finishing her explanation, she left the hall.
The two black robes glanced around and sat down at an empty table.
Angele noticed that the two black robes were surrounded by a dangerous aura. Their mentality waves were strong but dense. He realized that the two had already reached the Crystal stage.
He saw many Gas and Liquid stage wizards in the hall, but it was the first time he saw Crystal stage wizards in the inn.
Angele did not want to make any enemies in the organization, so he decided to disguise his mentality well.
Crystal stage wizards like the two black robes most likely had wizard's blood on their hands. Angele did not want to draw their attention.
He put the leather paper into the pouch, then he turned around and left the counter. A wizard behind him walked to the counter right away and started talking with the waiter.
Angele found an empty table and he began observing the new faces brought to the inn recently.
There were about eight people in the hall at the moment. They were either looking at the others or thinking about something with their eyes closed. Most of them were surrounded by a dangerous aura and some of them were chatting by utilizing energy particles.
Angele felt surprised upon observing the mentality waves those wizards were releasing.
Half of the wizards in the hall were masking their actual strength since their mentality waves were strange.
Angele quickly asked the chip to scan the area and start an analysis.
The result was as expected. Only one of them was releasing their real mentality wave.
After checking the report from Zero, only two wizards in the hall were below the Crystal stage while the rest of them had all reached the Crystal stage. Moreover, every single one of them was carrying multiple enchanted items.
Angele was certain that the level of their enchanted items was high.
He made a conjecture that some of them might even have magic devices.
It seemed like those elites were supported by strong organizations with a significant number of rare resources. Angele, however, was different as he collected most of his rare resources by relying on himself.
There were several other wizards checking the mentality level of the people in the hall just like Angele. He could see the lights flashing in their eyes.
Angele's expression turned serious. Although he had the buff of the cursed scimitar, he doubted that he could kill a Crystal stage wizard easily. The enchanted items those wizards were carrying could change the outcome of the battles. A Liquid stage wizard's mentality level was much lower than a Crystal stage wizard. In contrast, a Crystal stage wizard could learn level-2 spells.
At this moment, he had realized that he was one of the weakest wizards in the organization.
Angele calmed down after thinking for a while. He stood up and left the hall, heading to the location indicated on the leather paper.
In the next several days.
Angele had finished two one-star missions easily. The consequences of the assassination were all taken care of by the organization.
It was like killing people legally. He had successfully increased his Mentality by 4 after extracting the life essences from the targets.
Without the buff from the scimitar, his mentality had already reached 57 points and it was getting closer to 71 points.
He had similarly noticed that he could usurp greater life essence from the wizards he killed than those of the magical beasts he hunted. Henn watched Angele's mentality level increase every time after he finished off a target. She was curious, but she did not ask any question.
Angele was seeing new faces every day in the main hall of the Dream Inn and just like him, several other wizards were completing missions.
Time passed and finally, the core member from the headquarters arrived.
"What's going on? Green, how was your last mission?"
Inside the main hall, Angele was sipping black coffee from a cup. Opposite of him was a red-haired young man chatting with him.
The man was wearing a red leather chest armor with tight black leather pants. A silver sword was tied to his belt. He looked like a handsome nobleman.
"Pretty good. We're in just a division, so the missions are on the easier side. We have finished most of the hard missions. The remaining ones are nothing," Angele responded in a calm tone. "Fono, how's your progression?"
"I'm doing well, but the hard missions are just too difficult for us…Others can handle them easily." The young man named Fono smiled. He closed his mouth and started communicating through energy particles. "You see those two black robes sitting behind us? They have just killed a rank 2 wizard two days ago."
"What?!" Angele was so surprised that he almost dropped the cup. His eyes fell onto the two black robes on the other table.
"They were not even wounded. The target's energy shield was destroyed before the target could realize. The rank 2 wizard died within seconds," Fono explained.
"That's why they are called elites…" Angele, still calming down, reacted.
"I need to talk to them. We should make some friends here." There was a confident smile on Fono's face. "I already know most of the people here, but I haven't talked to those two 'elites' yet." He stood up and walked to the black robes' table.
Angele was about to stop Fono but the young man had already started chatting with one of the black robes.
Angele had completed several missions with Fono. The main reason for that was because they were the two weakest wizards in the inn. Fono was a Liquid stage wizard who came from a remote area and he was nice and kind. He was proficient in collecting information from other new members and he enjoyed helping people. It was quite rare to find someone like him in the world of wizards.
Fono's action drew the attention of the other people in the hall. They, too, were curious about how the two black robes managed to slay a rank 2 wizard so easily.
Their conversation ended within seconds. The two black robes lowered their hoods together, revealing their faces for the first time.
Their hair was dark red, and their faces were identical. The one on the left was male and the one on the right was female. It seemed that they were twins. Both were young, and both had pale elastic skin.
However, they looked furious.
PA*
Suddenly, the girl slapped Fono right in his face.
Fono was shocked. He just stood there completely dumbfounded.
"How dare you! You bastard!" The girl with long red hair had long narrowed her eyes, her cold gaze falling onto Fono.
Fono looked confused.
"I don't understand…Did I say anything offensive to you?" His mouth was bleeding.
Angele's brows furrowed. He glanced around. The other wizards in the hall had all lowered their heads and the people whom Fono once helped slowly walked away.
He was thinking if he should help Fono. They had met each other just several days ago. Angele doubted his chances in a battle against two wizards that could kill a rank 2 wizard.
However, the twins were already glaring at Angele while he was thinking. They must have thought Angele was Fono's friend.
'Well, there goes my plan.' Angele sighed and stood up.
"Masters, I don't know how Fono offended you, but I'll apologize to you for him," he spoke in a calm tone.
"Are you trying to help him?" The girl eyed Angele.
"Yeah, you don't kill a man for no reason," Angele responded. Although he was not confident in fighting the two, he still possessed his illusion signet and he did not think the situation was that awful.
Fono was grateful for what Angele just said.
"Whatever, draw your weapon." The girl had a blank expression on her face. She raised her right hand and a red sword was conjured out of nowhere. The engravings on the blade looked like twisted runes and monsters. Angele noticed the strange black crystal strings in the center of the blade. He was not sure if it was just a decoration.
"What the hell…I don't even understand why you're so mad," Fono muttered.
"Come on, stop. Everyone, and you, wizard Ellen, lower your sword." A deep male voice echoed in the hall. A tall muscular man with a goatee stepped into the door. He was wearing a military suit, and there was a serious expression on his face. "Alright, since you're all here, I'll start explaining the place we're heading to…"
Angele nodded slightly then he sat down.
The young man pulled the girl's sleeves and asked her to sit down.
Fono rubbed his face and returned to Angele's table.
"What the hell did you say to that girl? I can see the hatred in her eyes. She really wants to kill you." Angele communicated through energy particles.
Fono shook his head, he was still confused.
"Perhaps it's a cultural difference…I only greeted her in the most respectful way I know. It's the highest praise in my hometown…"
"Highest praise? Just tell me what you said." Angele's brows furrowed.
"Well, I said 'your boobs are beautiful' then showed her my respect with this gesture." Fono gave Angele a thumbs-up as he replied.
"…" Angele was absolutely speechless. He really wanted to know where this guy came from.
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Chapter 282: Mincola (1)
Translator: Leo Editor: Frappe
Angele did not want to comment on Fono's 'highest praise' that was commonly used in his hometown, but he also did not want to gain two strong enemies just because of that.
He explained why the girl was enraged to Fono and decided to keep a distance from him. Angele did not want to be caught in the crossfire again.
The man that had just entered the hall started explaining the situation in front of everyone.
"I don't care which area you came from. I don't care how strong your background is. Here in the central continent, you're just a weak rank 1 wizard!" The man glanced around. Everyone lowered their heads to avoid eye contact with him.
"I think you already learned the rules of our organization, so first you need to make your choice and sign the contract." The man waved his hands and a pile of black leather papers appeared from nowhere.
The paper was tied with a red string and black smoke was rising from it.
"Check the contract and read the duties listed on it. If you don't want to sign it, you can return to your division. Ask if you have any questions."
He threw the paper pile into the air.
The pile of black leather papers separated in the air and accurately flew to the seated wizards.
Angele watched a black paper noiselessly land on the table in front of him. He took it and started checking the information.
Everything was written in Metia.
The requirements were straightforward. The member must accept one mission provided by the organization every two years and the missions must be completed on time. For the potion masters and the enchantment masters, they needed to provide their services to the members at an 80% discount. Furthermore, if the organization was in a perilous situation, the signee would be summoned.
The organization would find a suitable role for its members in the society. The members also had the privilege to post missions in the organization, but they needed to provide the rewards themselves. A second mission could only be posted when the first one was taken.
Angele checked the contract and confirmed there was no trap in any form, so he signed it right away.
About ten minutes later, the wizards finished signing their contracts, and the leather papers flew back to the man's hand quickly. He checked the contracts carefully and put them into a bag.
"Next, you need to pick a normal organization to join so no one knows that you're working for us." He waved his right hand and dozens of objects appeared in the air.
Angele raised his hand and saw dozens of different items floating in the air. All the items were surrounded by black glows.
"Those are badges of other organizations," a wizard beside Fono muttered.
'That's it!' Henn's suddenly screamed in Angele's ear. 'Remember the deal we had? I'll give you the advanced meditation technique if you can do one thing for me."
'Of course.' Angele glanced around. The atmosphere in the hall was getting heavy for some reason.
The wizards in the hall all stared at the badges in the air. They already knew which organization they wanted to join.
'Join the Elemental Hand, that's my request.' Henn calmed down.
'Elemental Hand? Is it your organization?'
'It's my friend's organization. The organization has begun losing its power after I died, but it's still a much better choice compared the small organizations around the border. You won't regret it,' Henn responded.
'Is that so? No offense but I think you're hiding something from me. Which badge represents the Elemental Hand?'
'The silver ball-shaped one.'
Angele observed the badges in the air carefully.
He found the silver ball mentioned by Henn. It was on the right end. The ball was silver; it had the size of a small orange. Runes and flower patterns were engraved on its surface.
There were three silver balls which indicated they were only accepting three wizards.
The other organizations had also provided at least three badges.
The man with goatee looked satisfied when he saw all the wizards staring at the badges they wanted.
"Alright, I have something else to take care of. I'll be back in 20 minutes. Use your time wisely and make your decisions fast."
"I thought you'll arrange it for us based on our skill levels," A female wizard with a crisp voice stood up and said. The lady was wearing a long green robe, her face concealed with the hood. "If there are not enough badges for an organization we all want to join, we'll have to fight. Potion masters will be at a disadvantage."
"This time I'm the leader so you need to follow my decisions. Power will grant you privileges in this world. Only the weak talks about fairness all day. If you can win a fight against me, I'll give you the right to pick first." The man narrowed his eyes and responded in a calm tone.
"You!" The female wizard wanted to say something else but was stopped by her friend.
"I'll give you some advice before you make your decision," The man glanced around and spoke slowly, "The strongest organization's badge is located right in the middle. Weak ones are on the side."
He turned around and stepped out of the hall. His loud footsteps echoed in the hallway.
"Let's go!" a wizard shouted.
Suddenly, several red shadows jumped to the badges in the air.
At the same time, a green arrow, a black snake with translucent wings, and a long bloody hand flew toward the badges.
BOOM*
The hall was in complete chaos.
A ball of green flame exploded in the air.
The impact of the explosion made the floor shake.
Blue light dots flashed in front of Angele's eyes.
He began to analyze the spells cast he was witnessing. Most of them could do over 60 degrees of damage. There were even several strong spells that could deal almost 100 degrees of damage.
The badges were blown away by the impact but were not damaged in any way.
Angele stayed focused. He strengthened the metal barrier on his skin, then he lowered his body and moved to the corner. The only thing that mattered to him was the badge of the Elemental Hand.
Fono was doing the same thing as Angele. He lowered his body beside the way and created a red energy barrier while moving slowly, searching for the badge he wanted.
BAM*
Angele quickly leaped away.
A man in black smashed onto the floor right in front of him.
Several brown wooden chairs and tables were destroyed.
The man struggled for several seconds before he stood up again. He quickly formed a ball of dark energy on his right palm and jumped into the air again.
BAM*
Countless red runes appeared on the walls in the hall which absorbed most of the excess energy to prevent the inn from being damaged.
Cold sweat was dripping down Angele's chin.
He checked the dark energy ball on that man's palm. Apparently, it could deal over 98 degrees of damage upon direct contact.
Such power could easily destroy his metal force shield and even kill him within seconds.
'Watch out! Coming from your right!' Henn suddenly warned.
Angele hesitated for a second before he'd leaped to the left.
KA*
A high-pitched noise came from the location he was standing at.
A translucent energy ball soared into the air, turning into a vortex, then it disappeared after several seconds.
Angele's face turned pale. He asked Zero to analyze the power of the translucent energy ball right away.
'72 degrees…I'll be severely wounded if I take that hit. My force shield and the biochip did not even see it coming…'
Angele checked the trail of the translucent ball and realized that the situation in the hall had changed.
Most of the wizards were fighting in the center of the hall.
The battlefield was divided into three areas.
An old man with white hair was fighting against a female wizard in a red dress for a diamond-shaped badge. He was wearing a white swordsman suit.
The pure energy strikes coming from their forcefields destroyed every object around them. They were both close-combat wizards and their weapons were infused with different elements. The energy shields around their bodies could block at least 100 degrees of damage.
The twins in black robes and a male wizard that dressed like a barbarian were fighting against a handsome man in a noble suit. The man had a blank expression on his face, holding a white wooden wand. White laser beams were being emitted from the tip of the wand. Angele saw some black bats protecting the man from being damaged by the spells. It looked like the man held the upper hand as they continued fighting for a book-shaped badge.
The last area was in chaos. More than ten translucent energy balls were flying around several wizards. They were trying their best to support the energy barriers, but the situation was getting worse. The energy ball that almost hit Angele came from this area, but he was not sure which badge they were fighting for.
Wizards that were not aiming for the strongest organizations all stayed beside the walls and were going for the badges from weaker organizations.
Angele lowered his body and started moving again. The wizards fighting for badges right in the center were all stronger than him under normal circumstances. He had the illusion signet, but the others also had their own secret weapons.
He advanced slowly while he observed how the others fought.
Several minutes later, only the wizards in the center of the hall were still fighting. Their spells were coming from all angles and every furniture in the hall was destroyed.
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Chapter 283: Mincola (2)
Translator: Leo Editor: Frappe
The wizards at the center of the hall finished their fights within ten minutes. The three strongest wizards silently stood there with the badges they wanted in their possession. The rest of the wizards had chosen to stay away from them.
The old man wearing a white swordsman suit was holding a diamond-shaped badge with a stern gaze.
The handsome man in a noble suit held a long, white wooden wand in one hand and the book-shaped badge in the other.
The last winner was a humpbacked man with a pair of white eyes. His body was surrounded by distorted force waves and a golden square badge was floating in front of him.
Several wizards had fainted on the floor and the injured ones were staring at the three winners with disappointed expressions.
The three wizards eyed each other and started communicating through energy particles. It seemed that they had something else to discuss.
Angele had no time to check the situation at the center. He followed the badge of the Elemental Hand but realized that there was a man in a green suit going after it as well.
One of the badges lay quietly on the floor in front of the two wizards.
The light of the hall had faded after the oil lamps were broken. Only the energy particles around the wizards were brightening up the area.
Angele could see the strange red glow around his opponent's eyes.
"Friend, I'm Mincola of Sethy. If you let me have this badge, I'll pay you well. This is not the only Elemental Hand badge anyway," the man muttered.
"Same to you, wizard Mincola. You can go find the other ones for which I'll pay you well. I'll keep my promise. What do you say?" Angele responded in a relaxed tone.
Elemental Hand was a relatively weak organization and there were not many wizards going after its badges.
The rarity of the badges could be divided into four levels. If level one was the highest level, the badge of Elemental Hand would be at level three which was still much better than the ones at level four.
Angele knew that there were only ten badges at level one to level three and the rest was all level four badges. There were around 30 wizards in the hall and it seemed like the leader wanted to them to fight for the best badges.
"Let's fight then." The man sighed and shook his head. "You can go for the other two badges or the weaker ones. They're still good organizations…"
"Why don't you do that if you know more about the weak organizations?" Angele sneered.
Spells started flying around in the hall again. The rest of the rank 1 wizards were either fighting for the level two badges or trying to find the level four badges. The ones that already acquired the badges had moved to the door and watched the others fight, including the wounded wizards that had to aim for the level four badges.
Angele talked with his opponent because he did not want the others to snatch the badge while he was still fighting.
He narrowed his eyes and stared at the man named Mincola.
The levels of their mentality waves were high. Although Angele was a Liquid stage wizard, he was certain that he could win the fight against a Crystal stage wizard.
The ball-shaped badge was in the middle of the two wizards, but no one was moving.
The atmosphere was getting heavier and heavier.
"Whatever…" Angele suddenly straightened his back and shrugged. "You can have this badge. I know that you don't have a teammate. Why don't you help me get another Elemental Hand badge? What do you say?"
Mincola hesitated for a second, then he chuckled. "Sure, I can do that. But are you sure about this?"
"Of course." Angele loosened his expression and smiled. "There is more than one badge of Elemental Hand."
He took a step back to show his honesty.
Mincola gave Angele a contemplative gaze, "I promise you that I'll help you find one after I pick it up."
"Sure." Angele nodded slightly and stopped moving.
Mincola walked to the badge and crouched.
KA*
A silver scimitar that was infused with electricity almost hit his head.
Clank*
The wind brought by the strong slash blew Mincola's hair and clothes to the air. Blood leaked out of his mouth, eyes, and nose. He barely blocked the strike with a glowing crescent glaive.
"You!"
Angele pursed his lips into a smile, turned around, and slashed forward again.
BAM*
Mincola rolled to the left, smashing into the wall. A deep, black crack was left in the position he was at.
Angele rotated the handle of the scimitar and the other half of the blade popped up from the bottom of the handle; strings of green gas twisted around his wrist.
He picked up the Elemental Hand badge and looked at Mincola.
"Naïve. I guess I'm the winner."
Mincola sat on the ground and struggled for several seconds. There were still fear in his eyes. Angele reminded him of someone he was familiar with, a man that would do anything to get the best result.
"I lost." He pursed his lips and stood up.
Angele checked the ball-shaped badge he just acquired, then he turned around and headed for the door.
"Wait!" Mincola suddenly shouted.
"What?" Angele turned his head around.
"I have an offer for you. Help me get an Elemental Hand badge and I'll give you rare materials in exchange," Mincola said, word by word.
"Why would you trust me? I just lied to you." Angele shook his head.
"In Sethy, even wizards keep their promises," the man responded in a calm tone.
Angele stared at the man for ten seconds then slightly nodded.
"Sure, I'll help you. Ha."
Mincola looked at the man in front of him. He almost looked like the terrifying person in his memory.
This man was the same type of person as his elder brother. He gasped as the memories came back to him.
'Brother…I'll catch up…' A person with seemingly similar features to Angele began to emerge from the depths of his mind.
Mincola's brother was named Minlan. Just standing in front of this brother of his would already cause Mincola to tremble from fear. The terrifying man always had a smile on his face, as though nothing could stop him.
Mincola was as weak as an ant in Minlan's eyes. Thus, the former wanted to change and improve himself so that his brother would look at him in a different way.
Angele looked like Mincola with his brow furrowed.
Henn was explaining the situation of Sethy to him. It was a famous area at the northwest of the city.
There were many swamps in Sethy which were under the control of many strong wizard organizations. Although it could not be compared to Omandis, Sethy was still richer than the west coast.
The strongest wizard organization in Sethy had the same name as the area. It seemed that Mincola was one of its members, but Angele was not sure why this man's attitude suddenly changed.
Angele tricked Mincola and acquired the badge but he did not want to make too many enemies. His mentality was getting closer to the requirement and he needed to collect the materials for the ritual.
They worked together and won the fight against three wounded wizards easily. Mincola acquired another Elemental Hand badge successfully.
As a close-combat wizard, Angele's Agility and Strength stats were horrifying to the extent that his enemies would be taken out easily if they did not pay enough attention. His body was much stronger than the Crystal wizards that were still fighting for badges.
There were two energy shields in front of Mincola, one from his Talent Spell and the other from the advanced meditation technique he was training in. The two shields could easily block about 60 degrees of damage, but Angele wrecked these in one strike.
Mincola guessed that Angele's strength came from his physical body.
Angele was a Liquid stage wizard and most of the other wizards in the hall were all Crystal stage wizards. However, his attributes were quite high. Therefore, he could move faster, hit harder, and recover quicker.
20 minutes passed.
Mincola stood by the door and watched Angele treat his wound.
There was a long gash on Angele's left arm. It was so deep that his bone was already exposed. However, the wound was healing at an unbelievable speed, and the only thing he did was applying some healing dust to the area.
About ten seconds later, only a long red scab with the width of an index finger was left on the wounded area.
"That was good," Angele muttered as he observed the scab. "If that hit my bone, I'll have to spend two days to rest."
'This guy has the recovery ability of a mutated beast…' Mincola shook his head. He was happy that he made a wise decision.
Angele was hit by an element-infused weapon from a Crystal stage wizard, but it only took ten seconds for such wound to heal.
Angele was not surprised. His Stamina was over 10 points which were higher than an average mutated beast's. The mutated mammoth's Stamina was around seven to eight and it was already considered as one of the strongest beasts in the wild.
The strike dealt around 70 degrees of damage and his metal barrier was destroyed immediately. Angele leaned to the right so only his left arm was damaged. The attack could have killed him if it hit his chest.
The leader had already returned to the hall. Fono was standing beside a female wizard. His face was pale, and there was a level four badge in his hand.
"Good. Now, everyone has a badge," the man spoke in a loud tone, "Alright. Please go to your destinations within two days and join the organizations using your badges. You can do whatever you want in your free time. Ah, I have some information for you.
"First, you can join the competition in the arena if you want. Second, some people robbed the treasures of several local families, and they are being tracked down in the mountains. Many wizards are going after them."
"Are those events related to us?" a wizard asked. "Or…do you mean we can accept them as missions of the Dark Wizard Tower?"
"You're correct. The reward for the missions is good. You can ask for the details from the one who posted them." The man nodded. "One more thing. Local families are fighting for the mines but it's not our business. Don't get involved. The family heads have already talked to me, so we need to respect them."
The leader left the hall directly after finishing his explanation.
The walls were not damaged but everything else was destroyed. The spells cast by the wizards were too strong after all.
The three strongest wizards followed the leader out of the hall and the rest of the wizards started leaving as well.
Angele said goodbye to Fono and exchanged communication runes with Mincola. They decided to complete their trade later; he left the inn alone.
On both sides of the river outside the inn, the green leaves of the trees were flying in the air. It was night time. The clean light from the two crescent moons illuminated on the ground.
The only noise was made by the insects and the water in the river.
Angele walked down the street slowly, it was cold and quiet. There were several drunk men leaving the taverns and they could barely walk a straight line.
'I went for the badge of Elemental Hand as you said. You'll give me the advanced meditation technique, won't you?' Angele asked.
'Of course. Since you can increase your mentality just by killing, you'll meet the requirement for the Crystal stage quickly. Mincola promised to provide you with the needed materials for the ritual so you're all settled now,' Henn responded in a nonchalant tone.
'You're right. I'll start preparing for the ritual.' Angele nodded slightly.
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Chapter 284: The Crystal Stage (1)
Translator: Leo Editor: Frappe
Henn gave Angele two options in selecting the advanced meditation technique.
She had the complete version of two different advanced meditation techniques.
The first was called Banner's Crystal Illusion and the second was called Mask of the Black Wing—both of which Angele had never heard of before.
'The Banner's Crystal Illusion will improve your illusion spells. The Mask of the Black Wing will improve your negative energy spells in many ways,' Henn explained.
'I'll go with the Mask of the Black Wing then. I don't think illusion-related skills are the best for me,' Angele struggled for a second before he responded.
'I haven't finished yet. The improvement that comes with the Banner's Crystal Illusion will become increasingly stronger as you progress through it. But the spell enhancement of the Mask of the Black Wing will only be applied if you're lucky. Make the choice wisely.'
Angele slowly walked along the river thinking about the options given by Henn.
After several minutes.
'I'll go with the Mask of the Black Wing. There are just too many limitations on illusion-related skills.' His expression was blank.
'Alright, I'll transmit the advanced meditation technique right now. Find a safe place, then we can start.'
'Sure.'
Angele walked down the street and headed to Batall's house. He was the one who welcomed Angele and he was also the boss of the Dream Inn.
He rented a small house in a remote area and notified Mincola through the communication rune. Angele started preparing for the ritual after moving into that house.
He was still accepting assassination missions and increasing his mentality level through the extraction of life essences.
Half a year later…
A two-story gray house sat quietly in the remote area of the city. There was white smoke leaking out of the window on the second floor, and a strange stench suffused in the air.
The house was surrounded by greenery and the place was quiet.
The orange light of the setting sun illuminated the surface of the house.
Creak*
The door of the house was pushed open from the inside and a young man with long brown hair stepped out of the door. His eyes were surrounded by a golden glow and his face was pale.
The man was wearing a long white cloak, he locked out and stepped onto the grasses.
'Green, how's your progress?' A hoarse voice echoed in the man's ears.
'Not bad.' Angele nodded. 'But…' He suddenly stopped.
He raised his head and looked around.
There were two men wearing gray cloaks waiting for him on the side.
One of them waved his hand as he smiled upon seeing Angele.
The other man walked to Angele as he spoke, "How's it going? Green, the things you asked for is here." The man had an average-looking face, but his voice was deep and attractive.
"Great, you delivered them on time." Angele shook the man's hand. "Mincola, when are you going to report to the organization?"
"It should take us about seven to eight days to travel to Elemental Hand. We can travel together if you want." Mincola smiled.
"For sure. Let's go see the materials you prepared for me now." Angele nodded slightly and turned to the other man. "Rose, did you meet Mincola on the way here?"
The man called Rose nodded as he responded, "Yeah, I was heading to the inn and met Mincola by the door."
"How many of you are going to Elemental Hand? Do you have a number?" Angele asked.
"Yeah, I do actually. You, me, Rose, and a female wizard from the Drum Canyon. The date and time have already been decided. I'll tell you about it later." Rose came to the city not so long ago and he acquired an Elemental Hand badge from his leader. Mincola was the person who introduced Angele to Rose during a mission.
Angele chatted with the two wizards on their way to a small store with a dark gold signage on the side.
It was late in the afternoon and there were many people walking on the street. He saw several farmers returning to their home and there were several noblemen chatting at the roadside. There were also several soldiers that had just finished their duty having dinner in small restaurants. They had placed their helmets on the tables and were chattering in loud voices.
The noise made by the river, the wind, and people talking mixed together.
There were several sandwich vendors on the side of the streets and the small restaurants started selling barbeques as night came.
The wizards had not put any badges on their cloaks, so no one knew of their identities.
They could be normal adventurers or Knights in disguise. Apart from them, there were also several elves walking around with their faces covered by masks.
The three wizards waited on the side of the store quietly. People were constantly entering and leaving the establishment.
"Alright, let's enter the store," Mincola confirmed the location once again, then he stepped into the door.
Angele and Rose followed after him.
Angele checked the words written on the dark gold signage as he entered the door.
'The Enchantment Shop'
There were already many people in the store.
"The price is the best you can get. You can check other enchantment stores if you don't believe me. I have spent a lot of money on the maintenance and materials of this chest armor. My profit is lower than one magic stone…" The owner of the store was talking with a dwarf warrior.
Mincola made a hand gesture at the owner as he entered the door.
The owner stopped what he was doing for a second. Nodding at Mincola, he also waved his right hand.
A young girl walked to the wizards from the side. She bowed to them and turned around, heading to the back of the counter.
The three wizards did not say anything but just followed the girl.
The girl led them to the dark backyard behind the store.
The small backyard was surrounded by walls and there was white jade cylinder standing in the center of the yard quietly. The cylinder had the width of an elephant's feet and it was about two meters tall.
"This is the item you ordered, master Mincola," The girl pointed at the jade cylinder and spoke in a low voice.
"What's the price?" Mincola nodded.
"You don't need to pay for this. The owner said the money you paid last time is more than enough," the girl replied.
"Alright, you can leave now. We need to have a conversation here."
The girl bowed and returned to the store.
Mincola walked to the jade cylinder and wiped the dust off it with a piece of cloth.
"Green, this is the ritual cylinder you asked me to purchase for you. It fits your requirement perfectly. It's the highest quality you can find. With this, you should have a higher chance of advancing to the Crystal stage."
Angele nodded in response. He then walked to the jade cylinder and started observing it.
The surface of the jade stone was covered with strange runes and strings. Angele only recognized a small part of the runes.
He tapped the cylinder with his right hand.
Dang*
It produced a crisp noise.
Angele was satisfied with the result. He took out a small glass tube that was filled with purple dust and threw it to Mincola.
"Thanks, here's some healing dust for you."
Mincola caught the tube and checked the content, then he smiled.
"Green, everything is ready, right? You have your resources now, so you can attempt to advance to the Crystal stage." He looked at Green.
"Yeah, you're right. But I still need to spend some time checking the materials." Angele had nothing to hide.
"Do you think you'll succeed this time? I think you should slow down. You're young and you have plenty of time," Rose advised.
"No one knows, Rose. I have already spent enough time on the preparation." Angele shook his head. "Alright, can you arrange some workers to carry this thing to my house?"
"I have already arranged the workers so don't worry. Now that your requirement is fulfilled, we can go check Rose's materials." Mincola turned to Rose. "You have time, right?"
"Sure, much appreciated."
"Haha, we're friends." Mincola chuckled. "Let's go. I spent a lot of time finding the materials you asked for this time."
"Sorry, but I want to go back to my house now," Angele interrupted.
"Wait, you don't want to miss this. I'm sure you'll be surprised. I've only seen it in the books…"
"Fine…" But Angele was not interested at all.
Angele returned to his house after they finished checking out Rose's new materials.
He heard some people yelling from the right as he stepped on the grassy field.
"Run! He's back!" a freckle-faced boy shouted.
There were five kids peeking through the gaps between the fences curiously who ran away after seeing Angele return to the house.
The kids were from the mortal families and were not talented. In the central continent, the wizards would test the infants and check if they were talented. The gifted ones would be sent to the wizard organizations, but the chances were low for mortals. There were about ten talented mortals in the thousands of kids that took the test.
Children with insufficient talent would be sent to normal schools and taught by assigned teachers. Thus, they had plenty of time to play.
Angele chuckled and shook his head. He walked to his house and opened the door with a key.
Two muscular workers carried the white jade cylinder into the house and placed it carefully at the center of the living room. They then bowed to Angele and stepped out of the door.
Angele locked the door and walked to the jade cylinder. He slowly rubbed the surface of the stone. Blue light dots were flashing in front of his eyes.
'What are you doing? I have always wanted to ask why your mentality wave gets unstable from time to time.' Henn's voice echoed in Angele's ears.
Angele smiled but did not say anything. He knew that Henn could not detect the presence of the biochip.
'Whatever. Have you removed your metal shield completely yet? And the metal elements in your body, eliminate them as well lest your progress will be affected.' Henn was not too concerned about Angele's unstable mentality wave.
'Everything has been prepared.' Angele nodded.
'If you can successfully advance to the Crystal stage this time, the second mentality crystal will be much easier to form. The Mask of the Black Wing is helpful if you want to infuse your mentality with elements. It's one of the best advanced meditation techniques in the category.' Henn felt pride with what she had given to Angele.
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Chapter 285: The Crystal Stage (2)
Translator: Leo Editor: Frappe
'I wonder what happened to Stigma. Is his progress faster than mine with the help of Arisma?' Angele suddenly questioned. He was not worried about himself at all. According to the simulation, the chances of him successfully advancing to the Crystal stage was over 90%.
'I don't think so. That kid fits Arisma's system perfectly. If everything goes through as they planned, he'll start preparing to advance to the Crystal stage soon,' Henn responded.
'Well, I think I should focus on my own progression more.' Angele took a deep breath and walked to the cylinder. He put both hands on top of the cylinder and started meditating.
'First, you need to remove the impurities from your mentality and use the jade cylinder to increase your mentality to a certain level. Second, you should consume all the needed materials you collected and compress your mentality. You're on your own now,' Henn advised in a light tone.
'I understand,' Angele responded.
The glowing crystals on the walls faded as soon as they finished their conversation. The whole room sank into darkness.
CHI*
The cylinder produced slight noises.
Rays of green light were released from the top of the jade cylinder.
The green light leaked out of the gaps between Angele's finger and illuminated on the ceiling.
The whole living room looked horrifying.
CHI*
Most of the green light disappeared except for the one on Angele's forehead.
The green light created a tunnel that connected Angele to the jade cylinder.
Small white light particles were floating in the light tunnel, they were coming out of Angele's forehead, and the particles were quickly absorbed by the jade cylinder.
Angele remained in that position as he slowly fell into slumber.
One month later…
Inside the living room, thick white dust covered the jade cylinder, the floor, and Angele's body.
The number of white light particles coming out of his forehead was reducing.
After about two hours later.
There were no longer any white light particles in the green light.
Angele suddenly opened his eyes and stumbled two steps back.
His body had become weak, and his cheeks had become thin. There was almost no soul in his eyes. Angele trembled for several seconds and almost fell to the ground.
'Wait…What happened to me?' Angele became flabbergasted when he felt he was too weak now.
'There are too many impurities in your mentality. Removing impurities is the same as consuming your mentality. You haven't eaten anything for a month. Go to the second floor and start the next step now,' Henn responded in a strange tone.
'One month? What? Why didn't you wake me up?' Angele was speechless. Zero was not able to wake him from such a state.
'Well, I wanted to know what you look like when you're weak, ha. It's quite…interesting.' Henn chuckled.
'Happy now?' Angele turned around. With the help of the railings, he slowly walked upstairs. 'Our souls are connected, so you will die if anything happens to me. Make your decisions wisely.'
'Nothing will happen. You're weak now but you still have me.' Henn was not concerned.
Angele rubbed his temples and entered the potions room on the second floor.
Three special materials were lined on a large table, which had been prepared before the advancement had started.
'Different wizards need different materials for the ritual. They're selected because they fit the properties of your mentality. I can't help you in this step. You need to figure out how to make the most out of these materials,' Henn advised.
Angele nodded and looked at the table.
Each of the materials was covered by a red cage.
The cages were formed by red electric pulses.
The electric bars were flashing and sparking.
The noises made by the electricity were quite annoying.
Angele raised his hand and reached for the first cage.
CHI*
Suddenly, the red electric pulses turned into a red rune and disappeared into the air, revealing the item stored in the cage.
It was a white egg with an appearance identical to a chicken egg.
Angele grabbed the egg, knocking it on the table several times.
He removed the eggshell slowly and looked at it.
Inside the egg was some light-yellow substance that had the texture of a banana. There was no egg yolk or egg white.
Furthermore, the yellow substance smelled exactly like a banana. The intense fragrance rushed into Angele's nose.
He remained calm and removed all the shells. What was left was a piece of yellow flesh.
Angele tapped on the flesh with the index finger of his right hand.
The yellow flesh was ignited right away, and the yellow flames crackled in the area around him.
Angele narrowed his eyes.
He grabbed the flesh and threw it into his mouth. He chewed the flesh several times and swallowed it.
Intense pain began to ravage from within his mouth. Angele struggled several seconds, and it felt like swallowing a piping hot iron. The burning flesh's temperature was high, and it was sizzling in his stomach.
Angele opened his mouth.
CHI*
White smoke began to seep out of his throat.
His mouth was completely black, and it smelled like burnt barbeque meat.
Angele quickly grabbed the second item.
It was an old book with a star sign as the only thing on its cover and it was quite heavy.
Angele opened the book slowly, but he only found a single page.
In the center of the page, there was a dried-up fairy, flat like a piece of paper, surrounded by distorted energy waves.
The fairy was thin, and its eyes gray. It had no mouth or nose; its ears were long and sharp. The fairy's dried-up body was trapped in a web of tree roots and the roots covered the whole page.
The dried fairy's arms were stretched outward making it look like a 'Y' character.
"The book of savior, please tell me your wish." Angele's voice had become hoarse and deep due to the burnt, but he was speaking in the ancient language.
White glows surrounded the fairy's eyes after Angele finished the incantation.
Strings of white light rushed out of its eyes and flew into Angele's burnt mouth.
The dried-up fairy on the paper started struggling once Angele began to absorb the white light. The fairy slowly stood up and the roots were being destroyed one by one. It looked like the web was the only thing restricting the fairy's power.
'Hurry! Close the book!' Henn's voice interrupted, sounding nervous.
Angele was surprised. He tried to grab the book immediately.
CHI*
The seemingly infinite white electric pulses were jumping out of the book and they were trying to block Angele's hands.
The force was pushing Angele's hands back slowly.
"Ha…"
The fairy raised his head and stared at Angele. The web that was stopping it from moving was almost destroyed.
The white electric pulses almost blinded his eyes.
Angele's face was twitching, he used all the strength he had but his body was just too weak.
'Damn! What should I do now?! Don't tell me…'
'You have to do it! That's the only choice you have left. Hurry! I'll buy you some time!' Henn was almost shouting.
'I…!' Angele watched the fairy standing up. He narrowed his eyes.
'Do it! Right now! You chose to use the level-3 cursed book. You should know the consequences! No one knows what's going to happen if the fairy gets freed!'
Angele blinked his eyes and made the decision.
'Alright!'
He took a deep breath and inhaled all the light into his mouth. His mouth had already recovered from the injury and returned to its original color.
'Ready…go!' Henn yelled.
PA*
Angele reached toward the book and grabbed the fairy. His fingers started melting and a sour smell permeated the air.
He had no time to think so he threw the fairy into his mouth before it could realize what had just happened.
However, the fairy started moving in his mouth right away. Angele chewed it into pieces and swallowed everything. It tasted like a rotten orange.
BOOM*
The book on the table suddenly set ablaze.
The book disintegrated in the red flames and turned into a small pile of white ash.
'Well, I guess everything is edible on this land.' Angele looked at the table and pursed his lips.
'It's just you. Your bloodline is complicated. I can see the harpy blood but it's different. It's something I don't really understand. Your stomach is stronger than most mutated beasts in this world. There's also a strong energy wave helping your digestive system…' Henn explained. 'You can use the last material to…repair your body, I think.'
'I thought you were joking when you asked me to swallow it if things went south…' Angele recalled the moment that the fairy was still moving in his mouth. It truly was an unpleasant experience for him.
'You succeeded in the end. That's all that matters,' Henn stopped for a second and continued, 'So…how does it feel? You're a Crystal stage wizard now.'
Angele spat out a brown root from the web and there was a blank expression on his face.
'I want to vomit.'
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Chapter 286: Meeting (1)
Translator: Leo Editor: Frappe
'There's still a long way to go and you have so many things to do.'
'I understand.' Angele nodded slightly and reached for the last material.
CHI*
The red electric bars on the cage turned into a red rune and disappeared.
It looked like a bunch of purple grapes.
Angele carefully lifted the grapes up and tapped on a grape slightly.
The grape was absorbed by his finger and only the dried skin was left.
'The Thousand Eye Fruit will cure your body. Consume one each day. You will feel better after one month and you will fully recover in a year,' Henn said. 'Make sure you're well rested before doing anything else. You do not want the consequences to happen.'
'I understand.' Angele nodded.
'Alright, go meditate now. Although you have an advanced meditation technique, it will still take some time for your mind and body to get used to it. Everything will be better in half a year. I'll have some rest now.' It seemed Henn was exhausted after watching Angele advance to the next stage.
'Sure, go have some rest. I can do the rest myself,' Angele responded.
Angele stood beside the table and put down the grapes, starting to think afterward.
After several minutes, he gave Zero an order.
'Check my condition.'
A large number of blue light dots flashed in front of his eyes as the chip reported back.
'Task created, checking…'
About half minutes later, the results were shown in his sight.
'Angele Rio, Strength 8.0, Agility 7.7, Stamina 15.2, Mentality 75.1, Mana 57.2. Genetic limitation reached.'
Angele's brows furrowed.
'My Mentality increased to 75 points yet my mana is lower than 60 points…Why is that? Can you analyze it for me?'
Rows of blue data were being refreshed in his sight every second. It almost looked like a flowing waterfall.
After about ten minutes, the data slowly stopped.
Angele checked all the information and finally understood what had happened. If the mentality was not stabilized, his Mana would never increase.
'Show me my all the information regarding my energy variations. I want to create new battle plans.' Angele ordered as his eyes blinked.
'Loading data…Analyzing…'
The energy variation information would tell Angele about his affinity with the different energy particles.
Angele's body was affected by the ring from Ramsoda. Mainly due to that reason, he had high affinity with Fire and Wind particles. Most of the spells he mastered and modified at the moment were in those two categories.
However, it seemed the ancient bloodline was modifying his body slowly. He needed to recheck his affinity with the energy particles so that he could choose the best level 2 spell for him.
It only took several minutes for Zero to report back.
A bar chart floated in front of Angele's eyes.
The energy particle element that had the highest affinity with Angele was displayed on the leftmost part and the weakest one was displayed on the rightmost part.
The glowing red bar representing the Fire energy particles was the longest.
The second one was the Metal energy particles and the bar was silver.
The third one was the Illusion energy particles and the bar was translucent.
The last one was green which represented the Wind energy particles.
Angele hesitated for several seconds and started thinking.
'It seems that the changes made by the bloodline do not impact my affinity with certain energy particles…The illusion and metal energy particle affinity are new but they're still weaker than the fire affinity.'
The wind affinity came from the ring, but it seemed that he was born with fire affinity and the strongest spell he could cast was in the Fire category.
'So the Mask of Black Wing will be able to buff my spells from time to time, and as an advanced meditation technique, it can help me increase my affinity with one of the four energy particles.'
Angele had already noticed where the problem lay.
The forcefield from the Metal Mastery could help him both defensively and offensively during a battle. He thought that this Talent Spell was powerful but using it was hard in a practical sense. The spells that focused on either offense or defense were stronger than the forcefield he had.
The metal skills only helped him initiate a battle and protect his body. The illusion signet was the deciding factor in the outcome of the battles.
Angele did not think too much about the affinity with the energy particles but then the situation changed.
He was not born with the metal affinity but came from the Metal Mastery. It seemed like the power of the forcefield was not as strong as he had initially thought but Zero had modified the Talent Spell to make it stronger. Angele wondered if an average Fire spell would help him more in a fight.
'Should I increase my fire affinity and stamina using the advanced meditation technique instead?' Angele rubbed his chin and pursed his lips.
He finally made up his mind after thinking for half an hour. He decided to increase his affinity with the Fire energy particles.
Angele had made the wrong decision while choosing the Talent Spell before, so he decided to be more prudent this time.
He checked the defensive matrix around the house and returned to the center of the potions room.
Angele sat on the floor with his legs crossed and started meditating.
Time flew past.
One hour later.
A thin layer of black smoke appeared on Angele's face.
The black smoke was moving around, releasing a distorted energy wave.
The smoke became increasingly thicker as time passed.
It then turned into a solidified black mask and covered Angele's face.
The mask was simple; there was no complicated pattern or rune painted on it.
Another half an hour passed.
Suddenly, a red light dot appeared between his eyebrows.
The red dot turned into a small fireball and it was surrounded by a red glow.
The fire extinguished by itself after about ten minutes.
Crack*
The black mask broke into countless pieces and slid down Angele's face.
The broken mask turned into black smoke and vanished into the air before it hit the floor.
Angele opened his eyes and raised his right arm, chanting the incantation of the Lesser Fireball slowly.
Countless red light dots gathered on Angele's palm like fireflies.
A ball of fire was formed quickly.
The fireball had the size of a human's head. Several seconds later, the fireball shrank and turned into a walnut-sized red bead floating above the center of Angeles' right palm.
Angele looked at the modified Lesser Fireball and scanned it using the biochip.
The spell could deal around 40 degrees of damage, but it had already reached its limit.
There was only so much a level 1 spell could do.
However, the amount of damage the spell could deal was increased to 50 degrees after the meditation.
'So this is the result of increasing my fire affinity?' Angele finished the analysis and the blue light dots vanished into the air.
'What about level 2 spells? I'm at the Crystal stage right now. I can learn one level 2 spell, but I don't have any spell models in my possession. Seems like I must acquire one from the Dark Wizard Tower or from Henn.' Angele blinked his eyes.
WOO*
The fire bead turned into countless red light dots and disappeared into the air. The temperature in the room was increased by several degrees Celsius.
'Do you really think that's all the black mask can do?' Henn's voice echoed in his ears.
'I thought you were going to have a good rest.' Angele was surprised.
Henn sneered. 'I told you already that the Mask of Black Wing is a great advanced meditation technique. This technique has five stages. You have just started the first stage. When you actually complete the first stage, you will acquire a special forcefield just like the one from your Talent Spell, and you can increase an energy affinity again. The next four stages are the same. You'll be able to increase the affinity of your choice twice at each stage. The higher the stage you're trained in this meditation technique, the higher your selected affinity will be increased.'
Angele was getting confused.
'How is that even possible? This advanced meditation technique exceeds my expectation a whole lot now…' he responded.
'…You missed the point,' Henn explained. 'You'll reach rank 3 if you can complete the third stage in 300 years and you'll already be considered a genius. Kid, you need a high mentality level to train in advanced meditation techniques and the technique might increase your chance of advancing to the next rank. That's the reason why there are more wizards in the central continent than the other areas. The best advanced meditation technique could increase the chance by half!'
'What? Only half?'
'What do you know…? The higher a wizard's rank is, the harder the progression will be. If you fail to advance to the next rank, it will cost you a huge amount of resources to fix your body. Arisma is assisting Stigma right now but I think her meditation technique is at the same level to the one I have given you, unless they decided to use some special methods…But there will be side effects.'
Angele scrunched up his forehead.
'So you're saying that the advanced meditation technique will help a wizard progress to the next rank and that's how wizards in the central continent advance?'
'Yeah, you're correct.' Henn confirmed Angele's assumption. 'Wizards in other regions have to waste a significant number of resources but we have a clear direction. That's the biggest difference.'
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Chapter 287: Meeting (2)
Translator: Leo Editor: Frappe
'How did you manage to keep all the advanced meditation techniques in the central continent?'
'There were people selling the weaker advanced meditation techniques to others. They somehow managed to avoid having to sign the contract but the number can be ignored. Only the strongest and richest wizards in other areas might have access to those techniques. Also, not all the wizards could understand the techniques. Otherwise, there should have been more high-rank wizards on this land than it is now.'
'Why is it so hard then? I succeeded on my first try.' Angele wondered.
'No one knows. Wizards have spent years studying the fundamentals of the advanced meditation techniques but there was hardly any valid result. The advanced meditation techniques were inherited from the ancient wizards who found these techniques in other realms,' Henn explained.
'Other realms? Do you know about the Nightmare Realm? Don't tell me wizards in the central continent have already found the method of activating world stones…' Angele was surprised.
'The Nightmare Realm is just one of the realms. I don't know if there are wizards in the central continent that can enter other realms, but they do know how to use world stones to communicate with the species that live in certain realms. The intelligent species in other realms are all strong and mysterious. The Nightmare Realm is relatively safe when compared to the other realms, but legends say the creatures there will consume your soul. Those creatures are the masters of strong curses. The curse will kill a wizard's whole family if not lifted in time,' Henn continued.
'There are also the Void Realm and Chaos Realm. Don't even test your luck in those realms. Only those dark wizards who have lost their life's purpose would give them a try.'
Angele listened to Henn's words quietly, inwardly relieved that he did not stay in the Nightmare Realm for too long.
'Anyways, it's too early to talk about this with you. I'll tell you more about the other realms when the time is right.' Henn decided to end the topic here.
'Master Henn, I have just advanced to the Crystal stage. I'm wondering if you can give some Fire category level 2 spells?' Angele went straight to the point.
'Ha, kid, do you remember what the basics of the wizard world are? We need to trade if you want anything from me.' Henn chuckled.
'I understand…What do you want me to do this time?' Angele shrugged. Henn's words were well within his expectations. She would not help Angele for no reason.
'Find me the female wizard called Vivian Fenrir. She should still be a member of the Elemental Hand if I'm not mistaken. Go find her and I'll give you the spell models you want.'
'Alright. I will look for her right after I reach the organization's territory, but it will take some time…Can't you just give me the level 2 spells first?' Angele pursed his lips. 'I just realized that I can ask for the models after I get there.'
'You're an elite member of Dark Wizard Tower and a talented potion master. I think they'll give you access to the normal level 2 spell models. However, I have the modified ones and the damage they can deal is doubled. That's your decision to make.' Henn sneered.
'You're telling me that the Elemental Hand and Dark Wizard Tower don't have the modified version of the spell models?' Angele asked.
'They do but the cost is different. You need to sign a contract and leave a small part of your soul to the organization,' Henn explained slowly.
Angele narrowed his eyes and responded after thinking for several seconds.
'Alright, you win.'
'Wait till your mentality is stabilized again. You first need to learn more about this city,' Henn suggested.
'You're correct.' Angele nodded slightly.
Five days later.
It was a sunny day.
The thin clouds floated in the endless blue sky. The golden sunlight was eye-blinding as it illuminated on the surface of the ground.
On the left side of the black iron tower, there was a busy street that was filled with numerous restaurant establishments.
The street was crowded. The locals were wearing short leather skirts and sleeveless leather chest armors. Sweat was dripping down their chins as they haggled with the vendors.
Their colorful leather outfits were shining in the sunlight.
There were several cafés on the street. Most of them had white store signs, and their customers were young.
Inside one of the cafés, there was a man short black hair sitting beside a table. He was wearing a long white robe. On the contrary, the other three chairs were empty.
The man was sipping a flower infused coffee from a small cup. His face was pale and there was a cold expression on his face. The black dagger that was tied to his belt was eye-catching.
The man quietly sat there alone peeking outside through the window on the left.
Most of the young customers only stayed in the shop for less than five minutes and some were waiting for their friends to come.
Several customers had come and left but the black-haired man just waited beside the window patiently while looking at the people passing by.
The owner and waiters in the shop were guessing who this man was waiting for.
Several hours passed. The golden sunlight had already turned orange which illuminated on the man's table.
The color of the coffee in the cup deepened.
Creak*
The glass door of the shop was pushed open again.
"It's my turn to pay today, just tell me what you want!" A girl with short yellow hair entered the shop. There were two other young girls following from behind.
The three entered the shop as they chatted and a tall man in a gray robe stepped into the door as well, his face covered by the hood.
The man went straight to the table beside the window.
He pulled the white chair out for himself and slowly sat down.
"You're early." The man put down his hood, revealing the confident smile on his face.
The man had long brown hair and his face was average-looking. His eyes were surrounded by a golden glow and there was a mysterious aura around him.
"Green, you're late." The man with black hair sipped some more coffee from the cup and calmly spoke.
"I arrived on time. So Stigma, how's your family?' Angele ordered a cup of fruit coffee and looked at Stigma.
"Not bad. No one knows that I already became a formal wizard. They think I'm still a rank 3 wizard apprentice." Stigma shook his head slightly. "My young sister is already a formal wizard and she will advance to the Gas stage soon. For some reason, however, my family did not provide too many resources to her while I was away."
"So everything is going as you planned?"
"It's for my own safety." Stigma had a blank expression on his face. "People fear the things that they're unfamiliar with. My sister did everything for me after I returned to the family, and my best friend, she cried as we finally met each other again. This is the life I want…Sometimes I'm just wondering if I should never tell them about the truth."
"Enjoy it while you can. The master won't let you do that." Angele looked at Stigma and scanned him using Zero.
"You're very close to the Crystal stage right now. Congratulations." He narrowed his eyes.
"There's bound to be side effects." Stigma bit his lips and finished the coffee.
Creak*
The door was opened again.
A man and a woman stepped into the shop, both wearing white outfits.
The man had smooth blonde hair and his face was handsome. The woman was confident and elegant, she was wearing a long black ponytail.
They glanced around and found the two beside the window.
"Here they come." Stigma stood up and smiled. "Everyone is here now."
"I wanted to talk to you guys before I leave, then I suddenly received Stigma's message, ha," Hikari spoke first.
The handsome blonde man was Reyline.
The four wizards sat down by the table.
Hikari looked at Angele and smiled. "Green, you probably don't know yet but Reyline has already joined the Wizards' Society and has been promoted by the leader due to his talent."
"The Wizards' Society? I have heard that they would only recruit the strongest and the most talented wizards." Angele was a bit surprised. The Wizards' Society was at the same level as the Dark Wizard Tower.
"It's not as good as the rumors say but it does have some unique features." Reyline shook his head.
"The Wizards' Society is definitely a good choice in the central continent. If they send you to their headquarters, you might become a leader of a division. You have a bright future ahead." Stigma sounded surprised. "Hikari, which organization did you join?"
Hikari chuckled. "I joined the Institute of Potion Masters. The situation is complicated right now. I might get relocated to the Molten River area soon. I have just advanced to the Crystal stage several days ago and still need some time to stabilize my mentality. I'm now a lead developer for a special potion and my friends are still waiting for me on the street right now."
"Glad to see you all doing well. The Institute of Potion Masters is weaker than the Wizards' Society, but I have heard that only the elites would be sent to the Molten River area. I think you're hiding something from us, Hikari." Stigma smiled.
"Come on." Hikari shook her head. "Well, I made a huge mistake back in the Six Ring High Tower because I spent too much time on my research. I won't let that happen again."
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Chapter 288: Wedding (1)
Translator: Leo Editor: Frappe
"Green, what about you?" Hikari looked at Angele curiously. "Your potion concocting skills are better than mine. You can come join the institute if you want."
Angele shook his head. "I got my hands on one Elemental Hand badge. I'll be heading to its location soon."
"Elemental Hand…Good choice! It's one of the three strongest wizard organizations in the Tarry River area. Green, you're a strong and talented wizard. Your future is bright." Hikari nodded. "We should keep in touch. We have come from the same place and we have survived all the challenges together. I'll be there if you need my help."
"That's why we're here. We all have our own goals. I'm sure we'll succeed in future. We should contact each other when necessary and help each other improve." Stigma smiled.
Reyline and Angele nodded their heads without saying anything.
"But…" Hikari hesitated for a second. "Do any of you know what happened to Morrisa? Why isn't she here?"
"I know." Reyline opened his mouth. "She went to a remote area and was injured severely when she returned to the city. Her mentality level decreased a lot…and she spent a long time recovering in her home. I have heard that she's getting married to a random wizard. I asked her to come to the meeting, but she declined my invitation."
The three wizards were surprised upon listening to him.
"Maybe it's a better choice for her." Hikari stared at Angele and Stigma. "Even if she was not injured, she would not be able to advance to the next rank anytime soon and you two, I'm not going to ask what exactly happened in the White Mist Town."
Hikari knew that something happened to Stigma and Angele after leaving the White Mist Town. Stigma's mentality level was increasing exponentially, and he was now much more confident than before.
Stigma remained silent for several seconds and asked, "When is Morrisa's wedding?"
"Next week," Reyline responded in a light tone. "She invited us to attend the wedding as we're still friends, but she doesn't want us to talk too much with her fiancé. Morrisa lied about her actual situation. I think we should help her keep this secret."
"So we're going, right?" Hikari wondered.
Angele and Stigma nodded their heads.
"Also, Stigma, just let us know if you need help with your family issues. We are friends. I'll see what I can do," Hikari added in a light tone.
"Yeah." Reyline nodded slightly.
"Yeah, just talk to us." Angele looked at Stigma.
"Thank you. I'll contact you when I really need your help." Stigma shook his head. "The strongest wizards in my family are the family head, my father, and the elders. They're all rank 2 wizards. I'll wait until I advance to rank 2." It seemed rank 2 wizards were not a big deal to him. "Alright, I need to leave now. Otherwise, my sister will be angry. We can contact each other through the signal obelisk."
"Sure."
Angele responded in a light tone.
"I'll invite you to my family's territory when the time comes." Stigma stood up chuckling, then left the café.
The three wizards knew that Stigma was going to take the leader's position by force in the future and they decided to help.
"I'll be leaving too." Hikari stood up. "The members of my guild are still…" A green light dot flashed on the back of her right hand before she could finish speaking.
Hikari shrugged. "Well, they're sending me messages again." She tapped on the back of her glowing nail.
The message was transmitted to the three wizards' ears through the energy particles.
"Master Hikari, where are you? We need to prepare for the testing phase of the potion. Please report back immediately. Otherwise, wizard Marian will question us again…"
Angele and Reyline chuckled after listening to the message.
"See, I'm not lying. The leader of the division is giving me a lot of pressure on the project I'm working on. I'm super busy nowadays." Hikari shook her head.
"Alright, don't make them wait. I still want to talk to Reyline." Angele smiled.
"Master Hikari, are you talking with your friends? I apologize if I interrupted your conversation! I'm sorry!" Another message was sent to Hikari's communication rune.
"I'm done. I'll be there soon. Just stay at where you are right now," Hikari responded quickly.
She deactivated the communication rune and waved at the two male wizards that were still in their seats.
"See you later."
"Bye."
"Bye. Talk to you later."
Reyline and Angele said goodbye to Hikari.
They watched Hikari leave the café and disappear around the corner.
Angele and Reyline were the only two wizards left on the table.
Hikari's glowing communication rune caught the attention of the customers and the owner. There were several teenagers staring at them and guessing who they were.
The place had now become rowdy as people were all chatting about what had just happened.
The owner of the shop was a bald old man. He asked two pretty waitresses to check on the two mysterious customers by the window.
"Masters, do you need something else?" The waitress on the left was around 18 years old and the one on the right was around 20 years old. They were wearing white short skirts and their voices were sweet. The two girls were young and attractive.
"Two cups of green tea." Reyline put down a silver coin which was engraved with an image of a long-haired old man.
The rough edge of the silver coin reflected the sunlight.
"Sure, I'll bring the tea to you soon." The two waitresses picked up the two coins and returned to the counter, looking excited.
The other waiters and waitresses walked to the two girls and started asking questions. Their conversation made the place even noisier.
"Interesting. I thought wizards were not rare here…" Angele grabbed the cup and sipped some fruit coffee. It was sweet and sour; the aftertaste was a bit bitter.
"The coffee is a bit too sour for me." He put down the cup.
"Why did you choose Elemental Hand? That organization is not good enough for you. You should've chosen a larger one." Reyline looked at Angele.
"I made an agreement with someone." Angele pursed his lips. "Do you think we'll all make it to rank 2?"
"The chances are high, I believe," Reyline responded quickly.
"I was thinking if we meet again after 50 years, will we still be the same people we are right now?" Angele pursed his lips into a smile.
"Hikari and I won't change. I'm not sure about you and Stigma." Reyline leaned to the window and looked outside. "Just like Morrisa, no one can predict the future. We can only keep progressing and hope for the best."
"Can't you be positive for once?" Angele shook his head. "Stigma will advance to rank 2 with no problem. Don't ask me why. I just know."
"You'll advance to rank 2 too." Reyline eyed Angele. "Everyone has their own secrets. You, me, Hikari, and Stigma all have secrets. Advancing to rank 2 and acquiring an advanced meditation technique should be my priority. A rank 2 wizard will be respected by the majority of large organizations in the central continent I believe."
"I understand. How's your progression?" Angele nodded.
"I'm still preparing for the next step. I'm looking for a special energy circle that will help me advance to the next rank. I have decided to accept missions from the society and trade for the resources I need," Reyline responded in a low voice.
Angele did not say anything. He had checked with Henn before he came to the shop and he knew that Reyline was walking the same path as the other wizards. Reyline needed many resources to help him increase the mentality level so he could advance to the next rank.
That was what most of the wizards would do.
The wizards in other areas relied solely on the rare resources but the wizards in the central continent had clear directions and Reyline might have already found what he needed.
"Do you know which advanced meditation technique is the best for you? The Wizards' Society is strong, but I don't think they'll give you the best technique they have." Angele inquired.
"I know what I should do but I need to finish all the challenges given by the society first. It will take me a while."
"You should be fine. Just think twice before you make any important decision." Angele knew that Reyline was talented. He was called the Perfect Wizard of the younger generation in Six Ring High Tower and an advanced meditation technique would help him to reach a whole different level.
They left the café together after finishing their conversation.
"Where's my brother?"
Inside a white manor outside the city, a tired-looking girl wearing a red leather suit walked into the study. There was a complicated v-shaped pattern between her eyebrows.
The girl's long black hair trailed over her shoulders. She held an emerald-tipped white wand in her right hand.
There was another pretty girl standing beside the bookshelf reading a thick book with golden edges on the cover. She was wearing a white silk shirt and a pair of tight blue jeans.
"Stigma is not here. He will study after he comes back." The girl in a white shirt shrugged.
"He's never liked studying and meditating when he was young…but he's a grown-up man now." The girl in red rubbed her temples and sighed. "He'll never break the limit if he doesn't put more time into it. I need to punish him when he comes back!"
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