tww 300

Chapter 300: Exploration and Thoughts (1)


CHI

Several translucent energy waves appeared on the bed again.

A man sitting cross-legged on the bed gradually emerged as soon as the waves vanished into the air.

Angele slowly opened his eyes, feeling dizzy.

He could see the pink mist floating around in the bedroom.

The place was deafeningly silent. He could no longer hear the noises produced by the lava from the tunnel.

Angele’s brow furrowed as he jumped off the bed.

He drew the cursed scimitar slowly and activated the buff, strings of green energy climbed up his wrist.

‘The familiar air…and this feeling…it’s making me nervous and excited at the same time…’ Angele narrowed his eyes. His fear of being in an unknown realm was making his heart pump harder.

Moments like this were the main reason why he enjoyed being a wizard.

The bedroom was quiet and the only thing here was the red mist.

Angele walked to the door and carefully unlocked it.

The bronze handle of the door was hard and cold.

Creak

The door was pushed open slowly, revealing the dark red tunnel outside.

Angele did not leave the room right away but waited by the door for a while.

He did not detect any movement outside.

He tapped his pouch slightly and a scorpion-shaped rune appeared on his forehead. Angele then took out the Light of Thorns and held it tight in his left hand.

He jumped out of the door after everything was prepared.

PA

He landed on the floor of the tunnel safely.

Angele glanced around. The sight in the tunnel was blurred by the red mist as well.

Upon taking a deep breath, he noticed that the sulfur smell in the air was gone.

DANG

A sound like a metal hammer hitting a wall.

‘Is it a bell…?’ Angele was surprised; he quickly covered his body with a thin layer of metal.

DANG

The bell rang again, and the noise echoed throughout the tunnel.

‘It’s close." Angele followed the direction of the sound and started advancing slowly.

The tunnel would lead him to the other areas of the ruin, but the visibility was very low.

Angele proceeded with caution, as he turned left at a corner and entered another tunnel.

Several seconds later, he found the source of the noise.

On the left side of the tunnel, there was an enormous wooden grandfather clock. The base of the case was red, and the clock was white; such contrast was eye-catching.

The structure of the clock was a bit strange. There was a black hammer hitting a piece of red metal and that was where the noise came from.

Angele stopped by the clock and rubbed the surface of the glass panel feeling that it was cold but smooth.

His eyebrows drew together as he started moving forward again. The mysterious rune he found from the door was guiding him to a certain location.

The rhythmic noise made by the clock was still bothering him after he went past several tunnels.

DANG DANG DANG DANG

Suddenly, the noise produced by the clock became intense.

DANG DANG DANG DANG DANG DANG DANG DANG DANG

It almost sounded like someone was hitting the metal piece furiously with the hammer.

Angele drew the scimitar and as he turned around, he started running back to the grandfather clock.

Kata Kata

His footsteps echoed in the tunnel, and the noise coming from the clock was getting louder and louder. It seemed as if the clock was trying to convey something.

Angele lowered his body and started scanning the area using the biochip.

He was approaching a corner as he lightened his footsteps.

He turned around and rushed to the tunnel where the clock was located.

At that moment, the sound made by the clock disappeared.

The tunnel was silent and empty. He could not find any trace left by the grandfather clock.

Angele exhaled once slowly. What was in front of him was a clean and smooth stone wall.

CHI KA

He heard something that sounded like a radio changing its frequency.

"This is Coleman and the Coleman’s Last Voice Potion will become the greatest achievement in his life. Father said that I’ll become a legend and I’m certain that…"

The strange voice echoed in Angele’s ears. He took several steps back as his expression changed.

The voice sounded like a young boy’s and it came from nowhere.

"Coleman loves chestnuts. He loves berry juice. He wants to stay in the bed as long as he can…"

The boy’s voice changed, and it now sounded cute.

Angele had a serious expression on his face. He sped up even more as the voice seemed to continuously pierce through his brow. It almost like being stabbed by multiple forks in the head.

"Ah…I stabbed my father by accident. He’s bleeding. Will he die? It doesn’t matter, I can change the body for him and he’ll live forever!

"Why do they fear me? I’m so cute. I hate them! I hate those filthy adults!"

The boy’s voice slowly quieted down and disappeared as soon as Angele had fled from the tunnel.

He quickly stopped; his face was covered in cold sweat.

The path ahead was dark. When Angele turned his head around, the only thing he could see was pure darkness.

He had no idea where he was at now. The voice of the young boy was killing him, and he could barely think straight. A wizard needed to focus his mind before he could fight back. That was the reason why he escaped the area.

‘Zero, show me the map.’

‘Checking … Warning … Warning … Unfamiliar route detected …’

A clean blue map was displayed in front of Angele’s left eye labeled as ‘Original Ruin Map’.

A red map then appeared in front of his right eye of which he had never seen before.

Angele observed the two maps carefully. The route he had chosen was marked on the red map but the only known area on that one was the residential area.

Furthermore, he noticed that his route on the map was a straight line.

Angele was certain that he turned several times on the way.

He compared the red map to the blue map and realized that they were completely different.

Angele took a deep breath and calmed down. He double-checked the surroundings, but he did not detect any invasive energy wave.

He held the scimitar tight and began to press on once again.

Several minutes later, a painting appeared on the right side. Golden edges, colorful image, and clean frame.

Angele stopped by the painting and looked at it.

He saw a city in the painting. There were two stick men standing in the center of a street. They did not fit the image very well as there was no detail on their faces.

It felt like that the two stick men were drawn by a kid, but the city was drawn by an artist.

Suddenly, the two stick men started moving in Angele’s sight.

They held each other’s hands and started moving around the city.

"Ah…my sons… Where are you going? Come back… Come back home… Don’t leave…"

A gentle female voice echoed in the tunnel which sounded as if she was muttering and singing.

Angele glanced around. The place was empty, and no one was around.

An unpleasant feeling climbed up his back.

He decided to keep advancing. The woman’s voice slowly went away.

By the end of the tunnel was a pink bronze door. It was half-open and bright white light was leaking out of it.

He slowly moved to the door and peeked inside.

On the left side of the room, there were two cats playing chess in the corner. White-furred yet instead of paw and leg, they had a muscular human right arm of yellow color.

They were using the human hands to pick up the chess pieces.

The two white cats were focusing on the chessboard, not noticing the wizard outside the door.

Angele used the stealth technique and stepped into the door, moving to the right side.

He did not want to startle the two cats. Angele already knew how dangerous this realm was. He was certain that the danger level of the ruin was higher than his home in the Six Ring Area and back there, he had already nearly experienced death.

Angele was a much stronger wizard than before, but he did not test his luck on those mutated nightmare creatures. The old turtle he met by the river almost petrified him.

The two white cats still focused on the chessboard after Angele entered the room. It seemed the stealth technique worked.

He went across the room safely and found a door. Angele opened the door and entered a hallway.

Angele realized that the area ahead was the spell training facility. The visibility was still low due to the absence of light and the red mist.

He looked to the left and saw a wall covered with black vines. In the center of the wall was an engraving that looked like a woman’s face.

Walls with such engravings could absorb a large amount of spell damage and they were great for practicing spells.

Angele walked to the engraving and realized that there was something different.

Suddenly, the black eyes on that woman’s face rolled several times then stared at him.

Angele’s skull numbed after witnessing what just happened.

"Welcome to the realm, my beloved guest," The woman’s face opened her mouth and spoke in the universal ancient language; her voice was high-pitched but hoarse.

"Come closer. Don’t be afraid, I won’t harm you."

Angele licked his dry lips and stepped forward with the scimitar in his hand.

Chapter 301: Exploration and Thoughts (2)


The wall was the only thing in Angele's eyes.

The engraving of a pale-faced woman was surrounded by black vines as she herself was silently staring at him with a pair of dark hollow eyes.

"You can understand my words?" Angele responded in the ancient language. He stood in front of the wall and looked into the woman’s eyes which were akin to two dark shallow holes.

"Of course." The woman’s face moved as though she was nodding in response. The vines around her were being dragged to the side.

"So, why did you decide to talk to me?" Angele asked.

"You heard the voice of that young boy, right?" The woman smiled. "This ruin is dangerous, very dangerous. Unfortunate things will happen if you are not careful enough. Tell me why you are here. Perhaps I can offer you some help. Seeing you is like seeing my long-lost children…"

"Why am I here?" Angele hesitated.

"Yes, one does not come here for nothing. This is the Nightmare Realm which will make you have an experience as if you had a nightmare. So tell me, why are you here?" the woman replied in a light tone.

"I'm searching for a bloodline that will help me enter this realm again." There was no point for Angele to hide his true purpose.

"Why do you wish to enter this realm once again?" the woman continued asking.

"For the sake of obtaining rare resources, knowledge, and… some other things," Angele answered in a serious tone.

"Why do you wish to obtain the knowledge and the resources?" Clearly, she would not stop any time.

"I want to become stronger, to advance to the next rank."

"Why is that? What will the high rank bring you?"

Angele stopped and pursed his lips.

"What will the rank bring me?" He lowered his head and started thinking.

‘Power? Money? Beautiful women?’

‘No, none of those.’

Angele once asked himself the same question but the conclusion he got was to keep moving forward.

"What are you seeking from this world? Have you ever thought about it?" the woman questioned him again.

"What’s the purpose of your life?"

Angele was getting confused.

He recalled his former life back on Earth. The only thing he had done every single day was to have fun. This lifestyle made him feel like he was rotting from the inside like a worthless worm.

His past life was boring but safe.

Yet if he had not reincarnated into this world after the car accident, his dull, boring life would have continued as it was, forever.

This new world, on the contrary, was charming. His life was far more colorful than dull as it had been before.

At the beginning, Angele wanted to gain power in order to protect his family and to become a strong individual. His dream had come to fruition when he advanced to become a formal wizard, then the only thing he needed to accomplish was to keep progressing as a wizard.

There was no point in him stopping as all the resources he needed was near his grasp.

Angele could have chosen to return to the west coast and merely settle in selling potions the rest of his entire life. He could have enjoyed being in a peaceful environment for the next several hundred years.

However, such a way of life was not what he desired.

Angele now figured out the answer to the questions.

Suddenly, he raised his head and glanced at the woman again.

"What is your name?" he asked.

The woman smiled. "You may refer to me as the 'Wall of Confusion'. I can see through your mind and I shall guide you to your life purpose. Once you find the answers to my questions, I shall bestow you a special reward."

"What if I could not?" Angele narrowed his eyes.

As he lowered his head, he saw countless black vines climbing up his legs which nearly covered his waist. Angele's legs became numb, unable to move it in the slightest bit.

"If you cannot find the answers, I shall consume you. I feed on wanderers' confusion as it will let me become more powerful." The woman started laughing.

"Interesting." Angele blinked his eyes, then he slashed the vines with his cursed scimitar.

Clank

The scimitar was blocked, and the vines were not damaged.

He took out the Light of Thorns.

"It will not work. You must find the answer, then I will free you." The woman pursed her lips.

"Find the answer, huh?" Angele took a deep breath.

"You want to know what I’m seeking from this world?"

KA

The vines started climbing again. Angele had already felt tired and he could barely move his arms.

Back on Earth, Angele had no passion for his job and the only thing he wanted to do was to search for an exciting purpose in his life.

"I will keep moving forward to search for the things that will excite me; this world is vast. The higher my rank is, the more interesting things will I encounter. I will climb the peak of the mountain and enjoy the best view."

He had these thoughts in mind and spat everything out without organizing his thoughts too much; these were his pure desires.

"The horrifying Nightmare Realm, the mysterious Chaos Dimension, the legendary Void Domain—such adventures await me. Therefore, I must not stop advancing."

Suddenly, Angele's body set ablaze and was surrounded by translucent flames, burning the expanding roots. The roots were burnt into ashes in but a few seconds and fell to the ground.

"Never will I stop until I discover every exciting thing in this world. Perhaps I could even explore all realms one day…"

Angele blinked his eyes several times.

"I might also be able to find out the reason why I have been sent into this world…Ha, you cannot feed on my confusion."

PA

The last vine dropped to the ground and turned into black ash as Angele’s life purpose became clear.

"Congratulations." The woman was not concerned that she just lost her prey. "I want to know how you solved the problem within such a short duration. Anyway, please accept the reward."

She opened her mouth and stuck her black tongue out. The tongue moved to Angele like a snake; it was more several meters long.

On the tip of the tone was a golden key.

The surface of the key was covered by complicated patterns.

Angele grabbed the key without any hesitation. He could not feel any evil intention coming from the Wall of Confusion. It seemed the key was a real reward.

The key was warm. Angele wondered if the woman had a body behind the wall.

"Go down the tunnel and you will find a garden. Don’t talk to any living being you see inside it even if they speak first. Go across the garden and you will see a door. Once you open that door, you will find another door that this key will be used on. Everything you want is behind that door."

When the woman finished her speaking, her face sank into the wall behind the vines.

Angele held the key in hand, turning around, then he started walking down the tunnel.

He found an exit after walking for several minutes.

He left the tunnel and entered a garden with bright sunshine.

The roses were bloody red and the vines on the ground were covered with sharp thorns. It almost looked like red flowers floating on a black sea.

The sunshine came from the sky, but it was so bright that Angele could barely see anything.

In the center of the garden, there was a white swing.

A short man, wearing a white one piece and a flower band, was sitting on it.

Angele blocked some of the light with his right hand and looked at the swing.

It was an old woman with dry skin.

She was singing a nursery rhyme while swinging, her voice was high-pitched but hoarse.

"The tales say that…from the other side of the sea…there was a cute muffin…its skin was golden…its feet were white…" The old woman was singing and smiling, she sounded happy.

However, the old woman stared at Angele directly in the eyes after noticing his presence.

Her long sharp eyes were bloodshot as if she had not slept for a long time.

The strange song being sung by her was still continuing.

The Wall of Confusion had warned him about the situation. He stopped looking at the old woman and started walking to the other side of the garden.

Angele noticed the voice of the old woman was becoming increasingly closer, almost as if she was already right behind him.

Angele turned his head around and saw the old woman approaching him. She was singing and smiling while slowly walking to him.

His skull numbed, and he decided to proceed with caution.

The old woman was only several steps away from him.

PA

When Angele finally found the large door, he quickly rushed to it and pushed it open. The surface of the door was cold and hard.

He stepped into the door quickly.

The old woman stopped outside the door, still staring at Angele but she finally stopped singing.

Angele took a deep breath and closed the door.

He turned around and found himself in a narrow brown hallway. The hallway was about 10 meters long and there was another door by the end of it.

The door looked identical to the engraving in the world stone laboratory’s that had exploded.

Angele compared the door to the record in the database and found some similar patterns.

The mysterious golden patterns on the door were familiar.

He walked to the door quickly and checked the key in his hand.

CHI

A small hole slowly appeared in the center of the door and it fitted the key perfectly.

Angele inserted the key into the hole and turned it to the left, but nothing happened.

He then turned it to the right.

KA

The door was unlocked.

‘Warning! Warning! You have 10 minutes left. 9 minutes 59 seconds. 9 minutes 57 seconds…’

Zero’s mechanical voice echoed in Angele’s ears.

He quickly pushed the door open.

BAM

Angele raised his head. What he saw surprised him.

Chapter 302: Replacement and Reason (1)


A spacious white hall was revealed before the opened door.

At the center of the hall was a large pool built with white stones and was surrounded by many strange blue sculptures.

The sculptures had been crafted from the image of attractive ladies with long scorpion tails on their backs. This tail they possessed was about one meter long and was the size of a human leg.

The ladies crouched beside the pool and raised their tails in the air as if they were ready to strike any time.

There was a vortex in the center of the pool spinning slowly. Its radius was about four meters.

Angele was not sure how deep the pool was due to the seemingly endless dark hole in the middle of the vortex.

He exhaled once and slowly stepped into the hall.

Angele glared at the sculptures and checked the scorpion tails quickly, then focused on the large vortex in the water.

Blue light dots flashed in front of his eyes and he looked a bit confused.

"This place…there are no energy particles here…" He muttered as he observed the hall.

There were four small stone pillars in each of the corners.

On top of the white stone pillars, the burning white flames brought light to the area, but Angele did not see any smoke.

He narrowed his eyes and noticed that something was written on one of the stone pillars.

He quickly walked to the right corner.

Words were written on the smooth surface of the stone pillar beside the flame, but Angele did not know the language.

He raised his hand and placed it on the written words.

CHI

A blue electric pulse appeared above the words and struck Angele’s hand. He was startled by the strike making him take several steps back.

His face turned pale and it took him a while to recover.

Crack

Suddenly, Angele heard a noise that sounded like stones being cracked.

The strange noise was increasingly becoming more intense; it came from the sculptures around the pool.

He returned to the door quickly and stared at the large pool carefully.

The white stone layer of the beautiful scorpion women started dropping to the ground.

As if they were waking up from slumber, they then began to move.

Hisssss

A scorpion woman on the left made some noise that sounded like a snake’s. Her long black hair spread onto her shoulders.

All the stone pieces had dropped to the ground, revealing her smooth, fair skin. She swung her black scorpion tail in the air several times. The scene was terrifying.

The scorpion woman had a pair of shallow eyes and her face looked identical to the one on the Wall of Confusion.

"Hisss…It has been a while since someone visited the illusion pool…" The scorpion woman slowly moved around the pool and looked at Angele. She was speaking in the ancient language.

"The Wall of Confusion asked me to come here. I have a question, what is this illusion pool you said?" Angele questioned in a light tone. He held the handle of the cursed scimitar tight, slowly taking out the Light of Thorns using his other hand.

"The illusion pool? Hisss…This is the portal to the other realms, but you need the specific coordinates…and we are the guardians of the portal…" It seemed like she was the only scorpion woman that could speak.

Angele had also noticed that the other scorpion women were having trouble moving their feet. Only the one who was talking to him could control her limbs freely.

"How do you enter the portal then?" Angele remained calm and kept asking.

"Jump into the black hole in the center but first…you need to survive the challenge…Hisss…" The woman scorpion was approaching Angele slowly.

"Challenge? What challenge?" Angele took one more step back with the door right behind him.

"You have two choices. The first choice is allowing us to have intercourse with us. We want your seeds. The second choice is for you to let me consume a part of your soul." The scorpion woman laughed.

Angele’s expression changed, and he was about to respond.

However, the golden key suddenly started vibrating and it almost felt like a pumping heart.

The Wall of Confusion’s voice was transmitted into his ears.

"Kill them…The guardians have the purest bloodline that will help you enter the Nightmare Realm. They are what you are seeking. The guardian’s power is restricted by the illusion pool and what you see are merely images. Don’t let fear take over your mind…Don’t let fear…"

She kept repeating her last words until her voice disappeared.

Angele was certain that the scorpion woman in front of him did not overhear their conversation.

"Tell me your name first." He stared at the woman.

"Bella Cassia is my name. Just call me Bella. I like my name a lot." There was an attractive smile on the scorpion woman’s face.

Angele slowly put the silver ring on his right index finger.

He did not have much time left and was wondering if he should follow the Wall of Confusion’s words. Angele thought the wall had no reason to lie to him and she was being honest during their conversation. She gave him the reward right after the question was answered.

However, he did not want to trust the wall too much.

‘Leaving the Nightmare Realm in 2 minutes and 36 seconds…2 minutes and 24 seconds…’

Zero was warning Angele every second and he could see the countdown timer in his sight.

‘Alright, let me give this a try…’ he thought. ‘Activate "Combat Assistance Mode".’

CHI

Blue grids covered everything in Angele’s sight.

He closed his eyes for a second, it had been a while since he used the combat assistant mode and he needed some time to get used to it.

"What’s going on? Are you still thinking? Or do you want to leave?" Bella looked confused.

"Leave?" Angele suddenly opened his eyes and stared at the scorpion woman. "I won’t leave. I was about to have intercourse with you." He looked at the scorpion women quietly.

"You almost…tricked me…" Angele glanced around and pursed his lips into a smile.

He raised his cursed scimitar and charged toward Bella, turning into a blurry shadow.

CHI

The cursed scimitar drew a silver arc in the air and slashed through Bella’s body, hitting an empty space beside the pool. A white scorpion woman sculpture then slowly appeared from nowhere.

KA

The blade smashed into the sculpture’s neck.

"No!" Bella shouted like crazy, all the scorpion woman around jumped to Angele like real scorpions. They were moving fast in the air while making the annoying snake sound.

Angele turned around and pulled the scimitar out of the sculpture. He caught the falling white sculpture right away and jumped into the illusion pool.

"See you." He watched Bella charging toward him and smiled.

Blop

Angele disappeared into the center of the vortex.

He held the broken sculpture in arms and started sinking.

He could see the anger on the scorpion women’s faces. It seemed like the guardians were not allowed to touch the water.

The chilling water surrounded Angele and it was touching every corner of his body gently.

Several seconds, countless translucent blue human-shaped creatures swam up to him. They looked like mermaids, but their bodies were blurry.

The beautiful mermaids raised their arms, embracing Angele and the sculpture slightly. They were coming to him one by one.

The mermaids had clean translucent faces and their eyes were beautiful.

Angele could hear a lady singing from somewhere far away.

The lady’s voice was gentle and attractive which sounded a lover whispering in his ears. He was not sure if everything around him were just illusions.

Angele felt relaxed as he found a hint of warmth in the chilling water.

He slowly closed his eyes.

‘Sadly, the time is up.’

CHI

Angele and the sculpture disappeared from the illusion pool.

"Ha!"

Angele suddenly opened his eyes and took several deep breaths. He had almost fallen prey to the sweet dream of comfort and peace. It was hard for him to resist.

He slowly calmed down.

The white scorpion woman sculpture was still in his arms and the stone layer on her skin had disappeared quickly, revealing a dead body of a scorpion woman. Her white blood was still dripping down her chin.

Angele put the dead body on the floor.

He was still in the bedroom but there was no red mist in this world.

The familiar noise produced by the lava came from the hallway outside the door.

"I need to deal with it now." Angele looked at the dead scorpion woman while frowning.

He was surprised by how much life essence he had extracted from the scorpion woman when he stabbed the blade into her body. The illusion pool was similarly perfect for his escape as he did not have much time left.

"So, what should I do now…?" Angele raised his cursed scimitar, but he was shocked after checking the blade.

The silver blade of the scimitar was covered in cracks and they looked like a spider web.

Crack

Another crack appeared on the blade and there was red blood dripping down to the ground.

"The power of the guardian is too strong…" Angele found out the reason right away.

The guardian’s power was so strong that the cursed scimitar almost broke after absorbing the life essence of just one scorpion woman.

‘Create task. Find me the material that can help me absorb the life essence.’

‘Task created. Analysis started. Simulation started. Checking for results…’

The biochip reported back after several seconds.

Angele’s expression changed after he checked the results and he quickly turned the dead body around.

The scorpion woman’s chest was covered by a thin layer of silk and he found a red musical note right in the middle of her chest. The musical note looked like a twisted rune.

Angele wasted no time and crouched. Aiming at the red musical note, he started sucking it.

The noise sounded like air escaping from a balloon.

Chapter 303: Replacement and Reason (2)


The scorpion woman’s corpse deflated like an inflatable doll.

What remained on the floor after about five seconds’ time was merely the skin of the scorpion woman.

Angele remained calm as he stood up and wiped the white blood off from his mouth. He then quickly twisted the handle of the cursed scimitar.

Countless green energy strings connected to Angele’s wrist which helped him absorb the life essence into his body.

‘Attributes are increasing quickly…’ Zero’s mechanical voice echoed in his ears.

Angele slowly closed his eyes and stood in the bedroom quietly.

The skin of the scorpion woman turned into green smoke and disappeared into the air.

KA

Like small pieces of mirrors, the cursed scimitar shattered into pieces and fell onto the floor while reflecting the image of Angele.

Countless red branch-like lines crept around his body like blood veins as it gathered toward the center of his chest.

These bloody veins gradually disappeared in the span of several minutes. What was left on his chest was a symbol of a red musical note.

CHI

Angele opened both of his eyes. This time, they were as dark as a starless sky as if his eye’s pupil never existed but only showed two empty holes.

‘This is the change?’ He raised his left hand only to see the illusion signet of the Great Harpy Bloodline slowly fading away.

‘Affinity with illusion energy is increasing quickly…’

‘Collecting information…’

‘Finished. Do you need to see the affinity chart?’ Zero reported back right away.

Angele was looking at the reflection of his own self on the broken fragments of the scimitar’s blade.

‘Show me the chart,’ he ordered.

A well-organized bar chart was displayed in front of his eyes.

Angele’s highest affinity was still with Fire energy, and the second highest was with Illusion energy which had now surpassed the bar representing Metal energy.

‘I wish I could keep the illusion signet.’ Angele shook his head slightly. He, for one, barely knew any illusion spell and the illusion signet was one of his strongest in his arsenal. But now, it was completely gone.

Moreover, he had yet to discover the method of activating the musical note in the center of his chest.

‘Check if there’s anything related to the scorpion woman in the database.’

‘Task created…Searching…’

‘No match was found.’

Angele pursed his lips.

‘I’m on my own then.’ He thought for several minutes.

‘Check for any changes that might have occurred in my body.’

Zero scanned his body quickly and reported back.

‘Your vocal folds have been modified. Your voice now contains a possible seductive effect and your blood has now been infused with the Illusion Pollution ability.’

‘Illusion Pollution: Special ability. Anything within your body will be infused with illusion energy after a certain amount of time.’

Angele learned about several detailed changes that happened to his body immediately.

The chip created the report based on the information from the database.

Angele lightly sighed. The black shadow had disappeared from his eyes, revealing its former blue pupils. The golden glow around his eyes had also disappeared.

He inspected his bedroom for any possible damage that had been inflicted and collected all the broken pieces of the scimitar. The corpse of the scorpion woman disappeared by itself so there was not much cleaning left to do.

Angele walked to the table and sat down after everything was done. He took out the black box and opened it.

Henn’s voice was transmitted to his ears right away.

"Damn it! Damn it! What did you do, kid? There were several times that I felt like I was dying or something!" Henn was enraged.

"Well, there was an accident during my experiment," Angele lied calmly. "Everything has been dealt with now."

"I don’t even know why I picked you. I should have waited for several more years in the White Mist Town!" Henn did not even question his excuse but was just complaining now.

"I have already finished the thing you asked me to do. What else do you want me to do? I want to go back to Bass River.’ Angele ignored her complaints.

"Bass River? Why do you want to go back? Just stay here. You can get free knowledge and a rank 4 wizard as the teacher. The place is also safe…Wait, never mind. Well, it’s a great place!"

"First of all, it is not my territory. Second, I do not feel comfortable here. I still do not understand why you asked me to come here, and what is your real purpose? We are wizards. If you want me to do something else for you, you must compensate me with something else." Angele shook his head.

"You cannot run away from me now." Henn chuckled. "I lied about the soul pattern of Vivian’s son. It has already become a part of your soul and for the process to be completed, I waited for days. You are now the one and only inheritor of Vivian whether you want this title or not. I have put a lot of effort into modifying that soul pattern. She will not let you escape the ruin as you are the only person who is related to her by blood in this world."

"What else do you want from me?" Angele frowned.

"Ha, what do I want you to do?" Henn sneered. "I want you to drag Vivian into the abyss! I want her to live a life of peril, pain, and suffering!"

"You…" Angele narrowed his eyes. "What did she do to you?"

"Ha…what she did to me was unforgivable," Henn responded in a cold tone. "She was one of the most talented students I had…But it’s none of your business, I’ll pay you good anyway."

"You already lied to me once." Angele narrowed his eyes. "To be honest, I do not really want to help you this time. I’d rather fight her face to face. I’m not a filthy rat that lives in the sewers. I have never trusted you but what you just said regarding the soul patterns just made the situation worse.

"Machinations may work sometimes but I believe that combining wisdom and pure power is the right way to go," he continued.

"You can decline my offer all you want but I can reveal your true identity to Vivian. Maybe you are confident enough to win a fight against a rank 4 wizard," Henn responded in a cold tone.

"You will die too if I’m killed." Angele gritted his teeth.

"I have died once already. I have nothing else to lose." Henn did not seem concerned.

The two remained silent for a while and the atmosphere was heavy.

"You know what, I’ll make it easier for you. Just do three things for me and I’ll keep my promise. I’ll give you the reward and keep your identity a secret."

"Three things, huh?" Angele knew that she just wanted to finish exacting her revenge. "I won’t do it unless you tell me what happened exactly. I have my reasons."

"You really want to know?" Henn sounded nervous.

Angele did not say anything but waited patiently for Henn’s response.

"Fine, I’ll tell you what happened. Vivian is just a b*tch who seduced my partner!" Henn was almost shouting.

"What…?" Angele was surprised. He would be speechless if the truth was so simple.

"Vivian seduced my partner and hired someone to assassinate me while I was doing an important experiment, resulting my body to become permanently damaged. That is why I died during the final fight against Arisma. Otherwise, I would have survived the ambush for sure…Also…" Henn continued and she was furious.

Several minutes later, Angele finally understood the situation.

Henn was injured after the assassination and for that reason, she failed to survive the ambush. However, it seemed she herself was the reason why Vivian’s son died. There was one thing Angele still did not understand, however. He wanted to know why Vivian never sounded angry while talking about her master.

He could not get to reach a conclusion just by listening to Henn’s words.

She was just cursing most of the time while explaining the incident. Henn emphasized on how innocent she was many times during the conversation.

Angele had almost lost his patience.

However, there was one thing that made Angele angry.

Henn said she could easily destroy her soul form and if she did that, Angele would die too.

Angele had no other choice but to accept Henn’s offer. There was nothing he could do as he knew so little about soul relationship.

They talked for a while and Angele insisted that he needed to leave the ruin.

Angele never called Vivian his mother, but he himself knew Vivian had already considered him as her son.

However, Vivian never talked to him about the situation face to face. At present, their relationship was a bit strange.

The reason why Angele wanted to leave the ruin was that Henn could easily force him to speed up the process of her revenge, something he did not like.

He wanted to the expel Henn from his body. Although Henn was a legendary wizard, he did not want to carry a bomb that could explode at any time with him.

Angele checked all the books he could read in Vivian’s library, but he found nothing valuable. Information related to soul separation was highly confidential and those books required high mentality levels to unlock.

He still did not discover a method on how he could expel Henn from his body.

Angele stayed in the ruin for several more days and told Vivian that he wanted to go back to his home as the environment in of ruin was making him uncomfortable.

Vivian did not force him to stay with her but told Angele to stay safe and let him leave. She sent him a female wizard as an escort.

Angele talked to the escort and learned a lot about the current situation of the organization.

The first elder Harris and the second elder Melo were fighting against the lords. They formed two factions inside the organization and the situation was getting worse.

The fight started when the first lord Effie decided to make his ungifted child the inheritor. The council was stronger than the lords in power and they used the inheritor as an excuse to question the future of the Thousand Waterfall City. Also, Effie was dying and barely had any time to attend the meetings.

The other lords were trying their best to help Effie and they were trying to modify the inheritor’s body. The problem could be easily solved if Effie was able to have another talented child, but both plans were hard to accomplish.

Some people were suggesting that the elders should solve the problem in a violent way. There was a rumor spreading that the radicals kidnapped several relatives of the elders which made the situation worsen every day.

Vivian was the third elder and she supported the first elder’s plan. Although she did not have a lot of right in the organization, her only son could still become the target of the radicals which was her only worry.

To deal with the problem and fight back, the council had already taken action. They gathered the army and the fifth elder was chosen as the captain. They wanted to pressure the Thousand Waterfall City before the hostages could be executed.

Angele had no idea that completing Henn’s task would be so difficult.

Chapter 304: Message (1)


The escort sent by Vivian was a female wizard of great power belonging to her army named Liv and was also known as the Snake of the East.

Contrary to Angele spending nearly ten days during the time he was still first searching for the ruin, it had merely taken them five days to leave the volcano.

Liv told him of many shortcuts around the snow-covered volcano. Immediately they reported back to the headquarters before heading to Bass River.

They had not wasted any time along the way and quickly returned to the small wooden house that had been built by Angele.

By the riverside, a small house with black ceiling enclosed in white walls stood quietly.

Green trees were positioned at an area covered in the abundance of yellow grass.

At this place, Angele and a lady wearing a dark red cloak both stood there without making any noise.

It was currently noontime, and the golden sunshine reflected on the two’s faces. However, such bright light was unable to warm their bodies.

Angele looked at the wooden house he had built then turned around to look at a small mansion on the other side of the empty ground.

A pool had been built right in front of the mansion. The water was producing ripples and reflecting the sunlight.

"Was this built by master Vivian?" Angele looked at the lady wearing a dark red cloak.

"Yes, the third elder asked the best dwarf workers to build this mansion at this place. I hope you are delighted with the result though they did not have ample time for the finishing touches," the lady replied in a relaxed tone and with a crisp and clear voice. It was almost as if she sounded like a teenager.

"It is fine. I will live in my own house regardless, so you can have the mansion." Angele’s brows drew together.

"Your wooden house is too small for us," Liv responded in the same manner. "The elder has asked me to stay with you at all times. Protecting you is my duty."

She took off the hood she was wearing and revealed her long black hair and her pretty face. With the addition of long and sharp eyes and thin lips, the lady looked like a twenty-year-old lady.

"Or we can share the same bed." Liv pursed her lips. "I don't think I’m that attractive to you, but I should make things clear first. You are not my type."

Angele was rendered speechless, yet he was unconcerned about what Liv had just said. "Well, why do you need to stay with me at all times? Just how bad is the situation?"

"It is worse than you would think." Liv turned around and walked toward the river. Scooping a handful of water from the river with both of her hands, she drank it quickly.

Angele hesitated for a while and nodded his head.

"Alright, let’s go to the mansion then."

He had no intentions of building a deep relationship with a female wizard that was stronger than him. It would not be a wise decision.

"I will go pack up." He turned around and walked into the wooden house.

Angele walked out of the door with two large travel cases quickly.

"Let’s go."

Liv nodded.

They started heading to the other side of the empty ground.

The main building of the mansion looked like the character ‘T’. On the left side of the ‘T’ was the pool, and on the right side was a small square.

There was no one inside the mansion, so the place was silent.

Angele walked to the pool and entered the building through the side door. Liv followed him, their footsteps echoing in the hallway.

"Where are the workers and maids?" Angele asked as he walked.

"We can hire them from the towns around, or you can find some from the non-human races. There are more options to choose from, but those areas are dangerous," Liv responded quickly. "And if you want beautiful girls or elves, you will need to buy them from the slave market. You are a formal member of the Elemental Hand, so you have the access to the market founded by the council. There are many high-quality slaves being auctioned on the market every day."

"Can I find female wizards there?" Angele chuckled and shook his head.

"Why don’t you just pay me?" Liv pursed her lips. "Actually, you are the third elder’s son, so I'll do anything for you with no extra cost."

"Is that so?" Angele walked to the main door of the living room and pushed it open.

Creak

The door was not locked. What lied ahead was a living room with walls painted in brown.

The yellow glowing crystals on the walls made the room warm and bright. Several sofa chairs were located around the corners and there was a large red tree stump in the middle. Several white robes were hanging on the back of the main door.

Angele did not stop but instead went across the living room and entered another hallway through the back door.

By the end of the hallway, there was a large empty training square.

The training square was built using white stones. There were complicated runes engraved on the surface of its ground.

A black weapon shelf was set up by the square, loaded with weapons and gears. All the weapons were surrounded by a white glow which meant they would not do any actual damage to human bodies. It was a simple matrix widely used in training areas.

Angele left the hallway and walked to the weapon shelf. He took two crossguard swords from it and looked at Liv.

"Practice match? What do you say?" His brows furrowing. "You know how to use a sword, right?"

"You’re too weak to be my opponent." Liv had a blank expression on her face.

"Why are you so confident?" Angele was surprised. "I thought only wizards like me would keep practicing close-combat skills, but it seems you are different."

"I have lived in this world for too long, so I needed to find more things to do. I enjoy practicing sword skills." Liv grabbed a crossguard sword from Angele’s hand.

"I prefer using spears more actually." She slashed through the air using the sword.

CHI

A light red trail was left in midair.

"What’s this?" Angele narrowed his eyes slightly and checked the blade of the sword. It was pure silver and it was impossible for Liv to enchant the weapon in such a short period of time.

"This is the life energy of the Grand Knight." Liv swung the sword in the air several more times, seemingly as though she was trying to get familiar with the weapon.

"Grand Knight? You’re a Grand Knight?" Angele was curious. His attributes were much higher than a Grand Knight’s, but he did not have the ability to control pure life energy.

"Yeah, why are you surprised?" Liv was not concerned. She jumped to the center of the square. "Let’s start then. I still have several experiments to finish. We have already wasted a lot of time on the road."

"Alright." Angele jumped to the center as well.

Then he also swung his crossguard sword several times.

CHI CHI

The wind brought by the blade blew the dried leaves away from the platform.

Liv’s expression turned serious after seeing this scene.

She thought the young man reached the Crystal stage just because he had a good mother. However, it seemed he knew how to use a sword and he had a strong body.

Liv wondered if the elder modified his body with the best rare materials.

She narrowed her eyes and stared at Angele showing a bit of jealousy.

"Let’s go! Watch out!" She quickly drew two straight lines using the sword, and the red life energy trail slowly vanished into the air.

"Star Blink!" Liv shouted and charged toward Angele after moving through the two life energy trails. The longsword in her hand was covered in a bright red glow.

She was so fast that the noise made by the sword piercing through the air echoed in the area.

Angele stood on the ground and watched the red sword approaching him.

Clank

The two wizards’ swords clashed, and flames sparked between them.

Angele leaned to the side and disappeared from his original position.

Liv pursed her lips and released a distorted energy wave. She turned around and slashed forward.

Clank

Woo

Some warm air blew over her right ear.

"You are pretty good…but you don’t stand a chance against me." Angele’s voice came from the opposite direction.

BAM

Liv grunted and was blown away by the impact like a piece of paper, smashing into the edge of the square. The air was blurred by the dust from the ground.

"Damn!" Liv struggled and raised her left hand. A dark red glowing rune appeared in her right eye and it started spinning.

A translucent energy pulse formed an enormous hand in front of Angele, reaching out toward his head.

"I give up."

Angele held the crossguard sword in hand and smiled.

The hand stopped right before touching the tip of his nose.

WOO

The strong wind brought by the distorted hand made his hair fly in the air.

"I am yet to be ready to block an energy pulse used by a rank 2 wizard." Angele shook his head. "But I think my sword skills are better than yours."

Liv stared at him and gritted her teeth. The red rune slowly disappeared from her right eye and the translucent hand vanished into the air.

"You won," Calming herself down, she responded in a light tone.

"The sword skills are only useful under certain circumstances. I still need you to protect me. You have yet to reveal your true power, right? I was just lucky." Angele bowed slightly to show his respect and threw the sword toward the weapon shelf.

KA

The sword returned to the empty slot accurately.

He was satisfied with the result of the practice match.

Angele had no chance to test the bloodline power of the scorpion woman during his stay in the ruin. Only during the match had he finally tested it.

The scorpion woman was the guardian of the illusion pool, so her bloodline should be purer than the one from the great harpy. Angele was certain that the power of the bloodline would be strong than the illusion signet, but it exceeded his expectations. The mentality wave of a rank 2 wizard failed to track his motion and the illusion effect completely hid him from Liv’s sight.

The full combo was incredibly powerful.

The burst of speed was a passive skill from the musical note on his chest. It would only take a split of a second to double or triple his movement speed. Angele could probably move faster than the sound when the requirement was met, and it was not even an active skill.

If the power of the scorpion woman was not partially sealed, she could have destroyed him easily.

Angele was not sure why the illusion pool restricted the guardian’s power, but he felt lucky that he successfully assassinated one of the scorpion women.

He collected a lot of important data during the short fight against Liv and he asked Zero to analyze the real skill level of a rank 2 wizard.

Chapter 305: Message (2)


Angele stayed calm during the practice match, not nervous in any way as the enormous hand approached him.

He himself knew he could dodge the strike if his speed was increased to the extreme. Even though the hand could deal around 90 degrees of damage, it was not fast.

The cooldown of the speed buff from the musical note was around five seconds. With Angele’s high attributes, he could deal serious damage in close combat and even had the confidence to survive an ambush of a rank 2 wizard.

When combining the speed buff with the illusion ability, Angele had the potential to become a top-class assassin.

Liv was a Gas stage rank 2 wizard who had many practical experiences from the battles she had fought for Vivian.

‘I’ll be able to even more damage if I have a stronger weapon. The best option is to find a concept gear, but I’ve only seen it once in my life…’ Angele turned around and jumped off the platform as he thought. He walked back to the hallway and headed back to the living room.

Liv stood up slowly and watched Angele leave with her eyes narrowed. No one knew what she was planning.

Three days later, in the morning.

Inside one of the bedrooms in the mansion.

Yellow carpet, yellow walls, yellow sofa, chair, table, curtains, and a large bed.

The bright sunlight went through the gaps of the curtains and illuminated on the floor.

Angele sat on the bed with his legs crossed. His face was covered completely by a plain black mask formed by black smoke.

Thud thud

He heard someone knocking on the window.

The mask slowly disappeared from Angele’s face. He took a deep breath and looked at the window.

A small bird with golden feathers was flapping its wings while hitting the glass with its beak.

The golden bird was surrounded by a golden glow, but its eyes were red and looked like two rubies.

Angele’s brow knitted. He got off the bed and walked to the window. He was wearing a long white robe.

KA

The window was pushed open.

The golden bird flew into the bedroom and landed on the windowsill.

Angele searched under the bird’s wings and found two small brown scrolls that were tied up by two red strings.

He untied the red string of the first scroll.

‘Wizard Green:

We are glad to inform you that you have been registered as a formal member of the headquarters. Your personal information and skill level will be evaluated from time to time. As part of the benefits program, you will be able to choose one advanced meditation technique. You can also apply for the rare resources once every year. Requesting battle support from the organization is restricted to only once every ten years. You can accept potion making missions and assassination missions. The more missions you complete, the higher rank you will be in the organization. The ranking system will affect the number of benefits you get from the program. You are not allowed to kill fellow members of this organization under normal circumstances. If you do so, you will be hunted down.’

The last line was an address.

‘Head to Sherry Forest for the advanced meditation technique. Go find the no.1086 tree root.’

Angele put the scroll into his pouch carefully and opened the other one.

‘Missions available to you. Expiring in a month.’

The first line was just an introduction.

Angele kept reading.

‘Your mission point: 3.’

‘Mission no.158: Kill the escorts of the Baby Grass. 10 points.’

‘Mission no.159: Investigate the Zombie Cloud Swamp. 15 points.’

‘Mission no.244: Kill the betrayer of the organization, Remi Style, a rank 3 wizard. 42 points.’

Angele’s expression changed. It was impossible for him to kill a rank 3 wizard alone.

‘Mission no.771: Use the hints in the book called If you forget me and find the ancient altar of the hydra. 50 points.’

‘Mission no. 795: Kill one of the five wizards on the list made by Pander. 20 points for each confirmed kill.’

‘Mission no.802: Concoct one serving of the Poison Cloud potion. 10 points.’

Only one of the six missions listed on the scroll was a potion crafting mission.

The Poison Cloud Potion was famous in the Potion Study. Angele heard about the potion before and he knew how hard it was to concoct just one serving of it. The success rate was lower than 1% for the majority of potion masters.

However, the power of this potion was incredible. It could turn a large area into a poisonous land that could kill all the creatures within the effective range. The poison cloud would last for about three days.

The effective area was decided by the amount of the potion used.

According to the information recorded in the books, it was nearly impossible for rank 1 and 2 wizard to concoct a Poison Cloud potion. Only a rank 3 wizard had the required amount of mentality and energy that would be consumed during the process.

The difficulty level of the potion concocting process was determined based on the requirement of mentality and energy. Some of the rare potions did not require a lot of techniques but they could only be concocted by potion masters that were at the higher ranks.

In another word, strong potion masters were usually high-rank wizards. There were so few of them that all the large organizations would try their best to recruit them.

Angele narrowed his eyes. He thought that the potion concocting mission might be a challenge from the Dark Wizard Tower. If he could successfully complete the mission, he might be promoted in the organization.

It was the only mission related to the potion concoction, and he was recruited to the organization as a talented potion master.

However, he was a Crystal stage rank 1 wizard and he had not met the basic mentality requirement for the potion yet.

The trials of the Dark Wizard Tower were all difficult which made Angele feel a bit uncomfortable. He did not understand why it was so hard to get promoted.

But at the same time, he wanted to know what the benefits were for the high-ranking members.

He hesitated for a while then he tapped on the last mission with his right index finger.

CHI

Several green light dots flashed on the tip of his finger.

A green seed appeared on the scroll from nowhere sprouting like crazy; its tender shoot was becoming longer.

Several seconds later, the seed turned into a green vine.

The vine slowly climbed up Angele’s body which expanded as it moved around. The vine was getting longer and longer.

Vivid green buds emerged out of the vine’s surface.

CHI

Angele remained calm. Blue light dots flashed in front of his eyes. He raised his right hand and found a ring with an amethyst on top from one of the flowers.

The ring was made of silver and there were complicated flower patterns engraved on its surface. The amethyst on top had the shape of an eye. It was beautiful and mysterious.

CHI

The vine and the flowers withered after Angele took the ring out. They dropped to the carpet turned into black ashes and vanished into the air, leaving no trace behind.

The golden bird swung its wings and left the windowsill.

Angele held the ring in hand and started thinking.

He spent some time checking the ring, then he retrieved the mission information that was stored inside it.

Angele had reached the Crystal stage not so long ago and just acquired the bloodline of the scorpion woman.

He needed to progress further with the advanced meditation technique in order to advance to the next rank.

He had some trouble with the Mask of the Black Wing which caused his progression to become slow. Angele could barely feel the effect of the meditation and he had to do it when he was well-rested. The procedure was totally different when compared to the regular meditation technique.

He doubted if Henn told him the truth about the advanced technique.

Zero did the analysis and told Angele the requirement for advancing to the next rank.

First, he needed to increase his mentality to 120.

A special technique that could help stabilize the second mentality crystal was also required as the first mentality crystal would interrupt the process.

It was the natural reaction of the mentality crystal, but it must be dealt with.

The critical step was to infuse the mentality with elements. If the process could be completed before the second mentality crystal was created, Angele would have a much higher chance to advance to the next rank. However, the infusion was extremely difficult as he needed to level up the advanced meditation technique first.

The gifted wizards could skip this step, but Angele’s talent level was below average.

The talent of an apprentice could be improved using special techniques, but the wizards never understood why some people were born with high talent level.

After the apprentices became formal wizards, their progression speed still varied. Some wizards thought it was related to the meditation technique, but some thought the strength of the souls was the main reason.

Thousands of experiments were completed on the subject, but no one had reached a valid conclusion yet.

Angele once asked Vivian about the ranking system of the wizards.

He learned that from rank 1 to rank 3, the wizards needed to create three mentality crystals and they usually came with a slot to support more Talent Spells. However, to advance to rank 4, there would be special requirements.

However, Vivian did not tell Angele about the special requirements, she changed the topic when Angele tried to dig deeper.

Creating mentality crystals required a high mentality level and the impurities must be removed.

The unstable energy waves released by the impurities would impact the creation or solidification process of the mentality crystals. The fundamental principle was still the same. The higher a wizard’s rank was, the higher his mentality level would be.

Chapter 306: Changes (1)


Angele's cursed scimitar broke into pieces upon the extraction of the life energy of the scorpion woman which was too much for it to handle, resulting to him being no longer able to increase his mentality by killing mutated creatures or wizards.

Furthermore, the progression speed of the Mask of the Black Wing was slow. If he wanted to increase his mentality to 120 units just by meditating, it would take more than a century to achieve it.

He did not wish to spend too much time on increasing his mentality level.

Thus, Angele decided to look for a different method that could help him progress faster.

Dang

Angele placed the knife and fork down beside his plate, then raised his head and looked at Liv.

"It has been months since we moved into this mansion. Is there any message from master Vivian?" he asked.

Under the dim light, the two wizards sat opposite to each other in the dining room.

Liv was wearing a red bathrobe which exposed her neck and face into the air. She was cutting the pan seared steak on the plate carefully.

Her hands stopped for a second after hearing Angele’s question.

"Don’t worry. Vivian is doing well. We just need to take care of ourselves," she responded calmly. "But there are many things she needs to take care of recently, so she is very busy."

"Is that so?"

Angele supported his chin with his right hand, looking at the night view outside the window.

The bright moonlight illuminated on the roof of the small wooden house he built.

"I haven’t contacted my old friends for a while. I think you don’t mind me sending them some messages, right?" Angele said.

"Sure, I’ll go with you if you want to use the signal obelisk." Liv nodded slightly. "Ah, one more thing." She suddenly put down the fork and clapped her hands.

A maid wearing a maiden suit walked into the dining room quietly.

"How can I help you?"

"Take those away." Liv looked at the plates. "And bring the letter to master Green. I’m talking about the one we received several days ago."

Angele was surprised. "Several days ago?"

"You were doing experiments in the laboratory. Nothing was urgent so I didn’t inform you on time," Liv responded in a light tone.

Liv had gone to the slave market and purchased some mortals to work in the mansion a while ago. The purification tower here could protect the mortals from being damaged by the radiation. She purchased about 20 young girls that were trained to do different jobs.

The maid returned with the letter after several minutes and handed them over to Angele politely.

Angele grabbed the letter and opened it right away.

It came from a stranger, a wizard named Dan.

Dan was a council member who worked for Vivian. It said that he would ask someone to deliver some resources to Angele in five days. The address and time were listed by the end of the letter.

Angele put the letter back into the envelope. "When did you receive the letter?"

"About three days ago," the maid answered.

"Thanks, you may leave now." With a flick of his finger, the letter was ignited and burnt into black ashes, dropping to the glass on the table.

The maid grabbed the glass and left the room.

Angele stood up. "I’ll return to my room now. There will be a delivery here in two days. Make sure to pick them up."

"Sure." Liv nodded.

Angele turned around and stepped out of the door. He went upstairs and returned to his bedroom.

He walked to the window and took out a black box.

Henn’s voice was transmitted to his ears right away.

"I already told you about Vivian’s most important projects in the Elemental Hand, right? The Gravitational Magic Circle and the bloodline merging technique I taught her many years ago, I think she already mastered them," Henn was speaking in a cold tone, "We just need to find the right timing and destroy all her efforts…Ha…The only problem lies in how to make it look like an accident."

Angele grimaced. "What will the reward be? You know the consequences once she finds out the truth. I can’t handle the wrath of a rank 4 wizard."

"I know that of course but the situation is different. The bloodline is important to Vivian. You would not understand the reason. Even if she finds out that you did the whole thing, she won’t kill you. I will guide you through the process. Don’t worry." Henn chuckled. "Just tell her that you need some resources to practice the enchantment technique. We need to use the resources well, so we need to pay the Snow Mountain Rift a visit."

She stopped for a second and continued, "For the reward…if everything goes as planned, I will give you one of my strongest magic devices. The magic device won’t aid you in battles but I will help you increase the mentality in a…special way."

"Well…" Angele had a bad feeling about the plan.

"I’ll keep my promise but you must do it for me, or we can just die together. I don’t even care anymore," Henn spoke in a serious tone.

"Don’t push me too hard, Henn." Angele narrowed his eyes. "This is the last task I’ll do for you. If you ever threaten me again, I’ll just kill myself. I’m not your puppet."

"Ha…Don’t worry…Trust me…" Henn laughed. "We are wizards. You must put effort into it before getting the rare magic device. This device is special as it’s related to the gravitational magic circle."

Angele looked at the ripples in the river quietly and started thinking.

‘Gravitational magic circle…’

Somewhere in the headquarters of Elemental Hand.

Inside a dark and deep cave, there were five 30-meter-tall stone pillars standing on a platform which looked like fingers of an enormous hand.

Gray stone chairs were placed on top of each stone pillars. The engravings on the back of the chairs were slightly different.

The smooth platform underneath the pillars was black.

Ka

The noise made by the opening door was loud, rays of white light sneaked into the cave through the gap.

Two tall muscular men slowly stepped into the cave. Both were wearing black armor suits with golden edges as decorations.

They walked to the center of the platform together and waited there patiently.

CHI

Strange noises came from the top of the stone pillars.

Several people slowly appeared on the stone chairs.

A bloody red fireball dropped on one of the chairs and turned into an attractive woman wearing a long red robe.

Her blonde hair and red dress were flying in the air. She turned around and sat down. It was Vivian, she glanced around and saw that the first and the fifth chairs were still empty.

"Sorry, I’m late," she apologized in a low voice.

"It’s fine," a man in a black robe responded in a deep tone. "How’s your son, Vivian?"

"I did some investigation and the things he told me were all true. Also, the soul pattern in his body matches my bloodline. I’m sure that he’s my real son." Vivian pursed her lips into a smile.

"Congratulations then. I thought you were not interested in the organization anymore and now you’re here again. I know you want to help your son to progress, but you don’t have to work so hard." The man in black robe smiled as well.

"He’s my only inheritor." Vivian nodded slightly.

They chatted for a while and some white mist appeared on the first chair. The mist quickly turned into an old man with long white hair.

"First elder."

Vivian and the other elders greeted the old man right away.

The old man nodded his head but did not say anything.

"Let’s start the meeting then. Battle messenger Sora, you may start reporting the situation now." He looked at one of the men in black armor suits that was standing on the platform.

"Yes!"

The man named Sora stepped forward and took off his helmet. It was a tiger man with a white mark on his forehead.

"The situation is worsening. The fifth elder has led the army to the Thousand Waterfall City. Since the advent of war, both our sides have lost a number of wizards. Moreover, the second lord from the Star Fall City is helping the first lord by leading his army to the Thousand Waterfall City. The fifth elder tried to fight the two lords just by himself but he had been severely injured. There were three battle messengers in the team, but two of them has been injured and the last one is still missing. The morale of the army is getting lower and lower. Elders, we must react to the situation, right now!"

The tiger man responded in a loud voice.

"We need someone who can cast strong area damage spells. Third elder and fourth elder, are you willing to join the fight?" The first elder pursed his lips.

"Why don’t you just send me there?" The second elder asked. It was a man with a long, black beard.

"I will go." Vivian stood up and looked at the second elder. "Rocky, you need to take care of the divisions, right? We have so many problems in those areas."

"She’s right, Rocky, you need to keep helping the division. Let them join the fight." The first elder nodded.

"Well, Vivian and her watchers are great for tasks like this," The forth elder agreed, he was the one wearing the black robe. "She can finish the job easily."

Vivian nodded. "Alright then, I’ll take my army there. Is the soul energy pool prepared?" She looked at the tiger man.

Sora slight bowed to Vivian as he replied, "Everything is settled."

"Good, I will leave tonight. I will win this war just for my son. Ha." Vivian had a strange expression on her face. "I haven’t met those lords in years…"

She turned around and disappeared from the chair into flames.

Chapter 307: Changes (2)


Angele stood in front of the window.

"Since Vivian already gave you access to the ruin, you can enter some of the most important lab areas. First, she would not think you'd become her enemy. Second, she is certain you would not be able to discover the secrets of those areas. Last, only rank 3 wizards have the capability of destroying the gravitational magic circle," Henn explained.

"She will not even consider you the suspect once she finds out what happens. The gravitational magic circle is the source of her power, which can be interrupted in several ways. You only need several minutes to modify the circle while she uses it. It will look like an accident."

"So what exactly is the method?" Angele pondered.

"I will guide you through the process, just do what I say. I must first prepare something. If we succeed this time, the benefits will greatly aid you," Henn stopped talking right after.

Angele exhaled once, turning around, and left the window. He walked to the bed and slowly sat down as he looked around.

The silky smooth blanket of black color was comfortable and was infused with a hint of flowery fragrance.

He turned on the switch of the scorpion magic device and started meditating.

Black smoke slowly coalesced in the air and gathered toward his face which turned into a black mask.

Angele fell into slumber after several seconds.

'… Attempting the activation of the signet using energy particles …' Zero's mechanical voice echoed in his ears.

'Signet activated. Forcefield has been modified. Tracking the process… Failed… Analyzing the result… Failed… Entering the Nightmare Realm…'

Angele heard the report and slowly opened his eyes.

The warmth of his body was still left on the soft blanket.

He stood up and straightened his back. The black mask turned into smoke and disappeared from his face.

White mist filled up the air and the mansion was deadly silent.

"I made it!" Angele was satisfied with the result.

‘How much bloodline power is left?’ he questioned.

‘None was consumed,’ the chip responded immediately. ‘You can stay in the Nightmare Realm for as long as you wish.’

Angele sighed in relief. He walked to the door and pushed it open.

Creak

The door opened and the silence outside was familiar.

Angele walked down the hallway and started checking the mansion.

Liv and the maids all disappeared. The only thing here was the white mist which caused the visibility inside to lower.

After walking around for half an hour, Angele did not encounter any strange events.

He was the only one inside the main building of the mansion.

Angele walked out of the building quickly and started checking the area around the mansion.

However, he did not find anything. He stayed alert the whole time while asking Zero to scan the area constantly.

For some reason, he felt that there was a mysterious aura surrounding the whole area.

Angele decided to return to the main building as he did not find anything.

He sat on the bench by the swimming pool and stared at the bushes on the edge of the forest, he knew that something would happen if he tried to leave the mansion area.

It was late at night but there was no insect making any noise.

Blue light dots flashed in front of Angele’s eyes as he checked the surroundings.

Time flew.

One hour later.

Suddenly, he stood up from the chair and walked to the other side of the pool.

The mist inside the mansion was white but the mist outside was black on the contrary.

The black mist looked like the remaining smoke from fireworks.

Angele walked to the fences and watched the wind blowing over the field of grass.

The gentle light from the moons shined upon the land. He could smell the fragrance of the grass in the air.

He narrowed his eyes and reached out of the fences.

A black shadow jumped out of the black mist and rushed toward Angele’s hand right after his finger moved out of the fences.

The black shadow was roaring as it moved at full speed. Angele could see the sharp teeth in its mouth under the dim light.

His expression changed. A long metal needle emerged out of the tip of his index finger and pierced the black shadow’s mouth.

Dark blood came out of the black shadow’s mouth and splashed on the grass. It almost looked like that the grass was hit by strong acid, as white stinky smoke rose from the ground immediately.

Angele finished the creature off and retreated quickly after seeing what was hiding in the shadow.

Groups of black shadows moved out of the dark mist and waited patiently outside the fences.

The black shadows revealed themselves under the moonlight. It was a swarm of wheel-sized beetles.

Angele glanced around; the beetles were moving forward together slowly. He could see the long mouths on the top of their heads. Their bodies looked like opened purses and the teeth were the zippers.

The mouths of the beetles were enormous and their sharp teeth lined up like long saws.

Strangely, those beetles had no eyes or nose. The only thing on their faces were the mouths. They had eight legs supporting their bodies and they were increasing their speed.

The beetles were climbing up the fences fiercely, trying to enter the mansion. There were thousands of them and it almost looked like a black sea.

More and more shadows were coming out of the black mist.

Angele dropped the dead beetle to the ground and returned to the main building of the mansion.

BAM

He slammed the door close.

He then started observing the silver needle on the tip of his finger carefully.

The silver needle was smoking, it was bent and it started decaying after contacting the strong acid inside the beetle’s body. The surface of the needle was covered with black marks.

‘My alloy’s resistance was not high enough for the beetle’s blood…’ Angele pursed his lips.

PA

The metal needle broke into pieces and dropped to the floor then turned into a small pool of yellow liquid.

The beetles were getting closer and closer.

Several silver light dots appeared between the gaps of his right hand.

Those light dots came from the silver ring on his finger and activating the magic device was the best option he had.

Creak

He pushed the door open hard and raised his hand. Countless black beetles were moving toward him.

"Light of Thorns!"

He shouted.

CHI

Countless rays of golden light pierced through the swarm of insects. It looked as if there were golden swords slashing through their bodies, and the strike wiped off most of the beetles in the front.

The dead beetles turned into pools of black liquid; the sour and stinky smell of their blood permeated the air.

The golden light shined upon the mansion and illuminated on all the objects around.

Angele’s eyes were almost blinded by the strong light.

He lowered his head after making sure that most of the beetles inside the mansion were eliminated.

However, there were still seemingly infinite black beetles jumping out of the black mist outside the fences and the mysterious aura was getting stronger.

Angele narrowed his eyes and put his left hand on the signet in the center of his chest. The signet looked like a twisted musical note.

"Take me back!"

CHI

His body turned into a distorted white energy wave and disappeared from the area.

Angele’s body appeared in his bedroom again and he successfully returned to his own world.

‘If the black mist was the source of the beetles, I think I won’t be able to leave the mansion as it’s surrounded by the mist.’ Angele bit his lips. For some reason, he thought that the Nightmare Realm was transforming, but he was not sure if it was due to the location difference.

‘There’s only one way to confirm my assumption. I need to enter the realm from a different area.’ He decided to escape from the Nightmare Realm because he could not deal with all the beetles alone. It would just be a waste of time. Angele needed to collect more information about the realm.

He thought for a while, then he put on a long black robe and pushed the door open.

Angele sneaked out of the mansion and headed to the wooden house by the river.

He made sure that there was no one following him and put his hand on the signet.

CHI

His body disappeared into the air.

About one second later, his body appeared in the original location again.

White smoke rose from his body and the stinky smell in the air was familiar.

"Godd*mn it! This place too?!"

He was attacked by the beetles right after entering the Nightmare Realm. The forcefield protected him from being overrun by all those horrifying insects.

Angele pointed at the ground and a thin layer of metal barrier started dropping down from his body. It looked like a molting snake.

Several seconds later, the silver metal barrier turned into a pool of yellow liquid.

Angele was disappointed at the result. He spent years improving the resistance of the alloy that he created and he spent more than 100 crystal cards on the materials but the barrier could barely handle the beetle’s blood.

‘I shall explore the Nightmare Realm later…’ Angele took a deep breath. He had to stay in the mansion area for a while.

His plan changed as he failed to explore the Nightmare Realm, so he decided to find a method of separating Henn from his body first. Angele knew that the situation was getting worse as it seemed like Henn could harm him if she wanted to.

The whole thing about Vivian was a trap that was set up by Henn.

‘Anyway, I can enter and leave the Nightmare Realm freely now. I should focus on dealing with Henn.’ Angele had a plan in mind.

There were three things waiting for him to complete: increasing the mentality level, separating Henn from his body, and completing the mission from the Dark Wizard Tower.

In order to separate Henn from his body, he needed to find more information regarding soul forms, but he had yet to discover where to start.

Chapter 308: Calm Before the Storm (1)


The biggest problem lay in the fact that Angele had yet to discover the extent of Henn's strength in her soul form. He wanted to know what exactly she was capable of doing to his body.

Angele was certain that he needed to first rank up, even if he could find the correct technique.

He put his hand on the signet and left the Nightmare Realm. Once again he could hear the normal insects making noise by the river.

Angele calmed down before he left the wooden house and headed to the mansion.

He peeked inside Liv’s room through the window before entering the building.

The light was turned off but he could see Liv meditating on her bed.

Blue light dots flashed in front of Angele’s eyes while he made sure that Liv was not aware of what he did.

The mansion was surrounded by defensive magic matrices and it seemed like they would react to Angele’s movement.

With the help of the mentality compression method and the stealth technique, the defensive matrix would have a hard time detecting him even if he was considered as an invader.

He returned to his bedroom and started drawing red lines on the floor.

The lines were covered by the carpet, so no one would be able to find them without knowing the secret.

Angele spent the next several days constructing the magic circle using the energy particles. Liv had no idea about the situation.

Blop

Angele jumped into the pool without making a big splash.

The bright sunlight shone through the water ripples and illuminated on his muscular body.

He was freestyle swimming, showing how he was a good swimmer.

Liv was sitting on a bench by the pool. Her long black hair spread over her shoulders, which looked like strands of silk with the highest quality.

Her clean skin looked soft and smooth. It seemed like that she did not wear anything under the long white one-piece.

She was reading a book with a brown leather cover carefully.

"Numinous…" Liv invoked the incantation and drew a V-shaped rune in the air with her right hand.

The red rune vanished into the air within seconds and the tip of her index finger was burnt black.

With a flicker of her finger, the wound was cured and it almost looked like nothing happened.

Angele climbed up the ladder and left the pool. He was wearing the black swimming shorts and the water was dripping down his body.

He wiped the water from his brown hair with the left hand.

"You have spent so much time studying this rune, yet you are still having trouble drawing it?" Angele jokingly asked.

A maid handed over a dry blanket to him and he started cleaning his body.

"It’s none of your business." Liv looked at Angele and noticed that he was staring at her breast. "What? I thought you were not interested in me."

"Well." Angele pursed his lips. "I like your style and your hair, but you’re a stronger wizard than me, and that scared me a bit. I’m willing to develop a relationship with you if I’m the stronger one, ha." He finished cleaning his body and headed to the living room.

He heard carriages moving on the path outside the fences before opening the door.

"Are they delivering resources to us?" Angele looked at the direction of the sound but the view was blocked by the building.

Liv stood up from the bench.

"The resources have been delivered several days ago. It must be merchants. Let’s go check them out. We might find some decent items if we’re lucky."

"Sure."

Angele put on a long white robe and a pair of black metal boots. He started heading to the main entrance right away.

Liv followed after him. They walked down the hallway and left the mansion together.

A group of yellow carriages was slowly advancing along the path in front of the mansion. There were about ten of them, and Angele could hear the horses neighing.

The carriages were moving slowly and the escorts were wearing gray cloaks. The cloaks covered their full bodies, including their faces. They all carried swords with gray handles on their belts. The handles of the swords were either cracked or broken.

The carriages stopped on an empty ground by the side of the path.

Several chubby women got off the carriages and started feeding the horses. The coachmen began to check if all the carriages were functioning properly.

The escorts were checking the surroundings in small groups. Some of them were sniffing the cigarettes that they carried. It seemed like the smell of the tobacco would make them feel refreshed.

A short old man in a white suit and red cap walked straight to the mansion with several escorts were following after him.

Angele and Liv waited by the entrance of the mansion quietly.

The old man had a polite smile on his face. He stopped by the entrance and bowed to the two wizards right away.

"Master wizards, we’re of the Starmoon Caravan. My name is Freywood. You might be interested in the special goods I have… Also, I’ll buy items you no longer need off your hands at a very reasonable price."

"So, you have something that wizards need?" Angele was interested.

"I can’t promise you anything, but you can check out the items by yourself." Freywood smiled.

Angele scanned the old man in front of him using Zero and found that Freywood was a rank 3 wizard apprentice. That was the reason why he knew what wizards were interested at.

"You know that you might be killed by an evil wizard and you’ll lose all your items, right?" he asked.

"I know, but I’ll take the risk that comes with great rewards." Freywood chuckled and it seemed like he was not concerned about what Angele just said.

"To be honest, my caravan is being protected by a master wizard."

"Interesting, I didn’t think wizards would do something like this." Angele narrowed his eyes. "It means you do have something rare. Take me to your carriages, I want to see what you have."

Freywood nodded and he led the two wizards to the carriages quickly.

They started checking the goods from the cart on the left.

Most of the goods were spell materials and random eggs from different creatures. There were also gems and luxurious-looking wands, which usually were used to make special crystal orbs.

Angele collected much information of the common materials when he was on the west coast but he failed to recognize some of the spell materials.

Half an hour later, they finished checking most of the goods. Angele did not find anything valuable but Liv purchased a pair of beautiful earrings. The earrings were decorated with rubies and there were silver glints on the surfaces of the gems.

"That's all you have?" Angele frowned.

"I showed you so many items, yet none of them caught your attention?" Freywood was a bit speechless.

"Well, I won’t buy anything if that’s what you only have…" Angele shook his head and yawned.

"Alright, we do have something that I can’t even recognize in one of the carriages but you might be interested."

Freywood led Angele and Liv to a carriage in the middle of the team quickly.

Freywood opened the door and entered the carriage first. He put down a long wooden plank as the stair.

Angele and Liv stepped on the plank and entered the carriage as well.

The carriage was spacious enough for about five people to stand inside.

There was a middle-aged man sitting in front of a black wooden desk, wearing a black cloak.

"Master Kodo, they are here to see the…special item," Freywood lowered his head and said.

"No problem." The man raised his head and looked at Angele.

Angele was a bit surprised as he did not see any pupil in the man’s eyes, but he could feel the man’s sight falling on him.

The man’s white eyes were eye-catching under the dim light.

The man took out a small silver accessory box from a large iron case on the side.

PA

He put the box on the desk and opened it.

Some strange colorful dust leaked out of the box and dripped down to the desk, it almost looked like sticky liquid.

The colorful dust was actually formed by tiny cubes; the cubes were so small that they almost looked like strange beans.

Those colorful cubes left the box and moved around on the desk. They gathered together and turned into a small child.

The kid sat on the desk and it looked like that he was eating his fingers.

"Queen Christina's Cube…" Liv suddenly opened her mouth.

Angele and the other people inside the carriage all stared at her after hearing what she said.

"You know this item?" Angele turned to Liv and looked at her.

"Yeah." Liv nodded slightly. "I have seen it somewhere, but I don’t remember the exact location. It was a long time ago but I still remember the name."

"What can it do?" Angele wondered. He watched the kid crawling on the desk, it seemed like the kid was curious about the people around him.

"I don’t know. Queen Christina's Cube has always been a mystery. You need to find out how to use it yourself. I don’t think it’s a powerful item, though. Rumors tell that the cube was found in an unknown realm by the ancient wizards." Liv shook her head.

Angele rubbed his chin. "How much is it?"

Freywood was happy that something finally suited the young man’s taste.

"How about 15 crystal cards?"

"I’ll give you five crystal cards. I want to buy it just because I like to collect mysterious items." Angele shook his head.

"Well…how about eight crystal cards? This is the lowest price I can accept. We spent a lot of money purchasing this from a…Anyway, five is way too low."

The conversation lasted for more than ten minutes before they finally agreed on the price. Angele paid six crystal cards for the cube.

Chapter 309: Calm Before the Storm (2)


Angele left the carriage carrying his pouch that had the box which contained the cube.

After spending so long in checking the merchandise, it was now afternoon.

The orange light from the setting sun illuminated on the ground.

"La~Lalala~Lalalala~"

He heard someone singing from a carriage on the other side.

Angele turned around.

A young girl sat beside the opened door of the carriage; her long, black hair was eye-catching.

The girl’s legs were long and slim. She was wearing brown leather boots and a pair of tight blue pants. The hems of the pants were slightly damaged, but she still looked attractive in them.

There was a white flower in the girls’ hand and she was sniffing at it carefully.

The sun was still setting. The vibrant light shined upon her white one piece and black coat. She looked like a girl that did not belong to this land.

Angele looked at the girl for a while. She reminded him of someone familiar, but he just could not come up with the name.

"It’s the daughter of a family we met on the road not so long ago. We’re taking them to the city," Freywood jumped off the carriage and explained. "If you’re interested, I can…"

"No, it’s fine. I’m not interested. It’s just that…" Angele shook his head. "Nevermind, I’ll be leaving now."

Liv followed glaring at him as they started walking, but she did not say anything.

Angele took out the queen's cube and looked at it. He thought that it was the only thing related to the souls among the goods. He wanted to do some experiments with it after he went back. He had seen something similar back in the Six Ring Area, but he did not purchase it due to the ridiculous price.

Many wizards tried to study the secrets of the soul form, but most of the rules could not be applied to the souls and its properties were ever-changing; the thing they found helpful yesterday would become meaningless the next day.

Angele walked to the mansion and Liv followed after him.

Two maids saw the two wizards returning to the mansion so they opened the door quickly.

Angele heard someone calling him with a crisp voice right after walking past the fences.

"Masters…please wait."

Liv and Angele turned around and saw the girl that was singing running to them, but she was stopped by the two maids.

A middle-aged man and a middle-aged woman got off the carriage that the girl came from slowly. Their faces were pale and they both looked tired. Angele noticed the high-quality clothes they were wearing.

Angele assumed that the girl probably came from a noble family that had lost their territory.

"What do you want?" He waved his hands and asked the maids to let them come in.

The girl walked to the two wizards and lowered her head. She bit her lips slightly and her face turned pale.

"Iris! Apologize to the two master wizards and come back now!" The middle-aged man was almost shouting.

"Your name is Iris?" Angele questioned.

The girl nodded right away, she looked at her parents but she decided to stay.

"I…I…Could you hire me, masters? We’re seeking shelter as my mother is too weak for long travels…" Her voice was so low that Angele could barely hear her word.

"If you can offer us a shelter, I can do anything for you!" The girl suddenly raised her head.

"What a waste of time." Liv shook her head and walked away. She did not think that the girl had such high value.

Liv knew what the girl was planning. She started singing right after Angele left the carriage and acted like she was doing everything just for her mother. The girl was begging for the sympathy of a wizard and she thought that Angele might be interested in her body.

Liv had lived long enough to see most of the dirty tricks played by the mortals in the society. Girls like Iris once lived in wealthy families and the long trips were just too tough for them.

The girl was a virgin, but Liv doubted if Angele would be interested.

He could just purchase a whole bunch of girls from the slave market instead if he had the intention.

Angele watched Liv leave as he pursed his lips into a smile.

The girl named Iris reminded him of the girl he trained back in the Lennon City. Tia was just delivering food to him.

"So explain to me, why are you valuable to me? Why should I offer you a shelter?" He was mocking the girl.

The girl lowered her head again, not sure how to answer the question. She held her fists tight and her body was trembling.

"Iris!"

Suddenly, a boy with a short brown hair jumped off one of the carriages and yelled. There was a bitter smile on his young face.

The girl bit her lips after hearing the boy’s call.

Angele shook his head and turned around. He started walking to the mansion again.

"You’re brave enough to walk to me, but you can’t prove me that you’re a valuable asset," he spoke in an uncaring tone.

The boy ran to Iris and tried to grab her right hand, but she just walked away.

Tia knew what she wanted at the beginning, yet the girl named Iris never had a clear goal.

Three days later…

It was early in the morning and the sun was still raising.

Angele stood quietly on the training ground.

CHI CHI CHI

It sounded like something was breaking through the air.

There were countless silver strings appearing and disappearing around his body.

It looked like Angele was just standing there with his right arm in the air, but the crossguard sword in his hand was moving so fast that it turned into a blurred shadow.

Several minutes later, the silver strings vanished into the air and the crossguard sword slowly stopped.

CHI

He did a front slash again as he took one step forward, leaving a silver trail of the blade in the air.

Angele had a blank expression on his face, he started swinging his sword again.

The chip was reporting back to him every second, ‘Modifying the sword skill set…Combo is 88.75% completed…Slash combo is 92.11% completed…’

The faster Angele swung his sword, the more frequently the chip would report back.

It almost looked like there was a distorted shadow flashing on the platform. The trails left by the moving sword connected each other and turned into a long silver string twisting around the blurred shadow.

Angele decided to improve his sword skills after his attributes increased. The first version of the sword skill combos was now too weak for him.

WOO

The wind brought by the silver blade blew away the dust from the ground.

Liv was waiting quietly beside the platform, she leaned against the wall and watched Angele improving the sword combo.

Time was flying.

The wind brought by the sword was getting stronger and stronger.

Crack

It sounded like a wood stick broke into half.

Angele stopped moving right away.

He looked at the broken sword in his hand and asked the chip to stop the process.

The broken tip of the sword was left on the platform.

‘Without the cursed scimitar’s buff, my attributes are much lower than before." Angele shook his head slightly and dropped the sword to the ground.

"That's the fifth one." Liv pursed her lips.

"Well, these weapons are too weak." Angele took a deep breath and raised his left hand. The maid immediately brought him a clean blanket and a basket of water.

"High-quality swords are hard to find. You can ask master Vivian to find you one when she came back." Liv nodded.

"I will likely craft one myself later." Angele shook his head slightly. "I will go have some rest."

"Sure."

Angele left the training ground, went to the second floor, and entered the bedroom. He started meditating right away.

Half an hour later, he slowly woke up from the meditation.

‘Show me my body condition.’ he ordered.

‘Angele Rio. Strength 12.0. Agility 11.5. Stamina 16.0. Mentality 79.5. Mana 57.2. Genetic limit reached. Status: Healthy,’ Zero reported back quickly.

‘I lost the buff from the scimitar after I broke it. Although the life essence of the scorpion woman is great, my attributes are still much lower than before.’ Angele’s brow furrowed.

"The scimitar can’t be the only cursed weapon," he muttered as he turned off the crystal scorpion and took out the black box. "What do you think, Henn? Cursed weapons are great, right?"

"Don’t rely on cursed weapons too much. The buff is great for sure, but you will regret once more and more impurities gather.

"Anyway, it’s time for us to leave. Liv will be focusing on her study for a while, so we should go to the ruin right now. It will only take you about one week to finish the whole mission. You have completed the illusion magic circle in your bedroom already, right?"

"Yeah." Angele’s expression turned serious. "I won’t do anything to Vivian after this. Don’t drag me into your personal revenge."

"Ha, don’t worry, this is the last time. Activate the magic circle tonight when Vivian is about to leave the headquarters. This is our best chance." Henn sneered.

"Alright then."

Angele nodded slightly.

Chapter 310: Action (1)


"Fine, activate the circle. I must still prepare for the gravitational magic circle." Henn’s voice ceased at that point.

Angele activated the crystal scorpion and sat down at the desk. He looked at the two crescent moons outside the window while asking Zero to complete a few tasks.

About half an hour later, he raised his left hand.

CHI

Glowing light of white and red colors flashed on the tip of his middle finger forming two rays of light as it slowly shot into the air and explode into specks of light.

Thud thud

Someone knocked on the door.

Angele turned around quickly.

"Come in, please."

Creak

The door was pushed open slowly.

Liv noiselessly stood outside the door; Angele’s communication rune was still flickering on her index finger.

"You messaged me at the right time." She stared at Angele. "The thing we have talked about several days ago, I have a lead for you."

"Please take a seat." Angele had a gentle smile on his face.

Half an hour later, Liv stepped out of Angele’s room.

It was late at night. The night breeze kept blowing along the surface of the rippling river; the leaves were dancing in the air.

Several hours later, Angele, hooded and cloaked in black, stood on the peak of a small hill beside the mansion.

"How long will the illusion magic circle last?"

Henn chuckled in response. "What are you worried about? You are proficient at illusionary spells, right? And I designed the magic circle myself. There’s no way Liv can find out the truth."

"Good, then. Since I know every shortcut now, I will arrive at the ruins early. However, I need to talk to someone from the Dark Wizard Tower along the way. It will not take too long," Angele replied as if nothing was wrong.

"Not a problem. I know that place, it is near our route. Just don’t spend too much time there." Henn was not concerned.

"Fine, I will move out now." Angele, nodding, walked down the hill as he vanished into the darkness.

Inside the mansion, there was a man who looked exactly like Angele sitting on the bed meditating, and he was surrounded by mysterious energy waves.

Three days later…

In the forest, east of Bass River.

It was noon, and the sky was covered by thick white clouds. The air was warm and humid.

At a narrow path, the ground was covered in dried leaves and grass. Green sprouts were growing out of the yellow mud.

The long branches and green leaves covered the sky above the path. The sunlight was having a hard time finding its way down there.

The tree trunks on both sides of the road had various strange shapes.

Angele had his head covered with his hood as he walked along the left side of the path. He was traveling at full speed, even going nearly as fast as a well-bred horse.

He saw a road sign ahead of him upon traveling for more than half an hour.

Angele walked to the roadside and wiped the dust off the sign revealing the words written on it.

‘Welcome to the Sherry Forest.’ The characters were written in red and they looked messy.

He looked at the road ahead.

It almost felt like the entrance of the forest was being surrounded by distorted energy waves. The trunks of the trees had grown in a twisting manner and the thick roots formed a circle in the air.

Angele felt a bit dizzy just by looking at all those strange trees.

Standing in front of the road sign, he raised his left hand. Around his middle finger was the ring that had been delivered by the golden bird from the Dark Wizard Tower.

CHI

Sheens of blue light shone from the gem, now surrounding Angele’s body.

He calmed down and began to move onward once again.

Time passed. For another half an hour, Angele continued to wander around the trees.

Gradually, the light coming from the ring finally faded away.

When he stopped by a gigantic tree root, he realized that it was actually a door formed by the branches. ‘86’ and ‘10’ were engraved on the left and right side of the door, respectively.

Angele pushed the door open and stepped inside.

He reached the other side of the tree quickly and saw countless head-sized green fruits hanging on the enormous branches. The fruits were covered with white fur and they looked like peaches.

Angele started counting the fruits from the left.

KA

He saw the seventh fruit crack open, and it looked like a mouth full of sharp teeth. Translucent sticky liquid leaked out of the mouth and dripped down the surface of the fruit.

Strangely, the sticky liquid had an attractive flowery smell.

Several seconds later, a face that had only eyes and mouth formed on the front side of the fruit.

"Haven’t seen a newbie in a while," it spoke with an androgynous voice. "Are you here for the advanced meditation technique?"

Angele nodded slightly. "Yeah, the golden bird informed me of the location."

"I’m in charge of handing out the advanced techniques for Elemental Hand… Ha. Anyway, you can call me Mocco. I will also hand out the reward of the missions you completed to you," Mocco explained.

"Based on your current level, you may choose two different universal advanced meditation techniques. The first is called ‘Venom Barrier and the second is called ‘Blue Light’. These meditation techniques, however, are incomplete so if you want the complete version, you must first sign a special contract with the organization."

"Certainly, I understand." Angele then nodded again. "Besides the meditation technique, I want intel. As a formal member, I believe that’s part of the benefits, right?"

"Yeah." Mocco pursed his lips.

"Alright, I want to know how to deal with…soul forms after encountering them." Angele went straight to the point.

"Ghosts? They are indeed difficult to deal with but there is some related information stored in the Dark Wizard Tower’s library." Mocco wasn’t in the slightest surprised as Angele was not the only one who had asked such question.

"What else? I will send your questions back to the headquarters all at once."

Angele hesitated for a second before opening his mouth. "I want the entire data you possess on the Axis of Time."

"Axis of Time, huh? Now that is a rare request. Information pertaining to that organization is highly confidential. The sundial and the shadow keys made them famous. The organization’s members are all lunatics, as they wanted to commit mass suicide. They barely even communicated with other organizations. Actually, the sundial and the shadow keys are related to the study of soul forms. You need these two items to open the gate to their greatest treasure. Hmm…" Mocco stopped for a second then continued, "I smell something familiar…Do you perhaps have the shadow key with you?"

Narrowing his eyes, Angele was about to speak about it but Mocco stopped him.

"Do not worry. The gate to the treasure is impossible to find. Wizards have already gone to the ruins and found the treasury using the shadow keys, yet all of them died for some reason. A rank 4 wizard said that the ‘treasure’ was merely a trap set up by the Axis of Time. I’m not interested in your shadow key at all…" Mocco pursed his lips. "Ah, I know why you are asking me about soul forms—the key will attract ghosts."

Angele finally heard something he was interested in.

"So, how do I deal with it? Throw it away?"

"It’s simple if that is the case. I will tell you everything about the key." Mocco cleared his throat and began explaining, "The shadow key helps ghosts preserve their energy. If a ghost tries to enter the owner’s body, their soul will become bound to the key. If the key is taken away, the ghost must find another creature or person to inhabit."

"I have heard that the ghost will become linked to the owner’s life." Angele frowned.

"You mean the life energy connection? Umm…it rarely happens but it is possible. I have already sent your queries back to the division, and they have just responded."

Angele was not sure how Mocco communicated with the organization.

"What did they say?" Angele stayed calm but he felt a bit relieved. If the shadow key was not a valuable item, he would not have to hide the truth that there was an old lady living in his body.

Dark Wizard Tower had many ways to collect intel and information. He activated the crystal scorpion so that Henn would have no idea what he was saying.

Angele wanted to talk to Vivian about the truth, but he was not sure what she would do. It was nearly impossible for Angele to win a fight against her, so he decided to seek help from the Dark Wizard Tower.

Elemental Hand was just a weak organization when compared to the Dark Wizard Tower. Angele thought that the Dark Wizard Tower was probably the strongest organization in the whole central continent.

Their members, after all, had infiltrated all the major organizations. They were everywhere and their power was incredibly strong. Henn was possibly a legendary wizard, yet even she did not want to become entangled with the Dark Wizard Tower.

"Well, the division suggested you do more missions and collect points. You may then opt to hire a professional wizard that is a ‘ghost’ themselves. There are many wizards in soul forms in the headquarters. One of them is a strong wizard that had lost his physical form hundreds of years ago, and if you possess a magic device called ‘Thousand Shadow Orb’, you will be able to expel the ghost from your body with ease."

"Thousand Shadow Orb?" Angele repeated the name. "What is this?"

"It can help ghosts regain intelligence and become an individual. The magic device can actually be crafted yourself, but you must trade mission points for its recipe."

Angele soon left the forest upon acquiring all the information he wanted. He then began heading toward the ruins once again and he had also picked up the required materials for the Poison Cloud Potion. The amount he obtained was enough for him to be able to concoct ten servings.

Mocco told Angele that more materials would be provided upon the failure of the concoction of the potion. However, the mission must be completed within two months. If he failed the potion concoction mission this time, he would no longer be considered a candidate for future missions related to potion concoction.

Angele did not worry upon knowing this information, as the intel regarding soul forms and the shadow keys was significantly more important to him.

The advanced meditation technique was stored in a red seed, which he kept in his pouch.

The ruin was nearby the headquarters of Elemental Hand.

Easily and immediately, he returned to the peak of the snowy volcano then entered the ruin.

The ruin was empty. Angele stayed outside the unrestricted area and started to draw tiny magic circles in the tunnels according to the plan Henn had told him.

Countless red magic circles covered each of the tunnels outside the unrestricted areas. He spent about half a day to finish all the preparations.

"Alright, we’re done." Henn sounded excited.

Angele slowly lowered his hand from a magic circle on the wall and rubbed his temples.

"Those magic circles will disappear upon activation. The only thing it will do is to produce energy waves. Are you sure this will work?" He stared at the black box.

"Of course it will. I already told you the mentality frequency. If that b*tch tries to activate the gravitational magic circle, the energy waves from all those magic circles will kill her if she’s unlucky. Ha!" Henn gritted her teeth.

"Why did Vivian leave for the war? She has already spent years living in this ruin. I thought she’s no longer interested in the affairs of the outside world." Liv had told him that Vivian had not left the ruin for a long time.

"I have no idea. You should ask her yourself." Henn was not interested.

"Fine." Angele glanced around. "Alright, we need to leave now."

"Find a safe spot and activate the trap when the gravitational magic circle releases its special energy wave." Henn lowered her voice.

Angele nodded and left the ruin quickly. He rushed down the snowy volcano and waited patiently within the forest.

Chapter 311: Action (2)


At some plains somewhere far away.

Cumulonimbus clouds were slowly moving across the sky.

White-robed and blue-robed people were fighting against each other on the endless plains.

On a high cliff behind the white robes.

Vivian stood by the edge of the cliff watching the wizards' battles beneath. There were three people quietly waiting behind her; two of them were male while the other was female. The robes they were wearing were decorated with golden hems.

The noises coming from the roaring wizards, spell explosions, and lightning pulses within the battlefield amassed altogether that it nearly caused the earth to shake.

Vivian frowned. Her eyes fell on six fully geared wizards that were being protected by a group of blue robes on the other side.

"All the lords are here. We can set an ambush plan into motion and directly attack their cities. I want to see their depressed faces. It will be interesting," Vivian spoke in a calm tone.

"Master Vivian, I think the only problem is the first lord; the rest of them are weak. I think this battle is in the bag." One of the male wizards behind her smiled.

"It is too early to celebrate." Vivian shook her head. "Since all the lords are here, this means that that item has been brought here as well. We will lose the battle if that item gets activated."

The three wizards behind her looked at each other. They had already realized what item Vivian was referring to.

Glaring at the lords in blue armor suits, Vivian looked a bit excited.

"I will need to activate the gravitational magic circle. I want to know what the so-called 'Lords' Treasure' can do. The 'Illusion Aura'…I can snatch it for Angele if everything goes as planned."

Angele silently stood within the forest leaning against a large tree. A small object that looked similar to a pocket watch was in his hand.

It was black and was made from metal, and there was a red button in the middle of its front side.

This small but heavy device was a tool to be used to activate all the magic circles.

"Keep track of the energy waves from the gravitational magic circle. Press the button once the waves become strong enough," Henn advised.

"Strong enough? How am I supposed to know that?" Angele asked.

"Well, the gravitational magic circle is supported by six main rune circles. That is how the energy is transferred to Vivian's location. Press the button after the last rune circle gets activated." Henn sneered.

"That sounds a bit too easy. Are you sure Vivian won't find out that the trap was set up by me?"

"Don’t worry, everything is going as planned." Henn sounded confident.

"Good, then."

The two then stopped talking, just staying in the forest as they waited for the rune circles to be activated.

"It's our turn…" Vivian stood atop the cliff raising her hands. Glows of bright red surrounded her eyes which made it look like two shining rubies.

CHI

The three wizards behind her jumped off the cliff and entered the battlefield. They released three translucent energy waves which were quickly expanding.

All blue robes that were touched upon by the waves exploded into blood mist.

Vivian was still observing the situation on the battlefield. The six lords varied in age and gender. She saw an old man that had long, white hair, a young man with a muscular body, a short man with a slim body, and an attractive young woman.

Behind the blue robe army, the six lords formed a circle. The weapons in their hands varied; some were wielding longswords while some were wielding short wands.

The six lords raised their weapons in response to Vivian's eyes that had begun to shimmer, their weapons covered in a white glow. A translucent vortex appeared in the center of the circle they had formed.

A blue eye slowly opened in the middle of the vortex.

CHI

A ray of freezing laser beam was shot from the eye going straight toward Vivian.

Vivian's dark blonde hair was fluttering in the air, and she slightly swung her right hand immediately.

BOOM

The hills were struck by the pure energy waves formed by plenty of energy particles.

The rocks from the cliffs were broken into large pieces and they started falling down.

The noise produced by the rolling boulders was louder than anything else.

Yet these boulders were suddenly halted by Vivian and they began to gather around her body. They looked like violent gems connected by a long invisible chain.

The boulders were dragged into the space in front of Vivian as they quickly formed into an enormous black ball.

BAM

The blue laser beam fiercely struck the ball.

The laser beam was having difficulty penetrating it.

The blue eye that was clashing against it nearly looked as if the blue laser beam it released formed a long bridge across the entire battlefield.

Both Vivian and the six lords were supplying their spells with every ounce of energy they had.

The stone ball was constantly attracting the broken pieces of rocks from the cliffs, and the blue laser beam coming from the eye never ceased.

Vivian slowly lowered her left hand as she fiercely looked at the encirclement of the six armored wizards.

Suddenly, she once again raised her left hand pointing at the lords' formation.

BOOM

A distorted energy arrow exploded in front of the six lords.

A 5-meter-deep hole was formed due to the explosion. The fragments of mud and stones struck the lords' armor suits yet none had gotten injured.

"Huh? Something changed the trajectory of my arrow?" Vivian was surprised and at the same time curious.

She then utilized energy particles to increase the volume of her voice.

"So that's the effect of the Illusion Aura, huh? Sadly, you have miscalculated my power." Vivian's voice echoed in the sky.

The expressions of the six lords changed all at the same time after listening to what she had just said.

"She still has enough mentality for another spell! Morris! Inform the support team behind us!" the old man with a long white hair shouted.

Vivian was not perturbed by the current situation. She fired multiple energy arrows toward the blue robe army.

BOOM BOOM BOOM

Several holes were formed from the consecutive explosions.

Mud and stone fragments were flying around everywhere. Many blue robes were crushed into pieces and there were even human hands and feet falling down from the sky.

The blood of the corpses dyed the land red.

Vivian curled her lips into a smile, and the red glow around her eyes was getting brighter. Every time she pointed at the blue robes, a large hole would appear on the ground. The blue robes were completely terrified by her power as they continuously shouted in fear. It sounded as though a horrifying melody was echoing throughout the area.

"That’s enough!"

As a furious, deep male voice resonated throughout, a gigantic blue hand conjured out of thin air and moved toward Vivian.

The hand was more than ten meters long and looked like the hand of an ancient giant. Seemingly heavy, it nearly covered the sky.

"Finally, I have been waiting for this moment!" Vivian quickly drew a red cross in front of her chest.

The red light from the cross remained in the air.

"Heart of Torrea, the land's core, lend me thy power…" She quickly invoked the incantation that would activate the gravitational magic circle.

The land started shaking with Vivian's spell as its source.

The cliff underneath her feet began transforming and out of the mud and rocks, a 30-meter-tall stone giant took form.

Vivian jumped onto the left shoulder of the stone giant after it finished its transformation.

The giant raised its right hand as it attempted to block the approaching blue hand.

BAM

All the white robes and blue robes retreated upon witnessing the two incredibly strong spells. At this moment, there was nothing else they could do.

Vivian sat on the stone giant's shoulder smilingly.

"The cross-realm strike from a storm giant lord, huh? Well…" She clapped her hands several times quickly.

Red smoke began to seep out of the surface of the stone giant. Gleaming molten lava was leaking out of the countless gaps between the rocks on its body.

"If you can block my strongest strike, I will let you return to your own region." Once again, her voice echoed throughout ensuring everyone on the battlefield could hear it.

"Arrogant bastard!" An immediate response came from the one who screamed before.

Vivian raised her hands once more. Balls of red light appeared in the center of both of her palms, becoming increasingly brighter every second.

"This is it! This is our chance!" Henn suddenly yelled.

Angele looked at the peak of the snowy volcano and noticed the energy wave coming from the sixth rune circle.

PA

He pressed the red button without hesitation.

Nothing happened.

"Damn it!" Henn shouted anxiously.

The sixth rune circle had not been fully activated and not all the energy waves had been sent to the main magic circle.

For some reason, Vivian stopped at the critical moment. The activation of the sixth rune circle was delayed by about ten seconds.

"Well, I have done what I could. I pressed the button when you told me to. Alright, that's it. I have completed the mission." Angele remained calm.

"Damn it! I failed! The mission failed! You must…" Henn was now roaring.

"What does that have to do with me? I must do what again? I will say it once more, I am NOT your puppet!" Angele had already lost his patience. "I have already wasted too much time on such a dumb thing!"

He activated the crystal scorpion. Turning around, he disappeared into the forest heading to the Bass River area.

Vivian slowly lowered her hands, and the red glow around her eyes faded away.

She sat atop the stone giant's shoulder quietly as it was advancing at full speed.

BAM BAM

Its footsteps sounded like rumbling thunder. The white robe army followed after the giant. They were advancing toward the city ahead.

She waited about ten seconds before fully activating the gravitational magic circle.

Although the delay nearly changed the outcome of the battle against the storm giant spirit, she did not regret doing so.

Raising her right hand, Vivian stared at its back; a black snake-shaped rune was flickering on the tip of her index finger.

Several days ago, Angele sent her two urgent messages asking her to wait ten seconds before casting her strongest spell.

Vivian was baffled as Angele did not clarify the reason. Nevertheless, she still decided to listen to her son. She trusted Angele so much that she did what he said without any hesitation whatsoever.

Chapter 312: Birth Flower (1)


‘Angele must have his reasons.’ There was a gentle smile on Vivian’s face. She would have doubted the words if they did not come from her only son’s mouth.

‘I should probably ask why he sent me this message, but I’m certain that he is just worried about me…’

"Umm…Master Vivian. I’m sorry but can I have a word with you?" A deep female voice came from behind.

Vivian leaned to the side and looked down; she was still sitting on the giant’s shoulder.

"What’s the matter? We’re on our way to our destination. We can talk after we finish them off." Frowning, she communicated with her through energy particles.

"I’m afraid we can’t, master." A female wizard in a long white robe shook her head.

"The urgent message says that your son took a birth flower away from the people of Glay. Right now, he is being pursued by them…" The wizard looked speechless.

The smile disappeared from Vivian’s face.

"Angele…This kid…" Vivian gritted her teeth, but she was not sure what she should say.

"Retreat, everyone! We can finish them off later!" She raised her right hand and shouted.

"Come with me, my elite team! We need to go to the Glay’s territory."

In the forest between the Bass River and the snowy volcano.

The white sunlight pierced through the gaps between the leaves and illuminated on the people fighting between the trees.

There were five people in brown leather armor suits surrounding a young man in a long black robe.

"How dare you destroy our birth flowers! We are the Glays. I think you know how valuable those flowers are to our race," a man at the front spoke in a deep voice.

There was a white lightning-shaped scar on his skin which looked strange and terrifying.

Angele was speechless. He was not sure how to respond to that man.

He was just collecting unknown plants using the chip while leaving the forest.

He found a wheel-sized black flower and according to the result of the chip's analysis, the pistil of the flower would increase the success rate of concocting a Poison Cloud Potion. Angele decided to collect the pistil right away.

However, the black flower died right after the pistil was removed. This scene was witnessed by several Glay guards that were just patrolling their territory as usual.

That was the reason why Angele was being chased down.

Angele wanted to fight back, but the chip warned him about the presence of more than one formal wizard in the Glay’s patrol team and he decided to retreat. The targets were not in the effective range of Zero and their ranks could not be determined.

The Glays were living beings that looked like human beings and lived around the Bass River. He acquired the information through a conversation with Liv, but she never described the appearance of the birth flower to him. Angele was not sure if he could solve the problem by himself, so he decided to contact Vivian immediately.

He knew the birth flower's basic information and its importance to the Glay race. It was what helped them to reproduce.

Glays did not reproduce sexually. Instead, their offspring were born from these birth flowers.

There were two types of birth flowers: the ones used by females had the shape of a penis and the ones used by males looked like vaginas. Angele had unwittingly destroyed the one that should be used by males.

For the Glays, losing one flower was akin to losing one newborn offspring.

Glays were collectively known to be great fighters. In terms of populace, there were more females than males. All of them needed to have an intercourse with the flowers, but they did not need to worry too much about their babies. Majority of Glays were talented and could easily be trained to wizard apprentices. Even becoming formal wizards was an easy feat for them.

Within the territory of the Glay race, birth flowers were being treated like holy grails. It was likely that there was a Glay offspring being nurtured in the flower that had been killed off by Angele. That was the main reason why the guards pursuing Angele were completely furious.

This was common knowledge for the inhabitants around their territory. Angele was too focused on the effect of the flower's pistil that he forgot to check if the black flower was a birth flower.

The problem lay in the fact that his behavior had been witnessed by the patrol team. Otherwise, there would not be so much commotion.

Angele's speed was much faster than most members of the patrol team, yet five of the stronger Glays still caught up with him and surrounded him.

"I can return the pistil to you. I apologize as I did not know that this was a birth flower. Can't we end this matter peacefully?" Angele questioned.

"Think about it. What will you do if I just killed your son?" the leader answered in a deep hoarse voice.

"Do we have to fight? I can offer some rare materials to you." Angele was trying his best to prevent a battle from happening.

"Kneel before me and then we can talk." The man sneered.

"Well, I was trying to solve the problem peacefully yet you’re not listening." Angele raised his right hand creating a two-meter-long sword in his hand.

The tip of the sword slowly turned red and the temperature around his body increased rapidly.

"There are five of us!" The five men drew their daggers at the same time and red lines glimmered on the blades.

In an area that was fifty kilometers away from Angele’s location.

Vivian and about ten elites that were equipped with black armor suits were advancing to the Glays' territory at full speed.

"I have already sent a message to the chief of the Glays, master Mira, but I'm not sure if she will read it in time." A female wizard behind Vivian communicated through energy particles.

Vivian grimaced. "Mira is my friend but destroying a birth flower is most likely an unforgivable act. The Glay race is already having trouble with the decaying population. The Glays will not listen to her orders even if she tries to save Angele."

"Master Mira is a close friend of yours, yet she will not help?" a woman in a black armor suit asked.

"I'm not sure what's going to happen then. There are only about four hundred of birth flowers in the Glays' territory, which they have spent years cultivating in order for those mysterious flowers to grow. Losing one flower is the same as losing one baby. Mira needs to listen to her people's opinion. No one survives after destroying a birth flower." There was a serious expression on Vivian's face. "I must meet her personally and apologize to her," she added.

"Glays usually do a good job guarding their birth flowers. Something is fishy here…How did Angele destroy one so easily?" The woman looked confused.

"I don't know…Perhaps the patrol team had just finished their shift." Vivian shook her head. "This little bastard…I just found him not so long ago and he has already brought me a great deal of trouble…"

Angele was giving Vivian a headache, yet she did not sound mad.

Clank

Angele blocked the strike from a dagger with his longsword.

He slightly leaned to the left and blocked another dagger with the handle.

Five blurry shadows surrounded him moving around at full speed. They were trying to attack Angele from all angles.

Angele’s Agility and Strength were high enough to dodge or block all the attacks.

Although his agility was over 11, the Glay people were still moving faster than him. It seemed that speed was their talent. Angele could see the long blurry shadow behind their bodies. The five Glays’ strength level was low, so they were having a hard time breaking Angele’s defense.

Angele learned more about the situation after reading the message sent by Vivian. He knew that destroying the flower was his fault and he did not want the situation to get worse.

Vivian told him that there was still a chance that the incident could be solved peacefully.

If the Glays requested backup and their team captains came, Angele would have a hard time surviving the fight without activating the signet in the center of his chest.

However, he decided to trust Vivian’s words.

Angele kept retreating as he blocked the attacks from the Glays. He was slowly moving toward Vivian’s location. The fight had already lasted for hours. He could not find a better way to leave the area. Good thing was that Vivian was advancing to his current location at full speed and he only needed to stay calm.

"Stop him! He’s trying to flee!" one of the Glays shouted. Angele was trying to find a gap from their formation.

He knitted his eyebrows after hearing one of them say that.

After scanning his opponents with Zero, Angele knew that he could kill them easily as they were just weak formal wizards. Their only advantage was the speed.

Their attributes were lower than that of a rank 1 wizard's at the Gas stage. Angele would have killed them if Vivian did not send him the message.

‘I should try to escape and regroup with Vivian.’ Angele narrowed his eyes and looked carefully at the five Glays' formation.

Blue lights flashed in front of his eyes.

Clank Clank

Their weapons clashed again.

The burning tip of the sword blocked two oncoming daggers and caught his opponents off guard.

Angele rushed out of the encirclement formed by the five like an arrow and disappeared into the bushes.

"Don’t let him escape!" a man shouted.

The five jumped into the bush and ran toward the direction Angele was last seen.

The area became silent again.

Several minutes later, a tall man jumped out of the bushes from the other side.

It was a muscular bald man with dark skin.

Moreover, his head was covered with black needles wherein only the top half of the needles could be seen. The man almost looked like a criminal that just escaped the prison.

Several more people jumped out of the shrubs. All of them were people of Glay.

"Caren is still chasing after that man." The bald man pointed in the direction where Angele had left. "Mitto, take several guards with you and utilize the shortcuts. This is our forest. It is impossible for that man to outrun us."

Chapter 313: Birth Flower (2)


"Yes!" A female Glay stepped forward and responded. She then quickly moved into the shrubs and bushes with a small team.

"Mitto, use the path at the right and see if you can stop that man before he can escape," the man with a needle-covered head ordered.

A man wearing a black leather suit stepped forward and nodded. He leaned to the right and disappeared into the bushes.

The man with a needle head glanced around.

"It has been 50 years since the last time someone had destroyed a birth flower. We must make an example out of that man in order to show what will happen to those who have the intention to trespass into our holy ground."

While Angele was running at full speed, he noticed that there were more than five people chasing after him. One of them had mentality waves that were at a similar level as Liv's.

Although the strength of mentality waves did not solely represent the actual power of a person, it still indicated that there was a rank 2 wizard pursuing him.

He was as well certain now that majority of the Glay territory's guards were formal wizards.

The good thing was that it would only take him seconds to reach Vivian’s location.

Angele ran down the hill and saw Vivian’s team advancing in the forest ahead.

"Angele! Come to me!" Vivian noticed Angele’s presence and she shouted.

Angele moved to Vivian immediately and slowly stopped.

"Master Vivian…I made a big mistake this time…" There was a bitter smile on his face.

"I know you didn’t do it intentionally, but we still need to face this matter." Vivian grabbed Angele’s right hand and dragged him to her side.

A team of Glays appeared in front of them as they talked.

The man with a head full of needles was standing in front.

He looked at the wizards in front of him and his expression changed after seeing Vivian in the group.

"The third elder?"

"Garuda, how dare you to talk to master Vivian like that?!" A female wizard stepped forward and questioned in a cold tone.

The man named Garuda looked disappointed, but he still bowed to Vivian.

"Welcome to the Glay’s territory, master Vivian." The other Glays behind him hesitated for a second and kneeled together.

"Welcome to the Glay’s territory." They greeted Vivian at the same time.

Vivian slightly raised her eyebrows. "Let us go meet your chief together. My son has destroyed one of your birth flowers."

Angele stood behind Vivian and communicated with her through energy particles.

"Should I return the pistil to them?"

"Keep it since you already took it. We’ll see how the negotiation goes," Vivian responded quickly. "If they ask you about the pistil, just tell them that the pistil died quickly after you removed it from the flower."

Angele was a bit speechless. He thought Vivian would blame him for what he had done, yet she was still trying her best to help her ‘son’.

"I know the chief of the Glays. She’s one of my best friends. It won’t be that big of a problem if her people don’t question her decisions. Just make sure you think twice before doing something like that the next time."

"I understand. It was totally my fault." Angele nodded.

"Alright, don’t think too much about it. I’ll see what I can do." Vivian rubbed Angele’s cheeks sighing with mixed emotions.

With Vivian’s help, the problem was solved peacefully.

Vivian and her elites went to the core of the Glay’s territory. It seemed like the Glays feared her authority and power. No one questioned chief Mira’s decision and the situation was much better than Angele had expected.

After the negotiation, Angele gave the Glays a decent number of magic crystal cards and some rare materials as compensation.

It would be a life-or-death situation if Angele did not have such a great ‘mother’.

Vivian ordered him to stay in the mansion after the incident and asked him to learn more about the races around the Bass River area so that something like this would not happen again.

Angele decided to use this chance to prepare for the potion concocting mission from the Dark Wizard Tower.

Furthermore, he needed to check the advanced meditation technique he acquired from the organization.

The biggest problem was still Henn.

Angele tricked Henn so that he did not need to destroy Vivian’s source of power and it seemed like Vivian did notice his secret. However, he still needed to find a way to remove Henn from his body.

He did not have enough mission points to hire a soul form wizard from the Dark Wizard Tower or purchase the recipe for the Thousand Shadow Orb.

Henn had not talked to him for a while even when the crystal scorpion was not activated. Angele then assumed that she had some other evil plans in her mind.

Several months later…

At noon, the golden sunlight shone through the window on the second floor of the main building.

Angele stood by the window and moved the curtain to the side. He stared at the surface of the river and the bright sunlight illuminated on his face.

"Henn, I have already helped you with your revenge plan but the problem is, I’m stuck at this Crystal stage, and your ultimate enemy is still Arisma. I might lose the fight against Stigma if she asks my old friend to kill both of us." Angele was talking with Henn using the black box.

"I understand," Henn responded in a light tone. "I was a bit anxious recently, but I won’t ask you to do anything to Vivian…for now. And you are right about Arisma and Stigma. Your progression has slowed down and that’s a problem."

"I don’t remember the last time we had such a peaceful conversation." Angele nodded slightly. "Let’s get straight to the point. The Mask of the Black Wing isn’t as strong as I expected."

"Don’t worry. Didn’t you notice your mentality level increasing slowly? You are already strong enough for your age. The progression speed might have slowed down, but you’re improving at a steady pace." Henn suddenly sounded like a different person. "You need several years to stabilize your mentality and increase your level. Speed is not the most important thing right now. Revise all the elemental system you know and create your own way to modify or even create spells. This is an important stage which every strong wizard had to similarly experience.

Angele was a bit surprised. He could not believe that Henn told him to slow down.

"Yeah…You’re right. It’s probably a good thing. I’ll use that time to study the information I acquired from the Dark Wizard Tower."

"I need to spend some time rethinking my plan. It’s better if we can just finish our thing first. You and I are in the same boat. I want you to become stronger faster, but the foundations are important."

"I understand." Angele nodded again. "I’ll return to my experiment now."

"Sure, turn on the crystal scorpion. I need to rest." Henn’s voice slowly faded away.

Angele turned the crystal scorpion on and put it into the pouch. He turned around and left the room, heading to the laboratory on the same floor.

Liv leaned against the wall by the door and her cold sight fell upon Angele.

"Come on. I won’t sneak out again…" Angele shrugged and smiled.

"I was blamed by master Vivian. I won’t make the same mistake again." Liv sounded a bit angry.

She had been summoned back to the headquarter and was punished by Vivian after the incident at the Glay’s territory.

As a rank 2 wizard, she was actually tricked by an illusion spell cast by a rank 1 wizard. She felt ashamed due to this.

Angele shook his head. Pushing the door open, he entered the laboratory.

Liv was still leaning against the wall and waiting outside the door quietly.

Angele grabbed a pair of white gloves from the shelf after entering the room.

He put on the gloves carefully and applied some white dust onto his hands.

Angele then quickly clapped his hands.

PA

White flame flashed on his hands and disappeared within seconds. Green smoke rose from his gloves.

It was a sanitization process he himself designed.

Angele walked to the table in the center of the room slowly.

There was a glass cylinder sitting in the middle of the table sealed tightly with a lid. The cylinder was filled with yellow smoke.

The smoke formed a terrifying face with a pair of shallow eyes. The face kept appearing and disappearing.

Angele stood in front of the cylinder and started recording on a piece of leather paper. He observed the changes happening inside the container as he wrote things down.

"It took me three hours to get the cloud to this state. The potion is still a problem to me…even with the help of the birth flower’s pistil." He frowned.

"If I didn’t make any mistake on the record, I will need three years before I can concoct one serving of Poison Cloud Potion. I can’t even test the density of the cloud…

"Well, the good thing is I have plenty of time to finish the potion. I won’t be able to finish it in a short period of time anyway. I can keep progressing with the advanced meditation technique while waiting on the potion. Not bad." He sighed in relief.

Angele put down the leather paper and added some more materials to the cylinder. He sat down on a chair beside and a black mask slowly appeared on his face.

Chapter 314: Molten Core River (1)


Three years later…

In the morning.

Within the training ground of the mansion.

Angele held a longsword tight in his right hand; he was training his sword skill combos. He looked more like a normal swordsman at the moment.

His sword skills were simple but effective.

Liv and a red-haired man were standing on the side watching Angele’s performance with smiles on their faces.

"Angele's sword skills don't look complicated but every movement of his seems to aim to dispatch his opponent. I'm not sure if he learned such a combo from a strong Grand Knight." The red-haired man nodded slightly.

"You are right, master Seth," Liv responded politely. "I'm not sure if master Angele has learned to wield a sword from a Grand Knight, but it is possible for him to win in a sword fight against me." She decided not to mention that she had already lost to him once.

"I actually helped him improve his skill combos," she added.

The man named Seth had a pair of blood-red eyes and handsome face. It seemed he was from one of the non-human races.

"Interesting."

He stepped forward and observed Angele’s skill combos carefully.

"I’m just here to check on Angele. I need to return to the headquarters as soon as possible. It seems there is nothing for me to worry about."

Angele finished his training and walked down from the platform.

"Angele, I can bring back the items you need after finishing my meeting in the headquarter." Seth walked to Angele and smiled.

Angele shook his head and smiled.

"I never said I needed anything, but you just keep bringing them back…The storage rooms are almost filled up that I had to ask the workers to build a small warehouse outside."

"I’ll see if I can find you some local specialties. I heard the towns around the city produce a lot of interesting spices." Seth shook his head slightly and ignored Angele’s words. "And I have some good news for you. Master Shozo will be visiting master Vivian soon. There will be a dinner party. Make sure you check the messages from the communication runes daily. I’m sure Shozo will bring you some rare materials or something special."

"Master Shozo?" Angele narrowed his eyes and recognized the name immediately.

Shozo and Seth were two of the five students Vivian had. Shozo was Vivian’s first student and was the strongest of the five, as he was already a rank 4 wizard. However, he was not a member of Elemental Hand and he could only visit Vivian once every several months.

Angele had made two big mistakes in recent years. Thus, Vivian had decided to introduce him to her students so that they could help her son when necessary.

Vivian’s five students were close friends with each other. Two of them were members of Elemental Hand and the others were members of different families or organizations.

Seth had spent a lot of time with Angele recently as he liked the young man’s personality.

The other ones knew that Angele was Vivian’s son, so they did what they could to help him in daily life. Seth was the weakest student of the five; he just reached rank 2 not so long ago, while the others had already advanced to the successive ranks.

Vivian only recruited the most talented wizards with strong family backgrounds as her students since she was the third elder of Elemental Hand.

Getting familiar with Vivian’s students would make Angele’s life easier in the future. Developing a good relationship with the ones associated with strong families or organizations was important in wizard society.

Angele and Vivian’s students all knew this point. It was almost as if they had formed a small family, and the five students all treated Angele well.

Angele was introduced to the five students during a dinner party and they communicated with each other a lot using the communication runes.

The biggest problem to Angele was still the slow increase of his mentality level. His mentality increased like crazy when he first started using the advanced meditation technique but then it slowed down by a lot.

He spent most of his time practicing sword skills, doing experiments, checking on the potion, and meditation but his entire progression was slow.

Angele stopped thinking and grabbed the towel that was brought to him by the maid.

"I thought Shozo is very busy recently," he said as he wiped the sweat off from his body.

Seth shrugged. "You know that perseverance alone won’t bring you the result you want. You already know that Shozo wants to develop a romantic relationship with master Vivian, right? They’re similar in age and Shozo is getting stronger. He has tried to impress master Vivian in many ways, but her attitude toward him never changed. Shozo just won’t give up. I know wizards live much longer than mortals but…"

"Master Vivian is a strong woman. I don’t think she will ever fall in love with a wizard like Shozo…" Angele interrupted. He knew what Seth was trying to say.

Shozo’s love for his master was deep to the point of lunacy. He had already reached rank 4 and there was nothing Vivian could teach him anymore, but he did not give up. His love to Vivian was like an active volcano that could erupt at any time.

Angele knew that the man was a walking bomb that could detonate any time the first time they met at the dinner party. It almost felt like there was a fire burning in the man’s eyes when he looked at Vivian and it was overwhelming.

Shozo only cared about the people that were related to Vivian. In another word, Shozo was emotionally unstable all the time. He would talk to strangers normally, but he would kill the stranger right away if he got offended somehow.

Shozo had a muscular body and a handsome face, and his background was also strong. The man was the military captain of his organization, but none of the advantages attracted a strong wizard like Vivian.

Vivian was never a woman who would rely on the help of a man. She decided to ignore the fact that Shozo was trying to develop a relationship with her.

The relationship between Shozo and Vivian was not a secret in Elemental Hand.

"Alright, I need to leave now." Seth waved his right hand. "Make sure to prepare some of that black worm meat for me the next time I come here. The flavor and the texture of the meat were unforgettable."

"Well, I can get you a ton of that meat if it’s easy to preserve." Angele chuckled. The ‘black worm meat’ was the meat he had brought back from the Nightmare Realm. He discovered that the corpses of the black beetles were not liquefied and their meat was actually quite tasty.

Angele made sure that the meat would not make people sick after doing tests using the biochip. He entered the Nightmare Realm in the mansion area multiple times to hunt those black beetles for their meat. Seth had the meat at the dinner party held by Angele and he got addicted to that quickly.

"I’ve been to so many countries, but only you have such special meat. I wonder where you acquired it from." Seth closed his eyes and pursed his lips.

"Anyway, I have to go. There’s a meeting I need to attend at the headquarters."

He turned around and walked to the wall.

"I’ll message you later!" He waved his right hand again.

"Sure." Angele nodded. A blue glow surrounded Seth’s body and the energy particles lifted him up. He floated in the air and disappeared into the air within seconds.

Liv was checking an axe beside the weapon shelf. "I didn’t expect you to get along with master Seth."

"You lost the practice match to me. You should admit it. When will you start to respect me?" Angele turned around and shook his head.

"Your spells are way too weak. I’m a member of the Watchers and the only thing we care is power. You’re the son of the third elder, but that won’t make any difference," Liv responded nonchalantly.

Angele became a bit speechless, but he knew that he was the weakest one of the wizards around Vivian.

"Whatever, I need to meditate now." He understood that power was the only thing that mattered in this world, but he still hated the way Liv talked to him. Angele spent three years to remove most of the impurities from his mentality using the Mask of the Black Wing. Although his mentality was increasing at a slow rate, it was still faster than an average wizard's.

"How’s your Molten Core River going?" Liv suddenly asked.

Molten Core River was an advanced meditation technique practiced by the Watchers. It had been gifted to him by Vivian.

Wizards usually could not practice multiple advanced meditation techniques at the same time as each meditation techniques had many different properties. A wizard would reach the high rank when he successfully finished all the stages of an advanced meditation technique. Angele had high affinity with the Fire energy particles and Molten Core River would help him greatly if he could practice two advanced meditation techniques together.

Most of the wizards in the central continent focused on progressing with a full copy of advanced technique and that was what separated them from the wizards of the west coast. The resources required for different meditation techniques were different so the major organizations usually modified their secret techniques based on what they could get from the resource points in their territories.

The wizards practicing the same advanced meditation techniques would trade the necessary resources with each other and that reduced the pressure on the supply departments in their organizations.

Some strong organizations were built around the advanced meditation techniques they had, including Elemental Hand. Elemental Hand had five main advanced meditation techniques and Molten Core River was one of them. Each of the elders practiced one of the five techniques and they had finished at least two or three stages already.

Although Angele had a full copy of the Molten Core River, he could not find the balance between the two advanced meditation techniques. He still needed to remove the impurities from his mentality. The Mask of the Black Wing would help him more at the moment.

Liv thought the Molten Core River was the only advanced meditation technique he had. That was why she asked this question.

"I haven’t understood the basics of the technique yet. Maybe I’m just not talented enough." There was no point for Angele to tell Liv the truth.

Chapter 315: Molten Core River (2)


"It has been three years already and yet you have not finished the basics?" Liv was surprised. "Molten Core River's first stage is relatively easy when compared to other advanced meditation techniques. You should be able to finish at least one stage…"

"Right…There is nothing I can do about it at the moment." Angele was still having trouble with the Mask of the Black Wing. He had only finished half of the first stage, yet it had already exceeded Henn's expectations.

Angele's talent level was well below average. Henn never understood how he progressed at such an astounding rate.

He was not so concerned about his slow progression in the advanced meditation techniques because he was paying more attention to two other things.

The spell matrix study and the Poison Cloud Potion.

Angele had already noticed the problem. His progression speed was faster than the majority of average wizards at the initial stages, and he slowed down a bit during the three years' time. But he was still young and he could live for another 400 to 500 years.

He wanted to be more patient with the progression of the advanced meditation techniques. He had collected a lot of new information for the database.

The good thing was that Angele had removed most of the impurities from his mentality.

The magic matrix study would help him learn enchantment better. Although he hadn’t understood all the information that was stored in the biochip, the knowledge still helped him a lot while he was exploring the Nightmare Realm. The concocting process of the Poison Cloud Potion had improved his potion skills a lot. It would take years for the potion to be completed as all the needed materials were rare.

"Alright, I’ll talk to you later." Angele threw the towel back to the maid and entered the building, heading straight to the second floor.

He walked into the laboratory, locked the door, and set up the alarm with energy particles.

Angele put on the gloves and finished the sanitizing process, then he walked to the table at the center.

The glass cylinder was still standing in the middle of the table quietly and filled with smoke, but the color had changed from yellow to green and the ghost face had disappeared.

Angele was satisfied with his result. This potion took him three years to concoct.

‘Finally, it’s almost done. Zero, check the condition of the potion for me.’

CHI

A blue light screen appeared in Angele’s sight and it floated on the right side of the cylinder.

‘Poison Cloud Potion: 87% complete. Main materials: phoenix plume, the heart of the serpent, and white light stone. Requirement: rank 2 wizard or rank 1 wizard with the birth flower’s pistil.’

The detailed real-time information of the potion was also displayed on the screen, including the temperature, density, radiation levels, acid scale, and poison level.

Angele sat down at the table and made sure that all the numbers were within the safe range.

He then stood up and walked to another table by the window.

There was a thick pile of leather paper on the table and a white feather pen was writing something down quickly by itself.

The noise made by the writing pen was quite loud.

Angele moved the paper pile to the side.

He drew a line along the surface of the table.

A distorted crack appeared on the table, revealing the three books hidden under it.

The books were thick and heavy, the three forming a triangle.

A black mask was painted on the cover of the book at the top.

The background of the cover was white and the black mask was eye-catching. There was no mouth or nose on the mask. He could only see a pair of glowing red eyes.

The book on the left had a red cover with a pumping heat in the center. The title of the book was written in Metia and it read, 'The Molten Core River'.

The cover of the book on the right was black and its edges were decorated with silver lines. At the center, there was a white eye that was covered in bloody veins. It was the thickest book of the three.

The eye blinked from time to time and was staring at Angele. It almost felt like someone was observing him using the cover of the book.

"The advanced meditation technique from the Dark Wizard Tower is definitely interesting." Angele had not read the book yet. He acquired the book from the fruit with a human’s face a long time ago, but he felt that the book would bring him trouble.

According to Henn, the eye on the cover was from the mother of the magic eyes in the Dark Wizard Tower and was the seal of the book. Angele would have to sign the contract with the eye if he opened the book.

All the core members of the organization had signed the contracts at a certain point. Angele had already learned the content of the contract by staring at the eye for one minute. The rules were simple, but he would have to leave a part of his soul to the mother of the magic eyes.

Angele already had two full copies of advanced meditation techniques, so he decided not to sign the contract.

He moved the book to the side after checking its condition.

‘I should start learning the Molten Core River since most of the impurities are gone now.’ He had such thoughts in mind.

Angele had a high affinity for Fire energy particles, and practicing the Molten Core River would help him greatly.

The Mask of the Black Wing helped him remove the impurities from the mentality but it seemed that the Molten Core River was more suitable for him at the moment. Also, Angele did not trust Henn. It was possible that Henn tricked him when she was imparting the advanced meditation technique to him.

Although the Molten Core River was relatively weak, it was a much safer option. Vivian considered Angele as her real son and she would not give him anything that was harmful.

The Watchers working for Vivian all learned the Molten Core River and his questions could be answered easily as Vivian was a master of this advanced meditation technique herself.

He looked at the Molten Core River book quietly.

The pumping heart on the cover was filled with golden blood that looked like lava and it was steaming hot.

Angele opened the book carefully.

‘Feel the passion deep inside your heart. Hot or cold, there will always be a beautiful lake that will help you calm down. By Varian.’

Strange words were written on the first page of the book. The red characters were eye-catching on the white paper.

Angele had no idea who Varian was, but he must be a strong wizard as his name was written on the first page.

He looked at the sentence for a while but nothing happened.

He then turned the book to the second page.

Again, there was only one sentence written in the center of the paper.

‘Feel yourself, gather your power, forge it into your heart and the peaceful river of mind.’

Angele closed his eyes and started checking all the spells he had learned.

His strongest ability was the musical note in the center of his chest. It was the life essence of the scorpion woman from the Nightmare Realm, but he had yet to fully unleash its power.

The petrification ability, the musical note, the Metal Mastery, and the sword combos—these were what helped him the most in recent battles. Pyroblast was a level 2 spell he acquired from Henn, but he had not yet cast it on any living beings.

He also checked all the modified level 1 spells he had already mastered.

Angele opened his eyes. He knew that the book was forcing him to revisit all his abilities. It was probably a requirement for learning the Molten Core River.

He took a deep breath and turned the page again. The third page was covered in Metia characters and some pictures.

These were the instructions on how to practice the technique.

A wizard must first reach the rank 1 Gas state before trying to proceed.

The Molten Core River had a total of 12 stages separated into three main levels: 'Fire', 'Earth', and 'Lava'.

Each of the levels had four stages, though the stages were not given specific names. Angele’s spell resistance would increase as he progressed, especially his fire resistance and acid resistance. He would also be able to control the flame after he reached a certain level.

The first level labeled 'Fire' would help him gain control of the flame.

The second level labeled 'Earth' would help him gain control of rocks, mud, and certain minerals.

The third level labeled 'Lava' was the combination of the first two levels, granting him the ability to control lava.

As the third elder, Vivian had already reached the fifth stage of the Molten Core River, the highest in Elemental Hand.

The first stage was relatively easy. The next stages represented the rank of wizards.

Completing the second stage could help a wizard reach rank 1, completing the third stage could help a wizard reach rank 2, and so on.

According to the book, wizards who practiced the technique would be able to reach an unknown rank if they could finish all 12 stages. The ancient wizard’s highest rank was 9 which could be accomplished when 10 stages were fully mastered.

Rumors told that the mysterious Molten Core River was found in other realms. An ancient wizard once successfully mastered the 10th stage and reached rank 9. It was an unimaginable rank for modern wizards.

However, the Molten Core River used by the ancient wizards were different. Most of the advanced meditation techniques in the central continent were incomplete and had been modified by the modern wizards in order to make them effective.

Angele looked at the book. He knew that if the Molten Core River worked well for him, he would aim to reach its highest stage.

Chapter 316: Volcanic River (1)


Imitating what was written in the book as per instructed, Angele slowly closed his eyes and started the meditation process through the runes recorded on the page.

The basics of this meditation technique lay in the imagination and memorization of the specific runes.

Runes were often strange and mysterious. Yet before committing to anything else, he first needed to learn how to pronounce them in his mind.

The 1st stage of the Molten Core River was easier due to it being used to build one's own foundation. The runes at this stage were simple and relatively easy to understand. At the later stages, however, there would then be the appearance of rune circles that were complicated.

There were five runes at the first stage. For an entire day, Angele consistently meditated, and the only type of food he had eaten was meat jerky. Only when the sun started setting did he finally finish comprehending the first rune.

The runes from this advanced meditation technique were different from the regular runes often used in magic circles. Angele must first comprehend the quintessence of the runes before he could memorize them.

Angele had tried to scan the runes and store them into the database initially. However, these mysterious runes had lost their properties upon the transference into his brain and these resulted in looking nearly similar to the universal runes majority of wizards knew of by then.

Due to that, he had to return to the book and memorize the rune himself. He then asked Zero to analyze the runes since he wanted to know the underlying principle of what made those runes so special.

Angele only stayed in his room for several days as he continuously studied the runes of the Molten Core River's 1st stage.

Several days later, the dim sunlight shone through the window and illuminated on the wooden floor.

Angele, with his eyes closed, sat by the window still meditating.

'Simulation complete…' The chip's mechanical voice suddenly echoed in his ears.

'Rune No. 1 of Molten Core River's 1st stage has been analyzed. Do you wish to see the report?'

Angele slowly opened his eyes.

‘Show me the results.’

CHI

A full screen of blue data and graphs was displayed in front of Angele’s eyes.

'Rune No. 1 of the 1st Stage of Molten Core River has been analyzed. References used: The Book of the Sage, Fundamentals of Runic Study, Fundamentals of Magic Circle Study, The Book of Maya, Notes from Christina, Laws of Fire Energy Particles…'

Countless titles of wizardry books were displayed alongside it. Such a task that had been done was complicated.

Angele ignored the bits of information that was useless to him and went straight to the results.

‘To successfully memorize Rune No. 1 of the 1st stage, you must change the frequency of your mentality wave to 42.3.’

This was the drawn conclusion from the report.

Concentrating, Angele began to think.

He must first comprehend all the runes of the 1st stage before he could completely master it.

It did sound easy, yet it was actually difficult to accomplish. According to Liv, an average Watcher required two months to complete the 1st stage of Molten Core River.

As his own progression was slow, Angele had thought he needed at least four months’ time in order to master the first stage, yet the report from the chip brought him hope.

Zero had already completed the task regarding the study of magic matrices, so Angele decided to task the chip to continue analyzing those runes.

‘Frequency is 42.3…’ Angele repeated this in his mind as he closed his eyes, then he started modifying the frequency of his mentality wave right away.

Through the compiled information from the database, the creation of a frequency scale based on the basic brain waves’ frequency was deemed possible to Angele.

Zero’s analysis on the rune was based on the number scale he had created. In other words, Angele was the sole person who could use such a unique method to hasten his own progression speed. After all, this had been specifically tailor-made for him and others might not have a similar situation as Angele.

Without the biochip, he would not be able to develop this method by himself.

Time flew by.

While Angele was seated in front of the table, the golden sunlight had gradually faded.

Night fell, and there were birds chirping outside the mansion.

Angele suddenly opened his eyes, and a ray of crimson light flickered on his right hand.

"How is this even possible?" Angele looked at his hand. He could not believe how easy the process had been.

A small portion of his palm turned crimson, which indicated that he had successfully memorized the first rune of the first stage.

Upon looking at the runes on the page, he realized that he could now see the first rune clearly, no longer a blurry shadow.

‘Mentality level increasing…Fire resistance increasing…’ The chip reported back after detecting the change.

‘The chip’s analysis will aid me greatly.’ Angele looked excited.

‘Create task, analyze the second rune of the first stage for me,’ he ordered.

‘Task created. Collecting data…Data collected…Beginning analysis…’ Zero’s mechanical voice sounded like a melody in Angele’s ears.

‘I should have used the chip earlier. I didn’t know it could manage to do something like this…’ Angele sighed with mixed emotions.

‘Wait…I once tried asking Zero to do something similar when I studied the Mask of the Black Wing, yet nothing happened. Maybe it is because I have been studying magic matrices recently?’ Angele narrowed his eyes.

The knowledge on magic matrices had indeed assisted the chip to develop a detailed system regarding runic applications. Basic runic studies were used to complete the basics of the advanced meditation techniques. The special energy from the mysterious runes was the reason why Angele could not comprehend those runes from just seeing them.

By altering to the correct mentality wave frequency, Angele’s ability to detect this certain special energy had greatly improved and everything suddenly became easier for him. The only problem was he must find the accurate frequency of each rune.

Angele stayed in his room and continued meditating while waiting for the chip to complete the task.

Two hours later.

‘Rune No. 2 has been successfully analyzed. You need to change the frequency to 55 and meditate for 3 hours on Rune No. 2.’

After taking a deep breath, Angele changed the frequency once more and began to immediately memorize the second rune upon listening to Zero.

‘Without the chip’s analysis, I would have had to spend weeks or even months to discover a method…Using Zero will speed up my progression on the advanced meditation techniques significantly. I do not even need to spend months merely trying to comprehend these runes. It seems I have made the right decision.’

There was a gentle smile on Angele’s face.

Wizards had their own methods of finding similar tricks to the one given by the chip. However, they would first encounter countless failures before they could find the right one. There were sufficient amounts of information stored in the database. The chip had utilized it well, so it quickly finished its analysis.

After analyzing the first and second runes of the first stage, Zero had collected more data and it could now analyze runes even faster. After the second rune was completed, Angele tasked the chip to analyze the three other runes of the first stage all at the same time.

During the course of the successive week, Angele stayed in his room; the only thing he did was to comprehend the runes.

Liv had been tricked by the illusion at the time when Angele sneaked out of the mansion. Therefore, she stayed right in front of his room for several days. Only after making sure that Angele was training in the Molten Core River did she return to her own room.

One week later, afternoon.

Angele finally stepped out of his room.

He was wearing a dirty black robe and his cheeks now looked thinner than before since he had not had proper meals for days.

A light pink glow had surrounded his eyes causing them to look charming. The pink glow indicated that he had already completed the first stage of Molten Core River.

‘I still find it hard to believe that I have finished the first stage so easily…’ Angele pursed his lips.

‘Check my body condition, Zero,’ he ordered.

CHI

Detailed information about his body was displayed right in front of his eyes within seconds.

‘Angele Rio. Strength, 12.0. Agility, 11.5. Stamina, 16.0. Mentality, 87.6. Mana, 87.2. Genetic limit reached. Healthy.’

‘My mentality was around 70 when I started training in the Mask of the Black Wing and it increased to 82 after three years of meditation. However, it increased to 87 in but a week…Molten Core River is likely the best choice for me.’ Angele was satisfied with the result.

Furthermore, with his mentality compression technique, he could still hide his true mentality wave. Other wizards would not be able to probe any changes to his mentality wave without resorting to the use of certain spells. Angele’s mentality wave did not change too much after mastering the first stage of Molten Core River.

Angele completely mastered the first stage in a month, which was faster than the Watchers. Due to his body having far too many secrets and him not wanting to draw too much attention to himself, he needed the mentality compression method to help him stay out of trouble.

‘Based on the instructions, I need a specific environment and certain materials to help me complete the second stage. The problem is, the ancient bloodline has changed the properties of my body and the materials Vivian has prepared for me are useless. I myself will have to search for the things I need.’ Angele frowned as he thought.

Zero analyzed his body and told him the requirements in order the completely master the second stage.

First, Angele must soak his body in a river filled with poison and fire energy particles.

Second, he must absorb at least ten specimens' amount of flames from Flame Scorpions.

Chapter 317: Volcanic River (2)


If Angele could find a poisonous river that was filled with fire energy particles, the second requirement would be easily fulfilled as the flame scorpions usually lived in places like that.

Angele noticed that although completing the second stage of the Molten Core River would help a wizard reach rank 1, it was much easier than the universal method that was used on the west coast.

He had done no few amount of thorough preparation and even resorted to drinking a number of nasty potions before he was able to meet the requirements to advance to become a rank 1 wizard. Training using an advanced meditation technique was one of the reasons why there were so many formal wizards in the central continent.

‘A poisonous body of water that has fire energy particles…Within Elemental Hand’s territory, only the volcanic river known as Nash fits the requirements.’ Angele checked the map stored on the chip and formulated this conclusion.

This volcanic river was located on the other side of the Bass River. Albeit not far, it would still take him two days to reach that place.

‘Well, it is not as if this is a secret mission or anything of that sort. I should probably head there with Liv so that Vivian would not be worried about me.’ Angele made up his mind and headed to Liv’s laboratory on the ground floor.

Thud thud

He knocked on the door several times.

"Angele? It’s late. What happened?" Liv’s voice came from inside the door.

"I want to go to the volcanic river. The fire particles in that place will greatly help in my meditation. Do you want to go with me? I plan to leave tomorrow." Angele went straight to the point.

"Sure." Opening the door, Liv looked at Angele. She was currently wearing a translucent, white nightgown which was quite revealing.

Angele was not interested in her body since he did not like Liv’s characteristics after observing her ever since the time of his first dealings with her.

Liv was indeed a powerful female wizard but was stubborn and fragile. She hated losing. In fact, she had never told anyone of the sparring session she had with Angele.

"Wait a second. I thought Vivian had a fire orb prepared for you. Have you tried that yet?" Liv asked. "All the wizards who trains in Molten Core River need those fire orbs. They are great."

"I have already tried using the fire orb, but it was not effective. And I don’t really need those red dragon roots. I think, areas which contain concentrated fire energy particles will help in my progression instead. I have my own plans. Do not worry about it," Angele replied in a relaxed tone. "Just get prepared. We will leave tomorrow."

"All right then. I will arrange everything so that we can leave by tomorrow." Liv did not ask too many questions.

"Ah, one more thing. Master Shozo’s dinner party will be held in the evening next Sunday. Make sure to check your messages."

Angele, hesitant for a moment, raised his right hand.

A flaming red eagle-shaped rune appeared on his fingernails.

A clear voice echoed in his ears.

"Next Sunday, 8 o’clock in the evening. The party will be held in Rofo City. Make sure to be there on time. Master Shozo said you are the main guest." It was Seth.

Angele had long forgotten about such matters during the time of his meditation. He had deactivated the communication rune at that time in order for him to stay focused.

He activated the rune once again only after Liv reminded him of the party. Seth’s message was received only about two days ago.

"All right, thanks. I almost forgot about it." Angele rubbed his temples. "Good night."

"Good night." Liv turned around and slammed the door shut.

Angele was slightly flabbergasted. He then left Liv’s room and went upstairs heading to his own bedroom.

‘The volcanic river isn’t so far away from Rofo City. I can first head to the volcanic river, then attend the part in Rofo City after. It should be fine.’ Angele had everything planned in his mind. ‘The Poison Cloud Potion is almost complete, too. I need to submit it to the Dark Wizard Tower. The rewards better be good as I spent years on that.’

He had not talked to Henn ever since their last conversation. It seemed that the mission failing had been a wake-up call for her. She had realized that hatred was taking over her mind already, so she decided to calm down for a bit. Henn’s archenemy would always be the female wizard, Arisma.

It seemed like she had something important to take care of, but Angele had no idea what it was.

Angele was not concerned about Henn’s machinations since the Molten Core River was more important to him. He had enough level 2 spell models and he wanted to increase his mentality to 120. Moreover, he needed to infuse his mentality with elements.

Angele had not yet decided on which level two magic circle to use, but completing the second stage of Molten Core River was his priority at the moment.

Three days later…

South of the Bass River.

The volcanic river.

The peak of the Nash Mountain was covered with a vibrant grassland and looked like a piece of green paper with an enormous hole in the center.

A long, green river lay quietly within the deep hole.

The water was clean, and it looked like a piece of translucent emerald. The only strange thing was the smoke rising from the river.

The sky was covered with thick clouds. A small group of black dots was slowly approaching the top of the mountain and they looked like some type of bird.

Ten minutes later, the black dots started landing. It was a group of humongous black eagles and there were people in black robes sitting on their backs.

PA

The eagles landed beside the deep hole on top of the mountain safely.

The black robes jumped off the backs of the eagles one by one and started checking the surroundings.

The black robe in the lead removed his hood revealing an average-looking face. He had short brown hair, and there was a silver glint on the surface of his skin. It was Angele, with a light red glow surrounding his eyes.

The other black robes removed their hoods as well. Liv was standing on the left side of Angele and a bald man with a cold expression was on the right.

"This is the place?" Angele glanced around and questioned in a light tone, "This is the volcanic river?"

"Yeah, that's it." Liv nodded slightly. "Hakeem is familiar with the area."

The bald man forced a strange smile on his face. "Master Angele, let me introduce the area to you. There are many flame scorpions and lizards here. They can be dangerous if they catch you off guard. We’ll be safe if we don’t attack them first. Also, the mist over the river is extremely poisonous. If your resistance is low, I would suggest you stay away from the river. The lizards and scorpions will attack if you’re injured by the poison mist."

Angele nodded slightly after hearing the explanation.

"Is there someone else here? I detected the mentality waves of other wizards."

"Yes. The eggs of the lizards are valuable, wizards come here often for them. I think those wizards are from some small families," Hakeem responded quickly.

He was a strong rank 2 wizard from the Watchers, so Liv asked the headquarter to send the man to protect Angele. There were also six rank 1 wizards at the Crystal stage in the escorting team and were all members of the Watchers.

Hakeem also brought Angele an item sent by Vivian. A small ruby ring that was enchanted by the third elder herself. The ring was a high-quality enchanted item that had strong defensive abilities.

Due to the events happened several years ago, Angele encountered several years ago, Vivian would send a force with him if he wanted to leave the mansion area.

"Alright, let’s go to the volcanic river then. I need to capture ten flame scorpions, but you don’t have to help me." Angele turned around and looked at the wizards.

"Our mission is to protect you and follow your orders," a female wizard in front responded.

"Masha and Golan, go search for the flame scorpions. Greenland, use your spider webs after finding those creatures!"

"Yes, captain!" the wizards responded quickly, seemingly showing how they were well-trained.

Greenland left the team with three other wizards and started searching the area around the river. Masha and Golan took out two black scrolls and started invoking incantations.

White light flashed upon the scrolls and countless black insects appeared from nowhere. They moved past the wizards and left the place immediately.

Hakeem walked to Angele and explained in a light tone, "This is a special insect trained by the Watchers. They reproduce extremely fast and they can detect the energy waves released by the mutated creatures easily."

"Sounds great." Angele nodded and waited at his original position patiently.

Time flew quickly, about half an hour later.

"Ah!"

He suddenly heard someone screaming in the front.

"What happened?!" the female captain shouted. The volume of her voice had been increased by the energy particles.

The wizards that left the team reported back immediately using communication runes.

The female captain’s expression turned serious. She walked to Angele quickly after checking the messages.

"Master Angele, it seems like we came here at a bad time. There is an unknown number of wizards from several different families that have already stayed at the peak of the mountain for several months and it seems like they’re searching for something. A wizard I sent out captured one of their members and that was what his message said."

"Huh?" Angele was a bit surprised. "That’s interesting. What are the backgrounds of those families?"

"You’re an important member of Elemental Hand and they’re just members of the families outside the major city. Don’t worry," the female captain answered.

Liv chuckled as she stepped forward. "Well, I heard someone found a ruin that was filled with treasure several months ago and it seems like people really came here for that…The rumor may be real, otherwise, they won’t stay here for so long."

"Treasures?" Angele was not interested. Vivian could supply him with most of the materials he needed, and he doubted if the treasures were valuable. "Whatever, let’s just mind our own business."

"Sure." The female captain nodded. A red rune flashed on the back of her right hand, and she sent the order to the wizards immediately.

Several minutes later, a black robe ran to the captain quickly with a man in his arms.

There were several small forests around the deep hole in the center and Angele also found another mountain on the other side. The two mountains were connected by a narrow platform.

He could see the sea of dark green trees on top of the other mountain.

It seems like the black robe captured the man from the forest on the other side.

Chapter 318: Secret Treasure (1)


Angele watched on as the wizard walked to him, then he glanced at the surrounding people.

"Well, I will leave things to you in dealing with the wizard we have captured. Let us just mind our own business," he ordered.

"All right." Nodding in response, Liv retrieved a few crystal bones from her pouch. She formed a large circle as she placed the bones on the ground.

Hakeem drew his sword and walked to the side in order to make sure that no one was spying on their group.

The female captain was waiting for her subordinates to report back. She immediately raised her head upon receiving the report.

"We have successfully captured Flame Scorpions, master Angele."

"Bring them here." Angele slightly nodded.

"Yes."

The female captain then passed on the message to her subordinates and deactivated the communication rune afterward.

"They will be here in ten minutes." She looked at Angele.

Angele stood by the deep pit as he patiently waited for their arrival.

The chilling wind at the peak of the mountain continuously blew across his long black robe, but the intense heatwaves coming from the river never stopped either.

The experience was similar to being in an open-air hot spring during winter.

The subordinate wizards returned precisely ten minutes after, coming from three different directions. The Flame Scorpions they had captured had all been tied up with glowing red ropes.

Meanwhile, one of them was carrying two burnt corpses of human-like shape.

They bowed to Angele altogether when they arrived.

"Master, we have captured a total of eleven Flame Scorpions. Please take a look," one of the black robes reported.

After responding with a nod, Angele walked to these scorpions, crouching as he began to inspect their shells.

These Flame Scorpions looked identical to a typical red scorpion. However, it was much larger and better-looking. Its shell looked similar to a neat set of red metal armor.

They were neither struggling nor moving in the slightest bit, as it seemed as if their strength had been sapped by the red ropes.

Angele pressed on the shell of one with a certain amount of force; it was harder than he thought. His strength should be great, yet he failed to cause the shell to crack with his bare hand.

Furthermore, when he approached these scorpions, he could smell a strange fragrance in the air.

The subordinate wizards had all the scorpions lined up in front of Angele. Each of them was more than one and a half meters long.

"Wake them up." Angele stood up.

"By all means." One wizard stepped forth and took out a tiny black bottle filled with gray dust, then he slowly sprinkled the dust over the scorpions.

The dust’s stench was that of chili powder’s.

After several seconds, the Flame Scorpions started moving around again.

"Hiss…Hisssss…" They began making noises right after being awoken.

"Are they sentient?" Angele creased his forehead upon asking.

"They should not be but perhaps they have their own means of communication," Liv explained.

"Well, do any of you knows how to communicate with them?" Angele trailed his eyes over his surroundings.

No one answered. Wizards of the Watchers were all elites. None of them would stoop so low just to learn how to communicate with low-level creatures. For them, learning the language used by these low-level creatures was but a waste of time and effort.

"I am sorry, but…" Hakeem stepped forward and spoke with a voice filled with contempt, "since we are wizards, those creatures are not worth our time. I would rather spend the time communicating with a mortal."

"Fine." Angele nodded. "Let me just slay them and then…"

"Wait!" A weak male voice came interrupting from one side.

The man’s voice drew everyone’s attention.

It belonged to the formerly unconscious wizard that had been brought back by one of the Watchers.

He was wearing gray clothes with luxurious decorations and looked like a noble belonging to a decent family. His blonde hair, however, was messy due to him having been carried to this place without any prior knowledge.

The man looked at Angele with a nervous expression.

"Master! I can communicate with those Flame Scorpions!"

"You?" Angele was initially planning on questioning the man later, yet the man woke up earlier than he had expected.

"I have a favor to ask of you, then. Tell them to do my bidding and to release a flame breath. Can you do that?" he asked.

"Sure…no problem…" The man’s face soon turned pale but still responded immediately, "My name is Lance, by the way, Lance Spender."

"I am not interested in your name, but if you can indeed communicate with the scorpions for me…" Angele interrupted him while walking to the river. "Well, I will return later."

One of the Watchers sprinkled some black liquid on Lance and merely left him together with the scorpions. Angele then soon headed to the volcanic river quickly. His group continued to follow after him.

They arrived at the river after several minutes.

The rippling water was clear; Angele could even see a school of small red fish swimming between the green watergrass underwater.

Angele could feel the heatwaves brushing over his face and notice the dense, sulfuric stench coming from the steam.

He narrowed his eyes and crouched beside the river. The dark mud under his feet was also smoking hot.

He could feel the intense heat coming from beneath his boots.

Angele stayed calm, then he placed his right hand into the water from the river and scooped some of it.

Countless tiny green specks of light were floating on the water surface, of which they looked similar to that of strange spores.

Blue dots of light flashed in front of Angele’s eyes. Several seconds later, the color of the light-dots had been replaced by red color.

CHI

Every green spore in the water soon amassed into the center of his palm then sank into his skin with but a few seconds, like a swarm of terrifying insects burrowing deep into one’s own skin.

Angele’s expression immediately changed. He quickly swung his hand in order to get rid of the river’s water. He then pursed his lips as soon as Zero reported back.

"Build a camp here and guard me for three days. Arrange the time and food yourselves. I will be staying in the river!" he suddenly bellowed.

"Master, there might be dangerous creatures underwater. Lizards and scorpions could live in the river due to them knowing how to swim." The female captain took a step forward and advised him, "We can instead create a safe zone by the river. Then you can stay in the water within the safe zone. What do you think?"

"Sure, sounds great." Angele nodded.

"All right."

She nodded as well and walked to the river.

"Vegas…" She suddenly raised her hands and pointed at the water.

Countless red energy particles gathered between her hands and formed into a bird made of red energy.

Twitter

The bird’s voice was clear and cute-sounding. It left the female captain’s hands and started flying around above the river, leaving a trail of red energy particles behind.

The energy particles soon accumulated altogether within the area and formed a semicircle-shaped encirclement beside the shore. After finishing its job, the red bird returned to the female captain. It landed on her left shoulder while beginning to groom itself with its beak.

"It is done, master," the captain politely reported to Angele.

"Thanks." Angele looked at the surface of the volcanic river.

Three Watchers stayed above the deep pit to build their camp. Meanwhile, the remaining five Watchers were just standing behind the female captain. Nearby the river there was no plantation of any sort, only dark mud.

"All right, you can start patrolling the area now." Once Angele finished his words, he stepped forth.

Blop

He jumped into the river soaking nearly every part of his body, except for his head which stayed above the water.

The white steam which contained sulfur was making Angele’s eyes ache, so he had to close them. The temperature of the water and his mouth becoming dry was making him nervous.

The green spores in the river continuously seeped into his skin. They looked similar to tiny insects and they never stopped moving.

Angele breathed deeply to calm down. He stood in the water silently, which nearly looked like he was merely taking a bath.

Liv stood beside the safe zone and yawned.

"I have seen someone else utilize water which contained fire particles to assist in their meditation, yet Angele decides to use the poisonous water in the volcanic river instead…The green dots in the water is the live poison and will try to infect his body. Well, if he can handle the pain, this will help to further hasten his progression greatly."

"Master Liv, are you perhaps referring to master Shozo? I think he did something similar before." Hakeem was sitting on a boulder behind Liv. "Master Angele’s mentality wave is relatively weak for his rank. It seems he is using a technique to shroud his true power."

"Angele is attempting to complete the first stage, I think. Ha, he should have comprehended the runes not so long ago. He must have acquired this type of method from master Vivian." Liv shook her head. "All right, let us just wait patiently. Three days will pass in a blink of an eye."

Hakeem chuckled, and closing his eyes, he started meditating.

Three days flew by quickly.

Wizards had a long life expectancy, so they did not usually bother too much with the time they had spent.

Three days later.

Rumble

Lightning crackled in the sky and illuminated the peak of the mountain, followed by the booming sound of thunder.

The entire time, the sky was blanketed by thick clouds. The only source of light was the lightning which occasionally struck from time to time.

The howling wind, combined with the noises coming from the dancing trees from the other side, generated a terrifying sound.

In the safe zone of the volcanic river.

Angele soon opened his eyes gradually. Dots of red light were constantly flashing around his forehead.

He could feel that his body had been filled with strange energy, which was simultaneously hot and cold.

Angele opened his mouth and exhaled once slowly.

Ha

His breath seemed to contain the stench of the dense sulfur.

Splash

Angele started moving toward the shore slowly.

Chapter 319: Secret Treasure (2)


A large campfire was continuously burning beside the river. A group of wizards was seated around it, talking about some things.

Two Watchers had been designated near the shore, patiently waiting for Angele to wake up.

"Master has woken up!" When they noticed the movement of Angele, they immediately sent word to the camp through energy particles.

"Has Lance finished communicating with the Flame Scorpions yet?" Angele stepped out of the river, and with a flick of his finger, the energy particles remove the river water from his body immediately.

"It is done. Lance has been waiting with the scorpions," one of the black robes answered quickly.

"Thanks for guarding the safe zone for me." There was a gentle smile on Angele’s face.

"It is our pleasure." The two bowed slightly to Angele. Clearly, they were a tad different from the other wizards he had met.

Once the wizards in the camp were informed of Angele already finishing his meditation, they quickly walked to him, including the wizard called Lance.

"Ask the Flame Scorpions to get ready. I will have them use their flame breath soon," Angele spoke in a calm tone.

"…Understood…" Lance nodded several times.

Angele turned around and returned to the camp as he still needed to do a few preparations.

"Wait! Master wizard! I have something of great importance to tell you. It is about the secret treasure within the mountain!"

Angele narrowed his eyes; Lance’s words surprised him.

"Secret treasure?" Angele repeated. "Is this the same treasure we talked about beforehand?" He looked at Hakeem.

Hakeem nodded slightly and started explaining, "Master, the secret treasure within Nash had come from a rumor. It says that there is a garden of elemental fairies somewhere nearby the volcanic river. Many items considered legendary are within the garden. If you can find the entrance to this place, the fairies inhabiting it will gift you one of those items."

"The garden of the elemental fairies…" Angele rubbed his chin. He had indeed heard of this place before.

He raised his head to look at Lance. The man had a neat and handsome face, yet his expression was complicated.

Lance immediately forced a smile after seeing Angele staring at him.

"Master, we have already found the entrance to the garden. Several of my family members have already entered it as well. We are staying here for a while because we are awaiting their return. They are the only people who can take us to the secret treasure.

"Why are you telling me these, then? Do you truly think I will trust you?" Angele felt a tad curious.

"My family is in trouble right now…master. We are not getting the promised share of the mission. The other two families who came with us might acquire the legendary items and used these to annihilate my family after we return to the city." Lance narrowed his eyes. "I would rather give all the treasures to you so that the other two families cannot use the power of the items to fight against us."

"Let me be honest with you. I am not interested in the treasures. Hakeem, why don’t you…"

"Master…" Lance’s expression soon changed and interrupted Angele from further speaking.

Pa

The female captain slapped Lance right in his cheeks. Using so much force, Lance nearly fell to the ground.

"How dare you interrupt the master." Red glows surrounded her eyes.

"It is fine." Angele stopped the captain from hitting Lance again. "Keep going."

The man gritted his teeth, but he quickly calmed down. His right cheek had already turned red.

"Master, the situation is a bit complicated." He decided to communicate with Angele through energy particles. "The garden of the elemental fairies is the last ancient holy ground of the fairies. All living beings that enter the garden will be blessed by the mysterious holy power and will be given legendary items by the fairies as gifts. In reality, the majority of strong wizards only want to search for the garden for the blessing. You might be blessed with a talent ability or a skill of a mutated beast. Rumors also say of being blessed with a great increase in the affinity with the elements. The only problem is, only five people or creatures can stay in the garden at a time. Three members of the families have already entered the garden. Only two more people can go through the gate."

"Interesting. I know about the place but never heard of the blessing." Angele felt no interest in the legendary items, but he was curious about the blessing. A free talent ability or a special skill would help him greatly. Furthermore, if his affinity with energy particles could be increased, it would become much easier for him to infuse his mentality with the elements.

Angele had read about the garden of the elemental fairies from a wizardry book. It said that the elemental spring in the garden could help remove the impurities inside a wizard’s body, but it was the first time he heard of a blessing and its special effects.

"All right. I will go check out the garden of the elemental fairies. I want to know what exactly the blessing is." Angele narrowed his eyes and made up his mind.

"Lyn, tell the Watchers to prepare." He turned to the female captain called Lyn. "And make sure Lance is not lying. He will be the one to show us the way."

"Yes, master," Lyn nodded and quickly responded.

"Good. Let us deal with those Flame Scorpions first. It is important." Angele walked to the scorpions that were still in captive.

They had not eaten for three days but looked the same as before nevertheless.

Lance followed Angele and communicated with the Flame Scorpions. The scorpions nodded after listening to his words.

"It is done, master" the man respectfully said.

Angele nodded. Soon, the scorpions formed an encirclement around him and they started releasing flame breaths one by one.

BAM

The green flame from the first scorpion struck Angele’s body with great intensity.

However, the flame breath of Flame Scorpions could only deal about ten degrees of damage, so it was nothing to Angele.

He deactivated his Metal Mastery forcefield and let the green flames brush over his body. Angele slowly closed his eyes and began his meditation in order to comprehend the runes of the second stage of Molten Core River.

Angele must decide on the form of his second body upon the start of meditation in the second stage.

Beginning from the second stage of Molten Core River, Angele must create his second body using pure energy or physical materials. He could modify the shape and property of the body however he wanted but the difficulty and requirements varied depending on the shape and property. Moreover, the power of the final form was decided by multiple factors.

This was the special ability granted by the advanced meditation technique, Molten Core River.

The second body Angele would create would grow stronger as he continued to progress further.

The red bird controlled by the female captain was her second body. Her soul could still survive in the second body even if she lost her physical form. The only way to kill her was to destroy both her second body and her physical body. She might survive if she turned herself into her soul form or her pure energy form, but her strength would tremendously wane.

Angele needed to decide on the property and shape of his second body. This incredibly strong special ability was what made the Molten Core River famous.

The only problem was if Angele was not strong enough, he would not be able to gain full control of the second body. Once it was so, the creation of his second body would depend not on him but on its own devices.

Time passed.

Thunder continued to rumble in the sky as lightning ceaselessly struck the land.

Rain finally descended from the clouds. Several minutes later, it turned into a horrifying downpour.

Hakeem pointed at the wall of the deep pit immediately and created a large cave.

Two Watchers stayed beside Angele to keep guard, while the rest of the group entered the cave to avoid the rain.

Angele sat in the center of the Flame Scorpions’ encirclement, his body being surrounded by green flames.

The flames did not touch his skin directly, as they were being blocked by a distorted energy barrier several centimeters away from his body.

Miniscule specks of green light separated from the flames, slowly being absorbed by Angele.

About ten minutes later, the energy of all the Flame Scorpions was completely spent, causing them to faint.

Lance patiently waited for Angele to finish his meditation at the side.

A crimson rune suddenly appeared on Angele’s forehead then disappeared after several seconds.

WOO

The translucent energy barrier disappeared and all the green flames were absorbed by his body.

Zero’s mechanical voice echoed in his ears.

‘2nd stage of Molten Core River mastered. Mentality increasing…’

‘Checking…Mentality increased to 91.7.’

Zero’s report woke Angele from his meditation. Angele’s limbs had become numb; such feeling was quite strange.

‘That’s it?’ Angele found it hard to believe. The progress was so smooth that he did not even feel the excitement of mastering the second stage.

Once again, this was the advantage of the wizards inhabiting the central continent.

‘Have you finished the analysis for the third stage yet?’ he asked.

‘Estimated time for complete analysis: 73 hours, 21 minutes.’ Angele felt a slight disappointment about Zero’s response. He could feel his resistance vastly increased and he could now manipulate fire far better than before.

In his mind, while meditating, there was a hazy image of the second body, but he was not certain what it looked like.

It seemed that the second body would depend on itself to find the most suitable form for Angele, as he was not strong enough to form it himself.

According to the explanation recorded in the book, the second body’s form and property would be influenced by its owner’s characteristics, desire, body strength, and mentality.

However, Angele must first master the third or fourth stage in order for him to control his second body.

He was not particularly worried about his progression on the Molten Core River due to the assistance coming from Zero.

Angele stood up heading to the cave with the two Watchers and Lance.

"Master."

"Glad to see you back."

Hakeem and Lyn were meditating but when they noticed Angele’s presence, they greeted him immediately.

"Thanks. Have some rest. My task was finished earlier than I thought it would be. We can go check the secret treasure out tomorrow." Angele smiled. "What do you think?"

"As you wish, master." Hakeem chuckled.

Liv nodded slightly and responded in a cold tone, "Certainly." She had never shown Angele respect due to her special position in the Watchers.

Chapter 320: Confrontation (1)


The next day.

The mud around the volcanic river had already become soft and wet due to the heavy downpour of rain.

The trees on the other mountain were swaying slowly in the chilling wind.

Inside the forest, there was a large gray tent set up on an empty ground between the trees.

Several people wearing tight white clothes were adding wood into the campfire at the side and were rotating a metal skewer over the fire carefully. The fragrance of meat being roasted permeated the air.

It was still early in the morning during sunrise. White mist was all around the surroundings.

The opening of the tent was opened by an old man that had a long, white hair and had a cold expression on his face.

He wore white clothes befitting that of a swordsman with a short black dagger tied to his belt.

Two of the people beside the campfire immediately approached the old man.

"Elder Gill, we lost another member of our family yesterday," the woman on the left reported.

"When did it happen?" Gill narrowed his eyes.

"I have already sent out our sentries. Lance went to the volcanic river several days ago but never came back," the woman immediately replied.

"The volcanic river…" Gill’s expression turned serious. Before he could say anything else, he detected movements from the shrubs and bushes in front of him.

A man adorned with a red leather armor stepped out of it with a silver scimitar in his hand.

The man had a blank expression on his face.

"You are of the Spenders’, right? We need to decide on who to send to the garden. My master wants to see you at the peak of the mountain before noon." The man was glancing around.

Elder Gill pursed his lips; he was about to say something.

However, he was stopped by two other elders who had just stepped out of the tent.

Gill’s face turned red and he started panting out of complete rage.

The people nearby the campfire were not satisfied with the way the elders were dealing with the situation, and they looked a tad nervous.

One of the elders calmed down and stepped forward.

"Please tell master Loffy that we will be there on time," he replied with a loud voice.

"Good. It seems your eyes haven’t been clouded by fury yet." The man nodded slightly. "I will bring your message to master Loffy." He turned around, and jumping into the shrubs and bushes, he disappeared.

BAM

A deep crevice appeared on the empty ground beside the tent. It had been caused by an explosion of pure energy.

Elder Gill then lowered his hand. He was absolutely infuriated that he had to find a way to vent out his rage.

"They have already obtained a slot and they want to take other as well! These bastards…"

"Our opponent is the firstborn heir of the Blue Eagle Nest…They are far more powerful than us…" The elder beside him on the left side sighed with mixed emotions. "In the last battle, we lost several of our family members, two of whom are elders, and many were injured…We are the weakest of the three families now…"

"Master Karl is right. We need to calm down. They will try to annihilate our entire family if anything were to happen during the meeting. Master Kita is still inside the garden, so we still have hope." The elder on the right side nodded slightly.

"Yes." Karl bit his lips and sighed again. "Our main priority is to make sure that Kita remains safe when he departs from the garden. Although the relationship between family leaders is bad, still, as the firstborn heir, Kita knows the other heirs of other families quite well. This might be our chance."

Gill breathed deeply and finally calmed down after several minutes. "All right. I know what we should do. We were given two slots, but the Blue Eagle Nest has ignored the rules specified in the contract. Anyway, we should head to the meeting now. I want to see what they are planning."

"We only need to protect Kita and wait until it ends." Karl nodded. "Let’s go."

Gill raised his right hand and pointed at the peak of the mountain.

The family members started preparing for the short trip right away.

PA

The muddy soil was covered by a thick layer of dried leaves. Black, muddy water was oozing out as Angele continued to walk on them.

He didn’t seem to mind the mud on his boots as he just kept on walking.

The paths between the trees had all been covered with black leaves, making them almost looked like rough carpets.

Angele was positioned in the middle of the group while traveling along the narrow path between the dark green trees. From afar, they looked like ants moving along a long, black carpet.

The man called Lance Spender was the one leading the way.

"We are almost there. It is on top of this mountain." Lance felt slightly worried that Angele would kill him after reaching their destination.

Angele was not even paying attention to Lance but was just checking the surroundings constantly. Hakeem and Lyn followed behind him, while Liv was casually reading a book at the back of their group.

"I like the environment here." When Angele inhaled deeply, he did not smell even a hint of sulfur in the air, so it was actually quite refreshing.

"Master, the plantation in this place purify the air. That is the reason why you do not smell the sulfur," Lance, who was ahead leading the group, quickly explained.

"Is that so?" Angele looked at the brown grass beneath the trees. "How did you discover the location of the garden? I’m curious."

"I shall explain the situation to you right now." Lance slowed down his walking pace a bit and walked beside Angele. "There are three major families in the city beside the mountains but the relationship between the three is bad. However, the firstborn heir of our family, master Kita, is not affected by this issue. He knows their heirs of the other families quite well and they usually hold dinner parties on the peak of the mountains. About half a year ago, they discovered the elemental fairies’ garden by accident and entered the place together. Our families thought they were lost so we sent multiple rescue teams to the mountains but what they found was the gate to the garden. The mysterious engravings around the garden were what helped us identify that it was the elemental fairies’ garden from the tale."

Lance stopped for a second and continued, "Sorry, I forgot to mention that the other two families are called the Philip Family and the Morgan Family. The situation between the families is complicated. The family elders decided to fight for the right of entry into the garden but later realized they could not open the gate and had to wait for the heirs of the three families to come out first. Hence, they agreed to a temporary ceasefire and the elders started investigating the gate. However…"

"However, what?" Angele’s brow furrowed in curiosity. "Just tell me everything."

"Someone else joined the fray…" There was a bitter smile on Lance’s face.

Atop the peak of the mountain.

Three groups of people were standing in front of an arched door that looked like a silver mirror.

The door’s surface reflected the cloudy gray sky. There was nothing else behind the door which was only standing on top of a boulder.

On the opposite side of the three families, there was another group of people of which were wearing long, blue robes and leather dresses.

There were about twenty of them, also separated into three groups, protecting a wooden chair located in the center.

A handsome man was seated on the chair, whose ears looked like a pair of gray wings.

It was still dark outside; there were thick clouds floating above the mountain.

The man supported his chin with his right hand. With a gentle smile on his face, he surveyed the members of the three families. The feathers on his ears were swaying in the wind.

"So, everyone is here now?" He slowly stood up. "Let us decide on who will take the last slot to the garden, then."

Members of the Spender family all wore white clothing and the three family elders stood in front.

The Morgans all wore light yellow clothing and were led by five family elders.

Members of the Philip family also wore white clothing but were led by three old men and one young man. The right arm of one of the old men had been twisted to a strange angle; it seemed he was injured.

The man’s expression soon changed when he heard and saw no one responding to him.

"Well, if you do not have anything to say, I will just make the decision myself. We should decide on who the last one will be to enter the garden through a duel. The winner will earn the final slot for their family. What do you think? Wait, one more thing. Do not overestimate yourselves. It is fine to step down when you know your opponents are much stronger than you. Ha."

Still, the man’s words did not change their current conundrum.

The family representatives all knew that winning the competition did not matter that much. What they desired were the rare materials and resources that could be found in the garden. The amount they could obtain could easily support a large organization or family for years and were much more valuable than the blessing of the garden.

This was the main reason why the three families did not want to compromise.

The Spender Family was the weakest of the three, and the man was telling them to quit.

"We are fine with that."

"Yeah, let us just start the competition."

The representatives belonging to both the Philip Family and Morgan Family agreed with the man’s decision.

Spender Family’s elder, Gill, was looking at a bald old man who was in front of the members of the Morgan Family.

"Christopher, are you really going to do this?" he questioned in a grave tone.

The bald man called Christopher sneered but did not say anything. He only turned his head to the man seated on the chair.

Gill shook his head and looked over at the Philips. The young woman in front had a blank expression and did not make any eye contact with him.

Chapter 321: Confrontation (2)


Gill took a deep breath.

"All right then. Spender Family will no longer take part," he spoke in a loud voice while attempting to remain calm. "Let’s go!"

"Wait, you must stay here until the end of the competition," the man seated on the chair suddenly said.

"You!" Gill became enraged and his face turned red.

"He is right. The garden’s location is a secret. We do not trust you. You should just wait here." Christopher, Morgan Family’s head, nodded slightly.

"Ha…When we first arrived at this gate, the Spender Family was the strongest family yet now they are the weakest…You should at least stand up for Kita’s sake, considering how he is still inside the garden." An elder who belonged to the Philip Family sneered while shaking his head. "What a joke."

Members of the Spender Family had been utterly enraged due to those words. Some of them even had already placed their hands on their weapons, all at the ready.

The man seated on the chair curled his lips into a smile. He had immediately brought his subordinates in this place after learning the information on the garden. They had ambushed the two strongest elders of the Spender Family and murdered them, which was the reason for the Spenders’ sudden plunge in battle capability.

He would have taken everything from the garden himself if not for him feeling uncertain of his chances of winning a battle against the entire three families. What he did not know, however, was the three families had never once thought of uniting due to their terrible relationship with each other.

The atmosphere was becoming increasingly tense.

The Spender Family was in a tough position. They wanted to depart but Unos, of the Blue Eagle Nest, and the other two families would not let them do so.

Although the Spenders seemed to have started cooperating now, the rest knew their priority was to guarantee that Kita could safely leave the garden and that they did not want to initiate a fight.

"Come on…We can let the Spender Family leave once their family heir leaves the garden. What do you think?" A woman who had long, black hair and was standing beside Unos said.

No one reacted to her suggestion. The other two families knew they could not win a fight against the Blue Eagle Nest once the Spender Family left.

Gill’s plan was to avoid any battle then come back once the other two families’ power was weakened. After all, he needed an assurance that his family could still survive once they returned to the city.

The current situation had reached a conundrum.

But suddenly, they heard intense footsteps which seemed to belong to people hiking to the mountaintop.

The members of the Spender Family looked happy. Since the situation was currently against the odds, to them, any form of outside interference was a necessity in order to disturb the balance.

The other two families, and Unos, were dissatisfied about such changes.

Unos’ expression changed, and with a flick of his finger, his voice soon became louder and more powerful due to the influence of energy particles.

"We are having a meeting on the mountain’s peak. I am Unos of the Blue Eagle Nest. Strangers, please leave the mountain immediately!"

Unos’ voice echoed throughout as he glared toward the narrow path between the dark green trees.

"Watch your filthy mouth, you are addressing the representatives of THE Elemental Hand!" a cold voice belonging to a female retorted.

The family heads and Unos exchanged eye contact with each other upon listening to these words. They were uncertain on how to react to that.

"The Elemental Hand…We are in trouble."

"How did they find this place…?"

"One of the most powerful organizations in the region of Tarry River, ha, now that’s interesting." Gill’s expression loosened.

Several minutes later, a group of black-robed and red-robed men and women arrived at the peak led by a black-robed female who wore a face devoid of any expression, her eyes glowed in red. In reality, though, she did not expect to see so many people competing for the opportunity to enter the gate.

"I have already told you who you’re dealing with, yet it seems you do not even care…I will…"

"Calm down, Lyn. This is a public place, and they came here before us," a gentle voice belonging to a man interrupted.

When Unos listened to the voice, he looked at a brown-haired man stand behind the female wizard. The man was clothed with a long, black robe. Him being in the safest position of the formation indicated him as the leader of this group.

The man had an average face but his overall appearance was eye-catching. A pink glow surrounded his eyes and a silver glint on his skin.

It was Angele; they had finally reached the mountain’s peak.

"We are members of Elemental Hand, here for the garden’s secret treasure. We will not harm you as long as you do not attempt anything stupid." There was a gentle smile on Angele’s face.

His words were easily understood. Elemental Hand was a far more powerful organization compared to Blue Eagle Nest and the three families. With such authority and power, they should be the ones to take possession of the treasure.

"Elemental Hand…they cannot just come here and steal the treasure right from under our noses." There was a serious expression on Unos’ face.

"Master, that is how Elemental Hand often deals with things. I think we should…" An aged female wizard communicated with Unos through energy particles.

"That is unacceptable! We have put so much effort into our plan. It’s too late for us to step down. Through the garden’s blessing, I will get promoted!" Narrowing his eyes, Unos replied through energy particles.

Angele stepped forward and stood in front of his group looking at the leaders of the three families and Blue Eagle Nest.

He expected them to recall their forces upon hearing the name of the organization, but it did not occur. The fairy garden’s value was too high that they would not even mind stirring a conflict with Elemental Hand.

"It seems you did not clearly hear my master’s words. Do not overestimate yourselves, or else you will regret your decision." Hakeem himself stepped up as well. "Master, it is pointless to try to negotiate with them. Let’s just make an example out of them. If you can win against us, we will give you a share of the secret treasure."

Hakeem complied with the plan and spoke the words Angele told him to.

"While it is true that Blue Eagle Nest is a weaker organization than Elemental Hand," Unos inhaled sharply to calm himself down. "we are the ones who discovered the gate to the secret garden first, and some of our members are still inside. We can negotiate once they come out. What do you think?"

Hakeem was about to say something else but was held back by Angele.

Angele was not afraid of a fight, but if the three families decided to join forces with Blue Eagle Nest, it might pose a problem.

"Let me be honest with you. I am not interested in that so-called secret treasure. I just want to see the Fairy’s Spring. You see, we are just a small group. It is impossible for us to take all the treasures away."

The formerly tense atmosphere eased up a bit after Angele finished speaking. However, he was unsure whether the family heads would trust him or not.

Angele was not lying in the slightest; the only thing he wanted was the secret garden’s blessing and its Fairy’s Spring. Although, he had doubts about whether the secret treasure could actually help him progress faster.

However, those people whose allegiance lay in Blue Eagle Nest were not happy with it. Their plan would go into shambles if he was only after the blessing.

Unos’ cold gaze fell on Angele, and he was communicating with the old female wizard behind him through energy particles.

"Have you finished inspecting them?"

"Nearly done. They have three rank 2 wizards and several rank 1 Crystal stage wizards. Their leader is just a rank 1 wizard, interesting. Based on their eyes, they should be training in the Molten Core River," the aged female wizard replied.

There was a translucent crystal orb on right palm, glowing.

Unos thought for a while and made up his mind. "The three rank 2s are the biggest threat to us…Training in Molten Core River indicates that they are part of the Watchers and are all elite, seasoned fighters. Garcia, make arrangements for your team to ambush the three rank 2s. Command the rest to eliminate the rank 1s. Their leader must be an important entity to Elemental Hand. I will capture him myself," he passed this message through energy particles.

"But we need to inform the division leader first…" the woman who had long black hair interrupted.

"Do not worry about the division leader. Our headquarters is not within Tarry River, so it will not be a big problem if we can retreat after winning the fight," Unos coldly replied. "Use the secret strategy and separate their forces. It will be an easy fight."

"Master, you have only advanced to rank 2 not too long ago. I think you will need my help…" the woman advised.

"Their leader is merely a rank 1 wizard at the Crystal stage. We have already set the magic matrix. I don’t think there will be a problem." While glaring at Angele, Unos shook his head.

Angele turned to the side and smiled after noticing Unos’ line of sight focus on him

"Start the ambush once the gate opens. Watch out for my hand gesture." Unos pursed his lips.

"Understood," his subordinates immediately replied.

Lance had arrived with the Elemental Hand’s members at the mountain’s peak. Nevertheless, he complied with Angele’s order to return to his own family right away.

The words Angele had said flipped the entire situation. The three families would no longer be in a conflict with Elemental Hand.

"And I agree with the point you have raised. We should start the negotiation only after the gate opens." His lips curled into a smile. "Allow me to introduce myself, my name is Angele."

Once the elder of the Spender Family, Gill, heard him introducing himself, he quickly stepped up to exchange introductions as a courtesy.

"I am one of the elders of the Spender Family, my name is Gill. You are certainly correct, master Angele. We should wait together for the gate to open. Since it is an ancient ruin, there might be guardians. We must combine our strengths to prepare for any possible encounter," Gill spoke loudly. Meanwhile, the one who brought Angele to this place, Lance, was standing behind Gill.

Christopher, the head of the Morgan Family, forced a smile on his face. "As long as you are not here to deprive everything from us, I shall be on your side."

The female head of the Philips’ slightly nodded her head. Clearly, she agreed with Angele’s point as well. Just like the rest of her family, she was not that talkative.

The mountains they were in were within the territory of Elemental Hand. Even high-ranked wizards must answer the call to the organization’s guard posts. According to the intelligence report sent by the headquarters, the ranks of all the wizards in front of the secret garden’s gate were below rank 3.

The family elders, Liv, Hakeem, Lyn, and Unos—all of them were rank 2 wizards.

The only problem was, wizards who trained in the Molten Core River could be easily recognized. Everyone knew of the fact that only the Watchers had the access to this advanced meditation technique. Vivian had defeated the lords and the storm giant right in front of Thousand Waterfall City alongside her Watchers. People would think twice before trying to mess with such a powerful force.

Members of the Watchers were trained to kill. Majority of them had served in multiple wars. Average wizards stood no chance in the face of their great strength.

Chapter 322: Revealing (1)


No one would want to mess with the Elemental Hand, including the Blue Eagle Nest.

Angele glanced around. "It seems you are fine with my plan. Let’s wait for those who have already entered the garden to come out and ask them a few questions first. What do you think?"

"I’m fine with that. We also need to set up barriers and patrols around the mountain so that no more strangers will come here and demand a portion of the treasure from us." Unos pursed his lips and looked at Angele.

Angele gently smiled, not even bothered by everyone else’s thoughts regarding his proposal.

However, Lyn was unhappy with what Unos said.

"Master, if we must fight for the treasure, leave that man called Unos to me. I am going to cut his tongue off…"

"Calm down, Lyn." Angele tapped on Lyn’s right shoulder and stopped her from continuing.

Lyn was a team captain of the Watchers, and Angele liked her more than Liv. Her face was pretty, her body well-toned. She was also powerful, and never questioned Angele’s decisions.

It seemed Lyn had the intention to become his servant.

Angele glanced at the members of the three families.

They must have thought Angele was a member of the Watchers, yet no one knew that he was actually the third elder’s son.

"Good idea. We do not want any strangers here. I agree." Angele raised his voice.

"We agree, too!" The Spender Family’s elder voiced out his agreement as well. To Gill, who was like a drowning man that would clutch at anything to survive, Angele was like a life-saving straw.

The heads of the other two families made eye contact with each other.

"The Philip Family concurs with such plan."

"The Morgan Family will comply as well."

The two other heads voiced out their decision.

"All right, let us send our respective patrols then," Unos advised.

Each of the forces picked several of their respective members to patrol the surrounding area of the mountain.

While the rest of them patiently waited for the gate to open.

Time flew quickly, and it was already late in the afternoon. The sky was becoming dark, and the frigid winds became much stronger than before.

Angele asked his group to build a wooden shelter on the mountaintop.

Several people had done so while the others were preparing for dinner. Liv and Angele had built several stone chairs by themselves, and already sat down and started meditating.

The three families similarly decided to do the same after witnessing Angele’s prior actions.

Unos was still seated in his chair. His group’s position was slightly awkward. Although they were the closest to the gate, there were a lot of boulders scattered around the area they were at.

He sent several of his subordinates to prepare the ingredients for dinner upon realizing the lack of space for them to build their own wooden shelter. After he thought for a while, Unos decided to build a campfire and focus on cooking for now.

Angele never bothered himself with what everyone else thought. At the mountaintop, they had the largest wooden shelter and the cooking ingredients of the highest quality. This made them look as if they were not here for the treasure but here to merely go camping.

He continued to silently stay seated on the stone chair and meditate. As he had already formulated a plan in his mind, there was nothing to worry about.

Five days later.

The gate to the secret garden still remained closed. The three families, Unos, and Angele himself tried to open it yet none succeeded in such endeavor. Spells, magic circles, and enchanted items—nothing worked.

The mirror-like gate remained tightly shut, so they had to wait for the heirs of the three families to come out.

The three families and Angele built several wooden shelters on a smaller scale during these recent days but on the contrary, Unos still had yet to build one.

The secret garden’s gate finally began to show changes in the afternoon.

The gate’s mirror-like surface turned from achromatic to light purple, immediately catching everyone’s attention.

Angele was sitting in his chair staring at the purple gate curiously.

"It is almost over, I guess. They will leave the garden soon. Stay alert everyone." Angele narrowed his eyes.

"We waited five days for this!" Hakeem laughed. "But before that, we should drive the Blue Eagle Nest out. They are way too close to the gate."

Angele shook his head. "It is fine. According to the information provided by Lance, they must channel a special spell before they could enter through the gate. We can easily interrupt it and once the spell casting is stopped, they will suffer heavy injuries due to the backlash. I don’t think Unos knows about the repercussions."

"They may have a different method of dealing with the gate." Lyn pursed her lips.

"Out of the question. The gate’s structure is complicated. The ancient barrier’s strength is beyond your expectations. You will know once you see it." Angele shook his head slightly. "All right, watch the gate. It will be opened soon!"

"Yes, master!"

The group of Watchers responded all at the same time and walked out of the wooden shelter altogether.

Angele was going through Zero’s report as he continued to gaze at the gate.

The third stage of Molten Core River had already been analyzed. If he could completely master it, he would then advance to becoming a rank 2 wizard.

There were two requirements in the third stage of the advanced meditation technique.

First, he must have a rich source of Fire energy particles that would assist in the building of his second body’s core. The fire source’s magnitude and quality would determine the strength of his second body. Vivian had already taken care of it for him.

Second, he must engrave the complicated magic circle provided by the Molten Core River technique on his mentality crystal and use it to aid in his progress as a wizard.

‘The first requirement is not a problem but the second…’ Angele frowned. ‘The magic circle must be engraved on my mentality crystal, which means I will have to give up one Talent Spell. I wonder how the Watchers solve this issue. Vivian never told me anything about this.’

Lyn, Hakeem, and Liv were wizards who had fully mastered the third stage of Molten Core River, which meant they had also encountered this similar issue. Angele was thinking of finding a plausible solution from them.

He made up his mind, activating a red ‘Z’-shaped communication rune. Within seconds, he had already sent out a message.

A blanket was being used as a door to their wooden shelter. People would not be able to see the situation from outside, but Angele could peek outside through the gaps.

Several minutes later, Lyn pulled the blanket to the side and entered the shelter in a courteous manner.

"Master, you wish to talk to me?"

Angele nodded. "I have a question regarding the third stage of Molten Core River. It is what every member of the Watchers trains in, right?"

"Yes, what question?" Lyn bowed in respect.

"I was checking the book and found one thing that bothers me. It seems I have to engrave the technique’s magic circle on my mentality crystal which means I will have to give up the next Talent Spell, right? I want to know how everyone deals with this issue." Angele had gone straight to the point.

As though Lyn was not surprised at Angele’s rapid progression, she calmly and unconcernedly answered his question, "Actually, it is not only Molten Core River. All advanced meditation techniques will take one of your Talent Spell slots. Don’t worry, though, the magic circle has a special effect that is stronger than the majority of average Talent Spells in terms of offensive and defensive capability. You certainly will not be disappointed."

"Huh?" Angele was flabbergasted. "All advanced meditation techniques will take one Talent Spell slot?" He did not find such a requirement in the Mask of the Black Wing technique.

"Yes." Lyn confidently nodded. "It is something you will have to live with. Advanced meditation techniques aid you in ranking up, and you will have to give up one slot for the Talent Spell. Wait…actually, I have heard that the legendary advanced meditation techniques do not require engraving a magic circle but…"

"Is that so?" Angele’s countenance changed. "But the third stage of Molten Core River only requires you to engrave the magic circle on your mentality crystal, right? Why is it so easy?"

"Easy?!" Lyn stopped speaking for a moment, seemingly confounded. "You will know just how difficult it is once you start trying to engrave it on your mentality crystal. You also need a core rich in Fire energy particles. Cores like that are difficult to find."

"I have heard about that from Liv. Wizards who trained in the Molten Core River technique usually use a Fire Earth Stone as the core of their second body, right?" Angele raised this question.

"That is correct." Lyn nodded. "I can demonstrate it to you now."

"Much appreciated." Angele smiled.

Lyn bowed slightly and took two steps behind.

Standing beside the shelter’s entrance, she started drawing lines in the air.

Lines of glowing red energy particles remained in the air as her finger continued to move.

CHI

Several seconds later, a magic circle appeared in front of Lyn, near her feet, and released a ray of crimson light, connecting the lines that had been drawn using energy particles together. It formed a three-dimensional magic circle with crimson runes spinning around it.

Suddenly, all the crimson runes gathered to between Lyn’s hands, like water flowing, and a crimson ball of light was formed in the air.

The ball of light looked like molten lava covered with cracks and golden liquid flowing between the gaps.

When Angele stood up, he could feel the intense heatwaves coming to his face. In fact, some of the leftover pieces of wood around the corner were blown into the air.

These leftover pieces were ignited and burnt into black ash when it fell to the ground.

The heatwaves were still being released at every angle from the lava ball on Lyn’s palms.

"Master, this is the ability you would acquire from the magic circle. All wizards who mastered the third stage gain this ability. The shape, strength, and features of the second bodies might be different but the only way to determine their actual power level is to check how many stages they have already mastered. The power difference between each stage is tremendous."

"Interesting, that should be the reason wizards who train in the Molten Core River technique could easily be recognized…Is the situation similar to other advanced meditation techniques?" Angele continued to ask questions.

Chapter 323: Revealing (2)


"Indeed." Lyn nodded. "The earlier you start training in an advanced meditation technique, the more eminent the technique’s features will be to others. The lava ball on my palm is of the ability I acquired when I completely mastered the third stage and is called ‘Lava Rain’. Once I throw this ball in the location I designate and make it explode, it will then cause the descent of a rain of lava—it is great for large-scale wars. The power of this ability is dependent on the caster’s mentality level. If the caster has high enough mentality, then they can even double or triple this ability’s base damage."

Lyn explained as the lava ball disappeared from her hands. "And there is one benefit to it. You do not have to search for the best spell you can obtain when you rank up."

"Sounds good." Angele nodded. "That should be the reason wizard organizations in the central continent were founded with complete copies of advanced meditation techniques."

"With the assistance of an advanced meditation technique, we can easily cast spells that suit our rank. It is every wizard’s dream," Lyn added.

She stopped for a second and continued, "You can use it to improve your Talent Spells, too—just focus on manipulating the energy flow. This is the method the majority of wizards would choose. Simply speaking, you can instantly cast multiple Talent Spells while your opponent is still preparing to cast their first spell. This sounds too simple, but it is truly effective in certain situations."

"All right, I understand." There were blue dots of light flickering in front of Angele’s eyes. "Thank you for the detailed explanation. You may leave now. I will find the method most suitable for me."

"Very well." Bowing slightly, Lyn stepped out of the wooden shelter.

Angele, who remained alone inside, then took out a small red box from his pouch.

It was a half-moon-shaped wooden box with silver engravings on its surface.

PA

Angele opened the box which revealed a blackish red stone inside. It had a smooth texture similar to that of a jade stone.

He took it out and carefully inspected it several times.

‘So this is an Earth Fire Stone. Zero, inspect its energy structure,’ he ordered.

A glowing light with the shade of blue surrounded Angele’s eyes and illuminated on the stone in the box. It took about ten seconds for the biochip to finish the process.

Angele felt a tad surprised after seeing the result.

‘It is actually a high-quality fire energy stone perfectly suitable for the Molten Core River technique…A stone like this can absorb Fire energy particles and store up to 100 degrees of energy. Vivian gave me the best material she had…’

‘An Earth Fire Stone like this one is the perfect for wizards training in the Molten Core River technique. There is no longer a point in me trying to search for substitutes.’ Angele was satisfied with the stone Vivian had gifted him and even felt relieved at the thought of not having to prepare anything for the third stage.

Although the power of this special ability would be akin to that of the other wizards who similarly trained in the Molten Core River technique, his main offensive skill remained to be the signet from the ancient bloodline. The power of the bloodline signet only lay in the source of the bloodline; his wizardry rank did not matter. The only difference it could make was that Angele would be able to extract stronger bloodlines if his mentality level was higher.

Ancient wizards had relied more on bloodlines, while modern wizards focused more on damage spells.

Yet Angele was attempting to improve bloodlines and damage spells both at the same time. The only problem was that no one had told him how to progress further through bloodlines. There was little or no information that had been left by the ancient wizards.

On the other hand, for the spells, he had the help coming from the wizardry books and Vivian.

Angele breathed deeply as he looked at the stone.

‘I should try mastering the third stage before the gate opens. Let me see just how hard it is to engrave the magic circle onto my mentality crystal.’

After calming himself down, he threw the stone into the air.

He then quickly drew a rune.

Blast

The stone was ignited floating in the air as it released countless heatwaves.

Angele’s expression soon turned serious. He raised his other hand and pointed at the stone.

While checking the magic circles recorded on the book, he started engraving the first portion of the magic circle.

CHI

Countless red lines appeared around the Earth Fire Stone and started drawing the first part of the magic circle.

Minutes and minutes passed. The lines were clear, and the completed magic circle surrounded the stone in the center.

Cold sweat was dripping down Angele’s chin. It seemed a lot of mentality was consumed during the process.

‘This is the first part…I’m not sure if my mentality is high enough for the whole process…’

PA

Countless cracks appeared on the surface of the Earth Fire Stone.

All the flames, runes, and energy lines disappeared together. The Earth Fire Stone was no longer in the air, almost as if the stone had sublimated.

Angele was breathing heavily.

‘I thought the process was easy…The entire magic circle has three parts. I have only completed the first, and there are still the second and third parts. Good thing is, I have the biochip helping me do all the calculations. Other wizards might need several years before they could complete the entire magic circle, but I will only need about half a month to master the third stage.’

The engraving of magic circle was a critical step in the third stage of the Molten Core River technique. He could advance to the next rank after the process was completed. Not like using a potion, advancing using this method would not create too many impurities.

Angele noticed that his mentality level increased slightly after finishing engraving the first part. And with the help of Zero, he could find the best way to finish the engraving while not making any mistake.

‘Zero, create the task. Analyze the magic circles and compute my success rate of mastering the third stage,’ Angele commanded.

Angele had stopped at the Crystal stage for three years with his biggest achievement, removing the impurities from his mentality. It was about time for him to try to advance to the next rank.

‘Mission created. Analyzing…Estimated time: 12 hours,’ Zero reported back immediately.

Angele had high affinity with the Fire energy particles, so his progress with the Molten Core River technique was relatively fast.

Completing the third stage and advancing to the next rank was no longer a big problem to Angele. The biochip could finish most of the complicated calculations for him.

He wanted to meditate for a bit longer, but he heard the loud noise coming from outside.

"Master Kita!"

"You finally came out…"

"Master Susana!"

Angele’s brow furrowed as he stepped out of the wooden shelter.

A Watcher was about to enter the shelter, bowing immediately after seeing Angele.

"Master, the gate to the garden has finally opened!"

Angele nodded. "I know." He raised his head and looked at the gate.

There were three wizards standing in front of the mirror-like gate.

There was one female wizard and two male wizards, all at about 15 years old. Their clothes were messy and there were scars on their faces.

The two male wizards were wearing black robes and the female wizard was wearing a white shirt, but they were all damaged.

The three was surrounded by the families and organizations. They looked a bit nervous, as it seemed like they were trying to return to their own families.

Angele noticed that the three teenagers’ bodies were translucent for some reason.

CHI

A ray of blue light pierced through a translucent male wizard’s head, but nothing happened.

The man was startled due to this and retreated immediately but he looked confused.

A blue robe behind Unos lowered his hand and scrunched his eyebrows. "Master, they are illusions. We cannot attack them."

"Is that so?" Unos narrowed his eyes.

A middle-aged woman from the Morgan Family saw the scene and was enraged. She was stopped by the other family members, but she was still cursing. It took her several minutes to calm down.

"Mother!" The man that was hit by the red light stepped forward and looked at the middle-aged woman.

"Mother! I’m here!" He looked excited.

"Wait, Henry!" The other male wizard stopped him. "Something isn’t right."

"Master Kita!" The members of the Spender Family shouted together.

Kita turned around and saw the members of his family waving their hands.

"Master Gill?"

"Master Kita, are you in the Foreseer Form?" Gill questioned carefully.

Kita looked surprised after hearing the name. "How did you know about the Foreseer Form?"

He realized that the elders knew a lot about the garden and calmed down several seconds later.

Kita nodded slightly. "You’re right. We’re in the Foreseer Form right now but we don’t know how this happened."

"Wait, the foreseer state? You can give access to the ones that want to enter the garden now?" Unos suddenly questioned.

"Alright, just give access to us!"

"No, pick the Philip Family, please!"

"Susana! You’re a good kid, and you should give access to your brother Marino!"

Several members of the three families shouted. The elders and leaders did not say anything. They were the relatives of the three wizards that were in the Foreseer Form.

"Mother…?" The female wizard named Susana hesitated. She looked around and saw a beautiful woman saying something to her. Her expression changed and there were tears in her eyes. "Mother, why are you here? Alright, I will give access to…"

"Wait, Susana!" Kita suddenly interrupted in a deep voice.

"What happened? Kita?" Susana wiped the tears off from her eyes, looking confused.

"Wait a second. It seems like we’re in trouble," Kita whispered to her ears.

"Kita, we can give the access to two people, and I want to give my mother one. That shouldn’t be a problem, right?" Henry pursed his lips. "She has treated you well, you know that." He looked a bit disappointed.

"Think about it. We can give two people access to the garden but there are three families here. We need to proceed with caution."

Henry and Susana were young, but they quickly realized how complicated the situation was.

"What should we do then?" Susana and Henry looked at Kita.

"Let’s find out what’s going on first," Kita replied in a low voice.

Chapter 324: Gate of the Garden (1)


"Do not listen to him, Henry!" Right beside Henry’s mother, an old man loudly shouted, "Kita only wants to save a slot for his own family. Give the right of entry to us now before it’s too late!"

At the mountain’s peak.

People divided into five groups had the gate to the elemental fairies’ secret garden surrounded.

Susana noticed Kita’s facial expression changing upon listening to the old man’s words.

"Susana! It’s me! Your uncle Nicole! Just give the right of entry to us…"

"Master Kita, please…" Gill stopped one of his family members from continuing. He and the two other family heads were looking at Angele sternly.

With a smiling face, Angele took a step forward with the Watchers doing the same.

"Just give the right of entry to us. I am one of the core members of Elemental Hand. We will reward you if you do so." Looking at the three teenagers in front of the gate, he spoke in a gentle tone, "You do know you can only send in two people at most, but all of us here want the right of entry, right?

"Just give it to me. We can make a fair trade. I have many resources of great rarity. Just tell me what you need." Angele narrowed his eyes.

"You do not want to see you beloved family murder each other, do you? An argument like that will destroy friendships and it never ends peacefully. Think about it. You are standing on the land owned by Elemental Hand. We can sign a contract. I swear I will not harm your families."

For a second, Angele stopped as he shrugged. "This is the only way in order to bring this matter to a peaceful closure. I am the only one who can control the situation here."

The three teenagers pondered if they should accept Angele’s offer.

Those who belonged to the three families finally regained their composure and began to think of the best plausible solution.

For some reason, Angele seemed to be someone trustworthy—that was what they felt.

"I can actually offer you a bit more than that. Do you want to become a member of the Elemental Hand and work for me? … Why are you still waiting? Are you perhaps afraid of the Blue Eagle Nest? Do not worry. This is our territory, so they cannot possibly be at the helm here."

"You!" Unos gnashed his teeth as he scowled at Angele. Behind him, the wizards were readying themselves for the forthcoming clash.

The Watchers noticed that the situation had changed so in order to protect Angele they formed an encirclement with him located at the center.

Kita opened his mouth, about to say something.

"Now!" Unos chimed in with a shout.

CHI

Underneath the blue robes’ feet appeared a massive circle of blue light.

It began expanding to the point of nearly covering the entire summit. Angele heard a noise that of the waves of the sea out of thin air.

Steam that came out of the blue circle nearly moistened his clothes to the point of being wet, causing his eyes to narrow. A strange oceanic smell drifted across the air.

Angele immediately raised his hand. A speck of red light exploded in front of him.

BAM

The explosion caused itself to form into multiple rays of red light but these were devoured by the mist coming out of the blue circle.

"Huh? It did not work?" Angele was startled. He hastily looked at his surroundings.

He was now surrounded by blue mist and had a feeling as though he was sinking deep into the ocean. He could still breathe but people near him had all disappeared.

"This is either a strong illusion spell or a strong void spell." Angele controlled his sangfroid. He then took a step and gradually released the full strength of his mentality wave. A blue laser dot was flashing in each of his pair of eyes.

He had already studied the illusion signet and created an anti-illusion technique, but it looked like the spell cast by the Blue Nest Eagle was much stronger than he had expected.

‘My illusion-related skills have already reached the highest a rank 1 wizard can get. The anti-illusion technique I created should be ineffective only against rank 3 wizards but there is no such person in their group…which means…they must have activated a high-quality magic device.’ Angele made his conjecture.

Kita, Susana, and Henry, the three of them, had already realized that the summit was covered in blue fog. They were getting nervous.

Members of the Blue Eagle Nest had surrounded them.

There was a blue horn in Unos’s right hand. With a pale face, he was uttering the incantation. The blue smoke drifting out of the horn was the source of the fog, and it continued to become increasingly thicker.

The blue smoke created a sea of fog at the summit, such that Kita could barely see anything around him.

"Master, the eagle horn has created multiple divided areas that separated our enemies from each other. The only way for them to escape the fog is to break the illusion spell, but we do not have much time left. What should we do?" the woman with a long, black hair asked.

"Follow the plan. Take a team with you and take out the families. I shall deal with the man from the Elemental Hand." Unos had a heartless expression. "He is trying to break the spell. I must stop him as soon as possible."

"Why don’t we just kill him first?" the old wizard advised.

"We cannot. Looks like he is an affluential member of Elemental Hand. I do not wish to face the possible repercussions." Unos shook his head declining the suggestion.

"All right, let us move. We must take out as many as we can," Unos ordered.

They now divided themselves into two groups led by the woman and the old wizard, respectively. Within seconds, they vanished into the blue fog.

Unos tied the blue horn to his belt and drew the black scimitar from his sheath. He was the last person to enter the fog.

Within the sea of fog.

Angele was advancing at a slow pace as he continued to draw red runes in the air that disappeared after several seconds.

At the same time, the blue fog surrounding his body was becoming thinner and thinner as soon as the red runes disappeared into thin air.

PA

Suddenly, he heard a noise made by tiny rocks being stepped on.

Angele stopped and licked his lips. He lowered his hands and looked at the man in front of him.

"A random guy from Elemental Hand almost breaks my illusion spell. No wonder it’s the strongest organization in the area.

The man stepped forward to reveal himself.

Short blue hair, a pair of blue eyes, and a handsome face—this person was Unos, who was wearing a long blue robe and holding a black scimitar tightly.

"Wizard Angele, it’s you and me now. We are the leaders of our groups. Perhaps we can sort things out," Unos calmly spoke as he smiled.

Angele raised his right hand and conjured a silver greatsword. The sword-point was red-hot, and it released heatwaves into the air.

The glowing red sword-point was eye-catching in the fog.

Black smoke rose from the scimitar in Unos’s hand, making the black blade even darker.

He sprinkled silver dust into the air wherein it slowly descended onto the ground.

CHI

Unos disappeared from his original location. The black blade seemingly became a black string charging toward Angele.

For some reason, Angele’s eyes lost focus, dropping his guard, after seeing the silver dust. He could not move his eyes away from it in the slightest as if he was looking at a precious treasure.

The strength from his hands seemed to have been sapped away, causing him to gradually lower his sword.

The blade was getting closer and closer, yet Angele still remained unmoving.

Clank

Suddenly, Angele was jolted awake by Zero’s warning and barely blocked the incoming strike. Sparks were created when the two weapons clashed.

‘What on earth is that spell?! It somehow made me feel entranced.’ Angele was startled.

The black scimitar changed directions and struck at Angele’s back.

Clank

Angele turned around immediately and blocked the strike again.

The black scimitar quickly moved away and Unos appeared once more.

The man’s expression had turned serious.

"Your body is incredibly strong. I have spent so much time increasing my strength, but I am still weaker than you. Looks like I underestimated your ability."

After he finished, he raised his right hand. A strange, slimy, blue substance was discharged out of his right shoulder, covering his entire right arm within seconds and turning into a huge chunk of armor.

A black, diamond-shaped crystal appeared in the center of his right elbow.

KA

Unos swung his right arm several times.

"My speed and strength have now tripled. Where is your special ability from the Molten Core River? Why don’t you use it? Ah…I forgot you are still a rank 1 wizard." He sneered and raised his right arm.

WOO

Clouds of dust, pebbles, and rocks were blown into the air. Unos’s right arm was indeed terrifying. Covered in a blue glow, it almost had the same size as his body.

Angele narrowed his eyes into slits. Several heart bombs connected with silver metal fluid noiselessly slid into his left hand from his sleeve.

He suddenly raised his left hand and threw five heart bombs into the air.

BOOM

Red flames and green venom coalesced together, with Angele at a distance away and Unos standing right in the center of the explosion radius, in great successive explosions.

The amalgamation of heated air and stinky poisonous gas started spreading in the area and even caused a small shockwave.

Angele did not stop but immediately retreated as he threw out several more crimson heart bombs.

BOOM BOOM BOOM

The loud noise from the consecutive explosions echoed in the sea of fog.

Angele remained composed. He continued to move around and threw dozens of heart bombs at every angle. At present, he was surrounded by the furious flames and shockwaves generated by the explosions.

The intense light from the flames drove out the blue fog and illuminated on Angele’s body.

Chapter 325: Gate of the Garden (2)


The odor of burnt meat permeated the air—it came from the heart bombs that had exploded.

Those were all the energy bombs Angele possessed. Three silver scars manifested on his face, and his skin now had a metallic silver glint.

He tightly grasped the greatsword and brandished it forth.

CHI

The greatsword then shrank in size quickly and reformed into a long, slim blade. Its length had now increased from two meters to ten meters, and was twisting.

The blade formed a shell-shaped screen of light in front of Angele.

Clank

The sword screen collided with a black dot and stopped.

Unos had blocked the sword screen with the black scimitar with a disappointed expression.

"I did not expect you to interrupt my spell!" He was not hurt in the least, seemingly as if the heart bombs had done nothing to him.

"Well, I think I know how to win this now." Blue glows slowly surrounded Unos’s horrifying right arm and was becoming brighter and brighter.

Suddenly he raised his right arm and swung forward with his black scimitar. The blade’s tip drew an arc in the air and generated a fierce energy wave.

This energy wave was initially a meter long and it started growing in length after it left the blade’s tip, increasing to seven meters in length within seconds and soaring through the air.

Unos did not care whether the energy wave had struck Angele or not. He quickly retrieved a small yellow ball about the size of a fist from his pouch and threw it into the air while taking out another one.

Several seconds later, there were now more than ten yellow balls floating around Unos’s body. Each of the balls was marked with a blue rune.

Unos began uttering an incantation in a low voice.

The yellow balls exploded in the air, like flowers starting to blossom, and conjured into miniature winged men.

The wings on their backs looked like the ones dragonflies had, but they were flapping so fast that they became blurry. The tiny men were thin and naked, and their blue eyes were the only things that could be found on their faces. Angele was not sure if they were male or female.

They were flying around Unos like bees.

"Go!" Unos pointed at Angele and gave an order.

All the winged men started flying toward Angele.

Sharp metal needles slowly protruded out of Angele’s body and floated in the air. The air temperature around him began increasing. There were lines of red energy particles revolving around his body.

Several seconds later, each tip of the metal needles all turned red.

Angele pointed at Unos with his right index finger, while black light flashed in his eyes.

One of the metal needles had infused with the black light but regained its original color quickly.

CHI

The needles soared into the air as it flew toward Unos.

The needles, winged men, and the black energy wave from the scimitar smashed against each other savagely. The winged men and energy wave dodged the metal needles, now flying straight toward Angele.

The metal needles, too, did not stop as they continued flying toward Unos.

Everything was traveling at the peak speed. It was nearly impossible for Angele or Unos to dodge.

BAM BOOM

Loud noises echoed in the area.

The black energy wave exploded with the winged, yellow men and the damage they did was much higher than the heart energy bombs.

The silver needles directly struck Unos with such ferocity. As he was controlling the miniature winged men, he did not do anything to defend against Angele’s attack. A screen of black light shattered into fragments after blocking most of the needles. Meanwhile, the rest of the needles pierced through his last defense and one needle suddenly accelerated.

CHI

Unos leaned to the side but failed to dodge the accelerating needle. He grunted when the needle pierced his left shoulder.

The dust that had been blown into the air due to the collision slowly dropped to the ground.

A silver needle had stabbed Unos’s left shoulder. No blood was coming out of the wound, but his shoulder was slowly turning gray. It was the effect of his petrification ability.

"Damn!" Unos quickly took out several small glass bottles filled with liquid and, one by one, poured all contents of each bottle. Soon, the rate of his shoulder petrifying slowed down.

Angele was standing at about ten meters away from Unos. He had blocked the explosion using the greatsword that had returned to its original form. His face was pale but there was no visible wound on his body.

"The explosion barely did any physical damage, yet it drained my mentality…How is that even possible?!" Angele was panting—he only had more or less 15 mentality remaining, and the situation was getting worse. The forcefield of the crystal scorpion was activated when the winged men exploded. That was the reason he still had mentality left but his head was now aching. Without the scorpion, he would have already lost consciousness.

"You are pretty good. Where did you learn the petrification spell from?" Cold sweat covered Unos’s forehead.

The battle was stopped to a standstill. Angele was trying to predict what Unos would do next.

Since Unos was a rank 2 wizard, he thought he could easily win against a rank 1 wizard like Angele.

"I did not want to do this, but I really need to enter the garden." Unos took out the blue horn and tapped on it.

WOO

A countless number of blue runes flashed on the horn’s surface and the complicated pattern started shining. The intense blue light slowly climbed up Unos’s right arm then turned into a thick layer of conflagrating flames.

Angele raised his left hand; the silver ring on his finger started releasing rays of golden light. His expression changed as he saw the eye-blinding blue light in the front.

The golden light coming from the Light of Thorns had been weakened by the blue light and was having trouble moving around.

"That magic device…" Angele pursed his lips as his gaze fell on the blue horn.

He put his right hand into the pouch and activated the crystal scorpion once more.

CHI

Suddenly, a red scorpion-shaped rune appeared in the center of his forehead.

"Huh?" Unos hesitated after seeing the rune. "That mark…Don’t tell me you are…"

It seemed the rune reminded him of someone. He quickly tapped on the horn again and the blue light began retracting immediately.

"You can have the access. I give up!" Unos forced a smile on his face. "I should have double checked…" He stored the horn back into his pouch and disappeared into the blue fog.

Angele’s plan worked. Unos had realized that Vivian was his mother after seeing the rune.

About ten seconds later, the blue fog disappeared completely, and everything returned to normal again.

Angele was still with the Watchers, as if nothing had happened.

The members of the three families were still at their original positions but the Blue Nest Eagle disappeared from the top of the mountain.

Unos probably did not want the situation to get worse so he decided to retreat.

‘That blue horn…Had it fully activated, I would have had to use my signet and see if it could help me survive the attack…’ Angele bit his lips when he recalled the horrifying forcefield from Unos’s magic device.

"Master, are you alright?" Lyn’s black hammer was covered in fresh blood.

"I’m fine, is everyone alright?" Angele glanced around.

Most of the Watchers were injured but Liv, Lyn, and Hakeem’s weapons were soaked in the enemies’ blood.

Liv’s face was pale. It seemed like she used a lot of mentality. "The blue fog must be from their strongest magic device called the Eagle’s Horn. I didn’t expect them to bring it here."

"How strong is that thing?" Angele asked.

"Well, it can deal an incredible amount of area damage instantly," Liv replied in a grave tone.

"Instantly…?" Angele then realized that it was probably much stronger than the Light of Thorns.

"Unos must have discovered your identity and decided to leave. If you ever got hurt or killed, master Vivian will no doubt slaughter the Blue Eagle Nest. But yes, none of us can handle the power of that magic device. From the beginning, Unos should have realized your worth to our organization. That is why he did not use the horn right after the start of the battle," Lyn added.

"It is about time to enter the garden." Angele did not comment on Lyn’s words. Inwardly, he never thought Unos stood a chance of winning if he was without the magic device since he still had his signet. The outcome of the battle was difficult to predict as well.

However, Lyn did not know about the secret of having an ancient bloodline and thought Angele was going to lose. Angele was not concerned as he had learned a great deal from the battle. He now knew he could win against rank 2 wizards that had no ridiculous magic devices.

Angele remained calm and looked at the gate to the secret garden of the elemental fairies.

"Let us go. Who wants to come with me?"

At present, the heads of the three families were injured so no one was making any decision. This ought to be part of the Blue Eagle Nest’s plan.

Angele led the Watchers to the front of the gate.

The three teenagers retreated. Although they were in the Foreseer Form, they still feared the young man approaching them.

"Do you swear to keep your promise?" Kita questioned. He gazed at Angele and narrowed his eyes.

"Of course." There was a gentle smile on Angele’s face.

Kita looked at the members of the three families and shook his head. "Fine, I’ll give you the access."

He exchanged words with Henry and Susana. It seemed they finally made up their minds.

"Take one more person with you, please. We do not have much time left," Kita said.

Angele thought for a second and replied, "Lyn, come with me."

"Yes! Master!" Lyn stepped forward looking excited.

Kita, Susana, and Henry turned around and disappeared into the gate.

About ten seconds later, the surface of the gate was covered with a distorted energy wave.

"You can enter the gate now, masters." Kita’s voice came from inside the gate.

Angele nodded and grasped Lyn’s right hand as they stepped into the gate together.