105 - 113

Chapter 105: Return (4)

Translator: Leo Editor: DarkGem/Frappe

"Why is that place so strange?" Angele was currently relaxed. He asked out of curiosity.

"The garden is a playground of Banshees and Infant Spirits, and most of the rare plants there were soaked in negative energy particles. It's a place full of traps and dangerous creatures," Liliana explained.

"Good thing is, you are familiar with Necromancy and negative energy particles. Those creatures did not affect you too much. Otherwise, you would already be dead. Come here and sit down."

Liliana pointed at Angele, and a black chair appeared behind him suddenly. Angele looked at the chair for a second before he sat down.

"Ghosts and the other creatures inside the manor don't care who you are. They are just a bunch of strange monsters that want to drain the life energy from you. I'll help you with the sequela. However, don't ever go there again. There are reasons why we formal Wizards don't adventure in that place," Liliana warned.

"I won't go there again, Master." Angele nodded.

"Good, I'll cure you first," Liliana muttered.

With an oil lamp in hand, she turned around and opened the drawer on a small cabinet.

Liliana took a small, white accessory box out of it. She walked toward Angele slowly and sat down.

She pointed in the air again, and a black table appeared between the two. Liliana put down the accessory box and pushed it to Angele.

"This is the best I have. If you want to stay alive, you must wear it for three years. Don't just take it with you, you have to put it on the back of your hand. Its roots will go into your veins." Liliana had a serious look on her face.

"Three years?" Angele finally understood what he was dealing with. Even Master Liliana could not cleanse the curse in one attempt. Allen was not exaggerating at all; the garden was extremely dangerous.

"This is the first step. I'll take care of the rest later. Your soul attracted a lot of disguising spirits…" Liliana stopped for a second, "As payment, give me half of what you got there. I'm asking too much."

"For sure." Angele nodded immediately.

Wizards often adhered to the tradition of bartering. Angele himself knew that Liliana would not help him for free.

"Put it on your hand then." Liliana pointed at the white accessory box.

Angele grabbed the box and opened it carefully. His expression changed after seeing what was inside. There was a diamond-shaped silver accessory laid on a piece of white silk, with complex patterns engraved to its surface.

"Where do you want to put it on?" Liliana smiled.

Angele stared at the palm-sized accessory, "On the back of my right hand, I guess."

Liliana nodded. She did not do anything, but the silver accessory floated in the air and quickly stuck onto the back of Angele's right hand.

Angele did not feel any pain. The accessory had already mounted on the back of his hand before he could realize. It became a part of his hand, and the whole process was a bit strange to him.

"Next, let's treat your sequela. Those monsters found you charming, and did not do too much damage to your body."

"What? They liked me?" Angele was speechless, he almost went crazy after being haunted by that girl.

"They did not intentionally cast any spell on you. You're just affected by their natural evil force field. Those monsters have a different magic system from us, so it's hard to explain." Liliana stood up and asked Angele to follow her action.

She waved her hand in the air and all the objects around disappeared. The whole place became dark again. The only source of light was the oil lamp in her hand, but it barely made their faces visible.

"Eye of Darkness." Liliana raised her left hand with her palm facing up.

Suddenly her palm split in half, and a crimson, empty hole appeared from the gap.

Angele heard the sound of the wings of insects vibrating, and a small mosquito flew out of the empty hole on Liliana's palm.

It was a gray mosquito the size of a bean with translucent wings. The mosquito left the hole quickly, shook its wings and flew into the air.

After that, a pile of gray smoke rushed out of the bloody hole. It looked like a pole, but Angele knew it was formed by countless gray mosquitos. There were so many of them that they looked like a pile of smoke.

The noise they made filled up the room. Angele stood at the opposite side of Liliana, and those gray mosquitos climbed upon his body quickly. He was not feeling well, but he knew they were probably doing something about the curse and he decided to stand still.

The tiny mosquitos were all over Angele's body. Around his clothes, skin, neck, and hair, all those tiny insects were climbing. Goosebumps rose upon his skin. He was trying his best not to move. After several minutes, the gray smoke stopped coming out of the hole, and the gap slowly closed.

Some of the mosquitos were hovering above Liliana's head. They formed several gray lines and made the bridge that connected Angele and Liliana.

Those lines lasted several seconds and the mosquitos started to form a gray ball between them. The mosquitos that were moving around Angele's body left him and joined the ball that had the size of a human head.

*CHI*

The ball floated in the air and it was cracked open by a red eyeball. Angele could see the veins on the white surface of the eyeball and the red pupil was staring at Angele. The eyeball turned around like a surveillance camera from time to time.

"Suharick, roselice?" the eyeball asked in a strange tone.

Liliana's lips moved, but Angele could not hear her words. It seemed like she was talking to the eyeball.

The eyeball turned to left and right, almost like shaking its head. Liliana scrunched up her eyebrows and said something again. They were trying to reach an agreement.

The eyeball hesitated for a second before it nodded.

Suddenly, a seemingly endless hollow space appeared in the middle of the eyeball. A strong white arm that had red pimples all over its surface reached out to Angele from the hole.

As the white arm hit his head, Angele tried to dodge but Liliana stopped him.

He could feel the chill on his skin. It was almost as something was moving around inside his body. It was an unpleasant experience.

'That arm felt like a mudfish. Wet, sticky, and it stinks,' he thought.

The arm moved around Angele's head. It was looking for something but failed, so it reached out toward Angele's back.

"AH!" A high-pitched female scream came from Angele's behind.

It was the voice of that girl in red. Angele had recognized it immediately. He thought the girl had already been eaten by Moroco. Angele turned his head around and saw a translucent girl's shadow being pulled out of his body by that white hand. The hand grabbed the girl by the neck and dragged her into the abyss right away.

The hollow space closed slowly and the gray mosquitos covered the eyeball immediately. They slowly separated from each other and turned into gray smoke poles.

Liliana raised her hand, and the crimson hole appeared on her palm again. All the mosquitos flew back into the hole at full speed, and the room became silent again within seconds.

She lowered her hand slowly, "It's done." She smiled.

Angele was relieved. He now felt much better after the 'treatment'. He grabbed his case and opened it up.

Ten minutes later…

Angele walked out of the room with a half-empty case. He had a gloomy expression. Liliana took away half of the rare materials he obtained. Although he knew he needed to pay Liliana, he still felt a bit downcast.

"Finally." It had been the most dangerous adventure that Angele ever had. It was dreadful, as he hadn't had a good sleep in a long time. He was afraid he would be killed by that girl in his dreams. Zero could not detect her presence at all, so he had to stay alert.

"Now, I need to go to the Potion Store and I need to get my hands on the Water of Asu. Also, I need a good defensive spell model!" Angele mumbled, "I'm still too weak. I want to be able to handle things by myself!"

Angele almost died during his first solo high difficulty adventure, and he learned how dangerous those Ancient Wizard resource points were. He was not prepared like the others, and he still lacked the ways of obtaining helpful information.

"Wizard. I need to break the limit and become a formal wizard!" Angele rubbed the silver accessory on the back of his right hand slowly. He was unhappy that there was nothing he could do at the manor and at the town. Messi's granddaughter was swallowed by the shadows, and he lost Tom as well. If Angele was strong enough, he could've at least saved two lives.

Most importantly, he wanted to be able to protect himself. Angele was mad at himself. He knew he was still way too weak. The excitement of using spells was already gone, and he realized how much a difference was between wizard apprentices and formal wizards.

Chapter 106: Choice (1)

Translator: Leo Editor: DarkGem/Frappe

Inside the dark room, Liliana put down her oil lamp on a black table.

Countless tiny cracks suddenly appeared behind her, and groups of mosquitos flew out of her body to form the gray ball again. The ball split in half and the white eyeball revealed itself.

"What do you think?" Liliana spoke in a grave tone. Although her voice was still cute and sweet, she sounded serious.

"We had an agreement with Moon Gin Garden. It was just an accident. They were not trying to kill your student," the eyeball responded.

"An accident? If he hadn't been summoned back to the school, he would already be dead." Liliana was not happy, "I need an explanation, they can totally hide those materials from him. What was that monster thinking?"

The eyeball turned around, "As an intermediary, I certainly don't want you two to misunderstand the situation. That young man was affected by their hatred, it's not a big deal."

*BAM*

Liliana pounded the table.

"That was not some simple hatred. They were clearly trying to devour him. Although Moroco ate the main threat and I had his body cleansed, there's something nasty left deep inside him. They must give me an acceptable reason for doing that!"

"Reason? What reason?" A high-pitched female voice echoed in the room.

*CHI*

Some blood mist exploded at the corner and turned into a head-sized object that looked like a jellyfish. The red object floated in the air, glowing. It was the source of the strange voice.

"Your student was trying to steal my materials. You should apologize to me first before trying to blame me for that," the jellyfish shouted.

"I knew it…" Liliana's expression changed. There were worms squirming between the gaps of her face, "It's the Northland Alliance, right? Are you working for those filthy scums now?"

"I'm not going to comment on that, heh…" The jellyfish sneered.

"Wait, don't tell the plague in the east is…"

"Don't blame everything on us! You damn prick! My children were so kind that they didn't kill your student!" The jellyfish spoke in a cold tone, "Northland Alliance tried to ambush him on his way back, and they wanted to make it look like we did it. My children saved him! He'd be dead already if my children were not around him."

"Is that so?" Liliana calmed down a bit, "Angele's Mentality is very close to a formal wizard's. Your children were not kind at all, they just couldn't kill him. Also, I think he's capable of escaping the ambush of Northland Alliance. If he's a low-rank apprentice, his mind would've already been crushed by your children. Kristina, you really think I'm that dumb?"

"Whatever!" the jellyfish yelled, not refuting Liliana's assumption.

"Calm down you two. Kristina was just trying to take revenge for what happened at Rinwo last year, Liliana, what you did there was a bit over the line," The eyeball turned around again, and started mediating, "Northland Alliance's plan was to alienate you from Kristina by killing one of your students, so we can't let that happen."

"Fine. I will forgive you this time." Liliana snorted, "They forced us to abandon our school for a while and now, they want to alienate us. We must make them pay!"

"You're right. We have to plan it out. Liliana, how many apprentices are summoned back?" the eyeball asked.

"We need a plan for sure. We sent the message to about 120 apprentices, but only half of them came back." Liliana lowered her voice.

"Wait. I have a sad message for you," the jellyfish interrupted, "One of my babies just found a dead body. It's your student."

"What!" Liliana opened her eyes and her body started glowing, "What? Say that again?"

"My child found your student's dead body a while ago." The jellyfish stopped talking. Some of the red mist separated from its body and created a thin oval mirror on the side.

The mirror was covered in a thin meat barrier. The surface was white initially, then it turned into pitch black for a second before bringing up the image of a remote area.

It was cloudy at the area and a huge area was burnt black in the middle of the grassland.

A young girl was lying on the burnt area. Sadly, she was killed before she could realize it. Her body was sliced in half and there was no blood coming out of the cut. It was almost like she was not hurt at all.

"I already checked it. Her organs were gone, and there was nothing in her stomach. I'm sure Jeremy did this," the jellyfish explained.

"Jeremy…" Liliana's expression changed and lowered her head, "Damn it! I don't know if you're telling the truth. I need to check it myself…"

"Fine. We are leaving now." The jellyfish disappeared with the eyeball, and the gray ball became complete again. It was still floating in the air.

After several seconds, Liliana suddenly screamed like crazy, "Damn it! Jeremy! One day I'll make you pay! I'll devour your whole family!"

*********************

Angele was walking down the underground tunnel slowly, thinking about how the place was empty.

Before the war, he would see wizard apprentices walking around in the school and yet, he had not seen anyone in the tunnel today.

He heard the footsteps coming from the corner as he was thinking.

A young-looking, middle-aged male apprentice appeared at the corner. His face was yellow, and there was a black handkerchief inside the pocket on his left chest. Angele could see the noble suit and flower family insignia under the man's gray robe.

Angele walked past the man and had a glance at his face, 'He probably just came back from a funeral…'

The man had a depressed and serious look on his face. He looked nervous as well.

'I wonder how much damage the Northland Alliance did to the school,' Angele thought, he was walking toward the Potions Department.

He met several other apprentices that just came back from the funeral as he advanced. They all looked sad and nervous.

It took Angele a while to reach the Potions Department. The Potions Department was built inside a large, empty cave. The wall was yellow, and there were four huge glowing sapphires set on the top of the cave. The four different runes engraved on the sapphires represented the four basics of Potion Study.

There were more than ten people inside the large cave. They looked like ants standing on such a huge empty field. People did not even notice Angele's presence.

Most of the people had black handkerchiefs on their chests. All of them had serious looks on their faces. They were chatting in groups at the side. Angele thought something was not right.

He quickly walked past them and reached the counter. The counters were set up for selling the potions and there were several potion labs behind them.

There was only one person at the middle counter at the moment. It was a middle-aged woman. She did not have a pretty face, but she looked gentle and elegant.

'She's a noble.' Angele guessed. After all, he knew what nobles looked like.

Angele stepped forward and stood in front of the counter.

"Greetings, I want to purchase the…" Angele saw the woman shaking her head before he could finish his sentence.

"Sorry, one of our resource points was taken, so the potion storage is almost empty right now. We decided to stop selling potions for a while," the woman spoke in a low voice, "Also, Potion Master Benjamin was killed in the war, so there's no estimated date on when we will reopen the shop." The woman made everything clear.

One resource point was taken and they were short on materials. Angele felt speechless upon knowing this.

Potions were always rare and expensive due to the difficulty in crafting them. A potion's price could be 10 or 100 times the price of the raw materials, but now they decided to close the shop.

Angele wanted to purchase the Water of Asu today, but it seemed like he would not even be able to get regular potions. Also, the waitlist for Water of Asu was based on the wizard apprentices' talent levels. Angele's talent level was low, and Water of Asu would only be sold to apprentices with high talent levels first. If they kept joining the waitlist, Angele's turn would never come.

The middle-aged woman was kind. She decided to explain a bit more after seeing Angele's regretful face.

"It's not just us. Liliado and Northland Alliance are short in potions as well. Many resource points were destroyed or taken during the war, so…"

Angele heard her words and sighed, "I understand. It's just I had high expectations."

"I've seen expression like yours many times these days." There was a bitter smile on her face.

"Wait. I have some rare materials in my pouch. Can I still exchange them for magic stones here?"

"Sure, we are in need of materials. We'll buy them for twice the original price. It's a good time to sell whatever you have in hand." The woman smiled again.

Angele took out the preserved Dragon Scale Flowers and a Single-Eye Flower he obtained this time. He had taken them in a hurry, so they did not have nice appearances.

Chapter 107: Choice (2)

Translator: Leo Editor: DarkGem/Frappe

The woman inspected the materials and handed five black cards to Angele. One black card could be exchanged for 1000 magic stones. As a matter of fact, these were actually reshaped high-quality magic stones. Those black cards could be used anywhere, and 5000 magic stones could be sold for a great amount of money.

The woman had seen a lot of rare materials like the ones Angele provided, so she was not surprised that they were worth thousands of magic stones. Trading involving a large amount of magic stones usually happened between large families.

"Thanks for the help," Angele said in low voice, and he kept the black cards into his pouch.

"You're welcome."

Angele turned around and left the counter.

"If I can't buy the Water of Asu right now, I'll have to search for a defensive spell model first." He wasted no time and started heading toward the Spell Department.

*****************

About ten minutes later, Angele stood in front of the large wall. He raised his head and looked at the listed spells on it.

There were about eight other people around. Some were old and some were young. Most of them were staring at the wall. Several people were checking the price with the clerk.

The hall was quiet. Two people had even started meditating on the ground. Angele looked at the list and checked through the Fire, Wind, and Necromancy spells.

There were only two level 0 Wind spells: Light Weight and Lesser Agility Boost. For the Fire spells, he saw Flashing and Ignite. There was no low-level defensive spell models for those two categories.

There were three defensive spell models in the Necromancy category:

Weapon Control: Effective on weapons with wooden handle. The weapons will attack their owner. Range: 3 meters. Angele stopped reading after seeing it was only effective on weapons with wooden handles, and the spell itself was weak.

Death Coil: Surround the caster with death energy and create a weak force field around. Range: 2 meters. Good for close combat. Weakness: Ranged weapons.

This one could be taken into consideration.

And the last one:

Bone Armor: Cover oneself with bones. The stronger the bones, the higher the defense. Great for defending physical attacks. Weakness: Energy attacks.

Angele furrowed his eyebrows. He knew those ones were the bestsellers in the school, and they were helpful during basic combats. However, Angele did not find the one he wanted.

He walked toward the clerk. It was an old woman wearing glasses.

"What do you want?"

"Can I have a look at the level 1 defensive spell models? The ones on the list are not suitable for me," Angele lowered his voice.

The old woman raised her head and looked at Angele after hearing his question, seemingly a bit surprised. Only rank 3 wizard apprentices that were trying to break the limit would purchase high-level defensive spell models. She was surprised because Angele looked so young. On the contrary, she had spent her whole life reaching rank 3.

She opened the drawer and took out a thin booklet, "These are all the level 1 spell models we have right now. You can take a look. Some of the spell models are created by formal wizards, so they may not be practical."

Angele had five black cards on him, so he skipped the price list. He started searching the spell he wanted in Necromancy, Fire, and Wind category.

He looked at the Wind category first because the Wind energy particles loved him. Angele thought the reason was the enchanted ring he used before, but he was not sure about it. There was a whole page of Wind spells, but a lot of them had similar effects.

There was a spell called Wind Blast. It had many variations, but they shared the same name. Some had the range of five meters, and some had the range of seven meters. They were modified by different wizards, and spells with a smaller range usually could do more damage than the ones with a larger range.

There was also something called the Party Spells such as Summon Wind. It would produce wind within a very large area and was mostly used for large parties.

Angele skipped all the random spells and started looking for the defensive spells. The spells on this booklet were all level 1 spells and only wizards could cast them. Actually, only wizards were able to cast defensive spells, so Angele had to be able to cast level 1 spells to be recognized as a formal wizard.

Angele kept checking the list. A spell called Berlin's Haste caught his attention. It could boost up the projectile's speed, and he thought he could use it to increase his arrow's damage.

This spell was similar to the Agility Boost. If Angele could cast it on his boots, he would be able to move faster. The price was only 10 magic stones.

There were not many defensive spell models in the Wind category, so Angele turned the page to the Fire category.

The page that listed Fire spells had a red background. Angele quickly went through the damage and support spells, then located the defensive spells quickly. There were about eight of them:

High Temperature Field: Create a fire force field around the caster and it will cause whoever approaches the field to lose water. Opponents will be exhausted. Range, 3 meters.

Flaming Iron: Create a piece of high-temperature iron and it will attack whoever tries to hurt the caster. Needed material: Iron Shard.

Heat Wave: Create cold and heat waves in a 2-meter radius, enemies will lose their balance after entering the air.

Heat Drain: Creates an energy field. Radius: 3 meters. Enemies' body temperature will be lowered, and their actions will be slowed down.

Flame Guard: Enemies will be stricken with fire within the effective radius. Radius: 2 meters. Fast, low damage.

…

....

Defensive Fire spells were actually good choices to Angele, but he was not sure which one to get. Therefore, he decided to check out the Necromancy category as well.

The background of the Necromancy page was black, and the words were written in white ink. Angele found the defensive spells and started reading:

Body Harden: Caster can harden part of his body and increase one's physical defense greatly. Weakness: Fire.

Mosrin's Death Coil: Surround the caster with death energy. The energy does constant damage to enemies within the range. Range, 10 meters. Combat spell.

Ranged Eliminator: Works on any ranged wooden ranged weapons. Projectile such as arrows will be destroyed. Minimum distance, 12 meters. Not effective if the enemies are inside the 12-meter range.

Interference Field: Enemies within five meters of the caster will be disoriented. Debuff, fear, exhaustion. More effective on enemies with weak minds.

Abyssal Eye: Eyeball buff. People within the caster's sight will start seeing illusions, and if they cannot distinguish them from reality, they will be exhausted. Universal debuff, stamina drain, fear of battle.

Those were all five defensive spells in the Necromancy category. Two of them needed to be cast by wizards. Meanwhile, Mosrin's Death Coil, Interference Field, and Ranged Eliminator could be set up as a passive spell.

Angele considered himself as a close combat wizard. He trained himself well and his physical attack combos were strong, so most of the time he would be charging toward the enemy. If the enemy had a defensive spell on, he would consider ranged attacks. He needed a passive defensive spell, so he could save time casting it during battles.

For that reason, the passive spells in Necromancy category would not work well for him. There were many ranged spells that did area damage and he could cast them easily if given enough space. However, he needed a way to deal with enemies that were strong on their own. Those three passive spells were focused on dealing with groups of enemies.

Angele had his eyebrows scrunched up as he turned the page back to Fire category, but none of them could help him defend physical attacks unless his enemies could be taken down with basic flame attacks.

He looked at other categories. Water and Plant category had many spells that could help defend physical attacks, but Angele was not so familiar with those energy particles, and he would not be able to reach the full potential. Angele learned a lot from the ancient wizard books. He knew that he needed to focus on one or two types of energy particles.

Wind and Fire energy particles liked him the most, so he should try to use as many Wind and Fire spells as possible. Otherwise, his spell power output would be lower than other wizards. The better he could control the energy particles, the stronger his spells would be.

'What should I do?' Angele furrowed his eyebrows again and kept checking the spells listed in the booklet.

The ideal defensive spell for him was one that could defend up to a certain level of physical attacks; one that included ranged and melee attacks. Also, he needed a barrier to defend the energy strikes, but spells that fulfilled his requirement did not seem to be level 1 spells. Spells like that would be weaker than spells that could only defend physical or energy attacks.

The High Temperature Field was good for close combat, but it was weak against ranged attackers. If the enemies used ranged metal weapons, the spell would make their attack even stronger by raising the temperature of their projectiles. It would not be a wise choice for Angele.

The other one caught Angele's attention was the Heat Drain, but it was an area spell with certain duration and it was weak against strong attacks that focused on a single target.

Apparently, Fire spells were more focused on offense and Wind spells were focused on auxiliary. Even the defensive spells had those characteristics. Angele still wanted to main Fire and use Wind to support. He no longer wished to spend all his time on Necromancy.

The first defensive spell of wizards was extremely important because they could solidify it into Talent Spell. If Angele made the wrong choice, it would greatly affect his future progress.

Chapter 108: Formula (1)

Translator: Leo Editor: DarkGem/Frappe

The Talent Spell was the most important spell for a wizard. After all, casting it would not cost the caster any mentality. There was nearly no limitation on this spell, and it could be cast instantly. Talent Spell separated wizards from wizard apprentices, and that was the reason why formal Wizards were much stronger than rank 3 wizard apprentices.

Angele finally made the decision after thinking for a while.

He purchased all the defensive spell models he saw. Angele had more than enough money to do it and he would have something in storage in case he had to leave the school again.

Besides the defensive spells, Angele also purchased various types of damage spells since he wanted to gather more information for his database. He purchased all the Wind and Fire spells available in the school, and he spent about 1000 magic stones for that. Ramsoda was famous for Necromancy and shadow spells, so the Wind and Fire spells he purchased were all the school had.

Angele purchased about 100 spells, and he handed one black card over to the clerk. The clerk then gave him three magic stones as change. Those magic stones were medium quality magic stones that could be exchanged for thirty regular magic stones.

The clerk asked several wizard apprentices to carry the spell books back to Angele's room.

Angele led them to his room. Each of the wizard apprentices was holding a large box in their hands. The boxes were filled up with spell books, and they were heavy.

After the apprentices helped Angele organize the books, they said goodbye to him and left. Angele stood beside the door and looked at the dorm's hallway.

Most of the doors were locked, and the floor was covered in dust. He could see their footprints on the floor clearly.

"I'm the only one here…" Angele sighed. Wizard apprentices from Necromancy, Enchantment, and Energy Modifying Department lived in this area. There were 10 rooms in this hallway, but it seemed like Angele was the only one who came back. The dust on the floor explained everything.

'Not all rooms were taken when I first arrived here, but now I'm the only one that came back…' Angele was a bit depressed.

The hallway was dark. The oil lamps on the wall were put off as no one lived here for a while. The only light came from Angele's room.

It was once a noisy place. People were talking all the time, but now there was no one around anymore. Angele stood beside the door. He looked at the dark hallway, loneliness filling up his mind.

*KA*

Angele walked into his room and closed the door. He stared at the oil lamp on the desk for a while. The yellow light made him feel relaxed.

"It'll take me at least five minutes to walk from here to the other side of the hallway. There were not that many people in the school even before. Now, the war made the situation even worse." Angele shook his head. He walked toward the large boxes and crouched down.

The boxes' edges were covered with silver iron strips, but they were not locked.

Angele opened the boxes easily.

All the spell books were inside the boxes. The spell boxes were covered in white shells, and the names of the spells were written on the front in black.

Angele grabbed a Wind spell book named Light Weight. He sat down by the desk and started reading under the light. At the same time, Zero started doing its job.

*****************

Zero could easily record everything Angele read, which was the reason why Angele could learn so fast.

An average wizard apprentice needed months to completely finish a spell book. Wizard apprentices with high talent levels could study faster, but they still needed at least two months because learning a spell required basic corresponding knowledge.

For example, the Light Weight spell was based on the two courses: Wind Spell Basics and Support Spell Basic Models. People first needed to finish these two courses before they could actually

understand the spell model.

For the same reason, although Angele purchased about 100 spell books, he needed a lot of knowledge to help him understand the spell models. It cost Angele several magic stones to gain access to the library being repaired. In the next three days, he did not actually learn anything, but he kept reading all the books he needed and stored most of the information in the database. With the database, Angele could check the information anytime he wanted.

Comparing to other wizard apprentices, Angele's learning speed was extremely fast because he only needed to read the book once and Zero would take care of everything else.

After Zero analyzed the new information Angele acquired, it gave Angele a surprise, 'Database is far complete than before. You can choose to enhance the spells, and how strong the spells will depend on how much mentality you have.'

Angele was reading at the library, and he looked happy after hearing Zero's report.

The library was similar to the ones on Earth.

Two large red wooden bookshelves sat in the middle of the library, and the shelves were filled up with various types of books. Several elder wizards were putting up force barriers beside the shelves. They wanted to make sure the wizard apprentices had enough mentality to check the knowledge in the wizard's books. The principle was close to the first Wizardry book Angele obtained. His mind would be destroyed by the book if his Mentality was not stable enough.

Angele was sitting at the corner of the room. The library looked a bit like a meeting hall. The floor was red and the roof was yellow. Yellow glowing crystals were inserted into the walls on the side, which were the source of light in the room. The temperature here was always in the comfortable range. It seemed like someone had cast a spell to modify the temperature in the room constantly.

There were four other wizard apprentices reading books beside Angele. They were very quiet, and the only noise was made by turning the pages.

Wizard apprentices usually did not read at the library. They would borrow the book and read somewhere else because books in the library were thick and there were many parts that were hard for wizard apprentices to understand. They needed time to think about every important point.

Angele was still excited about Zero's report.

'Choose and enhance the spell now?' Zero asked.

'What are the requirements? Check how much mentality is required for enhancing High Temperature Field,' Angele ordered.

'Time needed: 3 months. 2 Mentality will be consumed every day.'

"Three months," Angele muttered. He hesitated.

'How strong the spell will be after the enhancement?'

'Success rate: 87%. Result: Effective area increased, temperature limit increased, energy required increased.'

Angele furrowed his eyebrows and put down the book in his hand.

'I need to set up a standard to measure the power of the spells. I don't have enough practical experiences yet… Once I set up the standard, I'll ask Zero to start enhancing the spells I need.'

20 minutes later…

Angele was walking down a long hallway slowly.

On both sides of the hallway, there were doors and a counter.

A thin old man sat behind the counter. He was reading a red booklet.

He noticed Angele's presence and raised his head, "Two hours, one magic stone. Pick the room yourself. From 1-10 only, other rooms are reserved for formal wizards," the old man said in a light tone.

Angele nodded and put down a magic stone. The old man gave him a wooden tag and Angele tied it to his left wrist. He then turned around and walked toward room 7. The door was made from white metal. It was heavy.

Angele raised his left palm and pressed on the surface of the door. Some red light flashed on the door and a black number 7 appeared on the black wooden tag.

*Ka*

The door opened, Angele stepped in and passed through a long, dark tunnel. He arrived at a large empty room.

The room was large, about the size of a basketball court. The floor, roof, and the walls were covered with black stone bricks. Strange runes were engraved onto those bricks, and they started flashing in random order.

The red glow appeared on one small area and disappeared soon after another area started shining. A large candle chandelier was hanging from the ceiling, the candles brightening the whole room.

There were two other wizard apprentices in the room: one was rank 3, while the other was rank 2 according to Zero's report.

They were training at the right and left side corner. Angele did not care though, as he walked straight toward an empty area on the side.

This was the Spell Lab. It was used for target practices and spell power testing. There were several targets and dummies around Angele. The area was nearly similar to an archery training ground.

The rank 3 wizard apprentice was a blonde middle-aged woman who was using the safe practice area. The safe practice area was protected by defense magic circles, so she could test the debuff spells here. She cast several debuff spells on herself, and the magic circles would cleanse the debuff under her order.

The rank 2 wizard apprentice on the other side was a young man. He was about 20 years old, testing debuff spells on himself as well. His body was covered in a blue glow.

ED Note: If you see any mistakes, leave a comment. We'll address it right away.

Chapter 109: Formula (2)

Translator: Leo Editor: DarkGem/Frappe

Angele did not care what the two were doing. He turned around and stared at a target in front of him.

'Zero, start recording my spell power. Use degrees as the measurement.'

'Recording.'

Angele raised his hand slowly. Some black mist rose from the tip of his finger.

He snapped his fingers loudly, and the wind energy particles blew the black mist toward the target.

*CHI*

After several seconds, the yellow wooden target turned gray but no visible damage could be observed.

Angele furrowed his eyebrows.

'Reporting results, as well as the power data.'

'Necromancy energy particles need 5 degrees of energy to be effective. Enemies with a Stamina lower than 1.5 will take fatal damage, enemies with a Stamina over 1.5 will take mild damage, and enemies with a Stamina higher than 3 will take almost no damage,' Zero reported.

Angele finally understood how much damage he could do with pure energy particles. Casting spells would do much more damage than hitting enemies with energy particles. Also, the cost was way too high for what the energy particles could do.

'It means, 5 degrees of energy will only damage normal human beings. When enemies have knight-level attributes, those energy particles won't do anything. I should've tested it earlier when I had the chance. Casting spells will conserve my energy and do much damage to my opponents.' Angele thought with furrowed brows.

'How much energy do I need to destroy the wooden target?'

'19 degrees,' Zero replied.

Angele narrowed his eyes. He drew his black dagger and walked toward the target.

*CHI*

Angele was surprised that his slash did not break the target.

He stood still and applied more force to the slash.

*CRACK*

The wooden target was split in half. The upper part dropped to the ground.

'I had to slash it with more strength… It means my physical attack equals about what 19 degrees of energy can do,' Angele thought.

He tested other types of energy particles after. With Zero's storage function, Angele had a total of 30 degrees of energy in his body, but different types of energy particles had different densities.

Wind energy particles had low density. Angele destroyed a wooden target with 19 degrees of energy. The wind he summoned was almost like a small tornado.

Angele left the lab after he used up all the energy.

The next day, he went to the lab again. He tested Fire energy particles this time, summoning a small fireball with 19 degrees of energy. The wooden target was easily destroyed.

Angele assumed, 'Degrees is the universal unit for calculating basic energy consumption. Different energy particles do similar damage when the consumed energy is the same. Generally speaking, all the negative energy particles do pretty much the same damage, the only thing that matters is the energy consumption. That's how the unit is created. In addition to that, the density of energy particles does not really matter. Zero probably noticed it, but I didn't.'

Angele left after he had no energy left and returned to the lab again the next day.

He stood in front of the target he just destroyed, and thought, 'If I can set degrees as the unit for my spell power output, I can probably start measuring my actual combat power and it'll be much easier for me to record the data.

'Water of Asu is essential to me, but there's no way I can get it right now. I should keep doing experiments right now.'

After several days of testing, Angele learned the limit of his physical attack power, which was 20.1 degrees. It was a bit weaker than his pure energy particle power, which was around 22 degrees, but that was the best he could do.

With the new unit, Angele now had a way to measure how strong his enemies were. Although fights were not only focused on power, he would have a general idea about how he should fight the opponent.

The other two wizard apprentices he had met before came to the lab every day as well.

The middle-aged woman was Kelly Navister. A rank 3 wizard apprentice who specialized in Enchantment. The other young man was a rank 2 wizard apprentice. He was initially afraid of joining their conversation, but when Angele approached him and asked what he was practicing, he finally started talking. The man was named Michele, Kelly's nephew. His father was a rich merchant. He was the hope of the family.

*BAM*

Angele hit the wooden target with a ray of green flame.

The target was covered in green flame and started burning immediately. It turned into a pile of ash within seconds.

'Heart of the Glowing Elephant. Flame Strike. Damage type: Energy. Spell power: 12 degrees. Mentality consumed: 1. Mana consumed: 0.'

Angele was satisfied. He nodded and put the heart back into his pouch. He could only cast Flame Strike twice a day, but it could be cast instantly and its damage was acceptable.

12 degrees of power could penetrate normal armor pieces and could injure a knight greatly. Grand Knights had their own energy barriers. It was likely that it would not do too much damage to them.

Angele still had the one-time bomb made from the other heart. He thought the power of that bomb would be much higher than the heart.

*CLAP CLAP*

Angele heard someone clapping hands.

Kelly smiled and walked toward him. The woman had an average-looking face, and her brown hair was draped over her shoulders. Her lips were thin and she had sharp eyes.

"Angele, how are your experiments going?" she asked. The woman was smiling, but Angele could not sense the kindness from her smile.

"Almost done." Angele nodded. He was not trying to hide anything from others. The glowing heart was just an average enchanted item, and the only thing important to him right now was the new spell models he was testing.

"Kelly, is there anything you would like to discuss with me?" Angele turned around and smiled.

The reason why Michele was afraid to talk to them was due to their ranks. Rank 3 wizard apprentices were far more significant to the school than rank 2 wizard apprentices. It was hard for the wizard apprentices to go from rank 2 to rank 3, so that made rank 3 apprentices rare.

Although all the wizard apprentices had the chance to visit the wizard masters, masters would not spend too much time on them as they had more important matters to take care of. Rank 3 wizard apprentices created their own group. They would not spend too much time with wizard apprentices of lower ranks.

"Not many apprentices were summoned back this time. I heard several formal wizards were killed during the war," Kelly whispered.

Michele just stood there and listened. He was smiling politely, but Kelly was not interested in him at all as he was just a rank 2 wizard apprentice. Michele was already 20 years old, and it was very unlikely that he would become a wizard. Although Michele was her nephew, he was not valuable to her. It was an unspoken rule that rank 2 wizard apprentices should only talk to rank 3 apprentices when asked.

"Really?" Angele wiped the dust off his gray robe. After all the tests, his robe was covered in dust.

"No one is applying to the missions listed on the board right now. Many masters lost their disciples in the war as well." Kelly wanted Angele to guess what she was trying to imply.

"So what?" Angele was not concerned.

"It means, the school needs us. There are many unsolved events around the area. People will think Ramsoda is weakened, so they will try to take advantage of that. It's not our problem anyway, I'm just letting you know. Angele, you asked if I had any special potion formula in my family, right?" Kelly smiled.

"I thought you said you didn't?" Angele asked her about the formula collection the last time they chatted, but Kelly said she didn't have any formula in hand.

"We don't, but I found someone who did." Kelly wanted to get close to Angele. Angele reached rank 3 at 18 years old, which was an incredible feat. There were not many talented wizard apprentices left in the school at the moment, and Angele would become a disciple of one of the masters soon. It was the best time for her to do Angele a favor, and she was hoping that Angele would do something for her in return in the future.

"Who? And what formula?" Angele's expression changed. He asked in a serious tone.

"The authentic formula of Griffin's Nightmare. Their family specializes in collecting rare materials. It's not a big family, but they declined my offer." Kelly laughed.

"Why?" Angele's eyes narrowed, "Thanks for the information, Kelly. Can you tell me more about the family, if you don't mind?"

"Sure." Kelly's expression turned serious, "They sell all types of materials. The family got stronger because one of them became a wizard apprentice using a special method. The wizard apprentice was from our school. He learned from a wanderer who was a wizard. The wizard was a potion specialist who was being pursued by his enemies due to Griffin's Nightmare. He acquired the formula from an incident, but he burned it in front of the people chasing him because he did not want to get involved anymore. However, the old wizard tricked everyone. He actually made a copy of the formula and gave it to his student. After the wizard apprentice died, the formula was passed down for generations as a family heirloom. Someone in my family discovered their secret not so long ago."

Griffin's Nightmare, Angele read about it on a book not so long ago, "Griffin's Nightmare… I heard it could make Water of Asu more effective. It's a lost formula. I didn't think it was still in someone's hand. Since they declined your offer, I guess you want me to help you to take it from them? Tell me, what do you need me to do?"

The formula was too valuable for Angele to pass. He was hungry for power, and he would not mind getting his hands dirty. However, Angele had his bottom line. He would not do something that was too cruel.

Kelly's expression did not change after Angele questioned her. She already knew that Angele would help.

"The potion will help you break the limit easier, and it's extremely rare, so we are the only people that know about the situation. I already took care of the family members who sent me the message…" Kelly stopped for a second. She was trying to tell Angele that it should stay as a secret between them, "We almost wiped them off the land. However, a rank 2 wizard apprentice suddenly appeared and interrupted my plan. His spells were very strange. My nephew was hurt during the fight." Kelly looked at Michele, who was still listening to their conversation by the side.

Michele rolled his right sleeve up after hearing Kelly's words. Angele saw a long silver scar climbing up his arm, which looked horrifying.

Angele was a bit surprised. He had never seen a silver scar.

"Did you ask other rank 3 wizard apprentices to help?" Angele asked.

"I did… We only told them about the name of the potion. Most of them had no idea what it was. They were not into Potion Study, but since you asked me about the formulas, I decided to discuss the matter with you," Kelly smiled, and answered.

Angele doubted if they were the only ones who knew about the situation.

Griffin's Nightmare was also relatively known as the Nightmare Potion. Although it was rare, rank 3 wizard apprentices did not really care about it. The materials required to concoct the potion were all very rare, and the success rate was low. Even if they could acquire the formula, they would not be able to afford the cost.

Kelly probably did some research after Angele asked her about the formulas, so she knew that Angele needed something like this badly.

Chapter 110: Riverside (1)

Translator: Leo Editor: DarkGem/Frappe

"Wait, so I'm the only one in the school who decided to help?" Angele narrowed his eyes and asked.

Kelly was not trying to hide anything from Angele, "Well, you're right, but you need the formula, right?"

"Actually, I'm not going to get too much benefit from just the formula, is there anything else you can offer?" Angele spoke in a light tone. He decided to ask for more, so Kelly would not get suspicious. Kelly probably knew the success rate of crafting Nightmare potion was low, but she did not know Angele had the chip that could help him increase the success rate.

Kelly was not surprised to hear Angele's question. She nodded, "As a reward, I'll gift you 500 regular magic stones. What do you think?"

'500 magic stones!' Although Angele had four black cards on him, he was surprised nonetheless. He did not expect Kelly to offer so many magic stones.

Angele worked very hard to get magic stones before the war started, and this time he almost lost his life for obtaining those rare materials. Although he was shocked by the offer, his expression did not change.

"Deal. Just send me the message when you're ready."

Angele drew a snake-shaped rune about the size of an egg in the air as he spoke. It looked like a snake that was about to pounce forward.

He then pushed the rune with his finger. The rune turned into a black flash and sank into Kelly's gray robe.

Kelly quickly drew a strange insect-shaped rune in the air and pushed it into Angele's robe as well.

"Good, now we've exchanged our Rune Sigils." Angele nodded, "We can contact each other through it directly later."

"Sure, I'll talk to you soon." Kelly smiled.

**************

Angele checked the time using Zero after leaving the spell lab. It was 3 o'clock in the afternoon. His plan was to head back to his room and have some rest before study the books stored in the chip. However, he suddenly realized that he had no idea how the Wizards were ranked, so he decided to spend some more time in the library first.

He was the only one in the library at the moment. The place was empty. Angele walked past the two large bookshelves and started checking the glowing shelves. The red ones required the readers to have the Mentality of a rank 3 wizard apprentice, while the black ones could only be read by formal wizards.

Angele checked several red bookshelves before he finally found the book he wanted.

He carefully touched the red glow with his finger. A hole appeared on the barrier, which fitted Angele's hand well. He grabbed the book with a black cover easily. He did not take the book to the table, only standing beside the bookshelf as he started reading.

On the surface of the book, there was a gray mouse with a pair of blue glowing eyes. It looked it was about to strike whoever was planning to read the book. The blue glow almost looked like a flame, and there was smoke coming out of its eyes.

Angele noticed the strange mouse. He rubbed its eyes with his left hand.

*CHI*

Angele's hand was hurt by the heat. It meant the flame was real.

He was surprised. The flame looked identical to the flame on the Glowing Elephant created. The only difference was the color. He opened the book and started checking the Wizards' ranking system.

'Wizards control the power and the rules of nature. Living beings who understand this power and rules are called Wizards.'

That was the first sentence on the first page. Angele continued reading.

'6000 years ago, various races started the war against each other due to the 300-year-old hatred between them. Countless wars were declared by Humans, Demi-humans, Merfolk and Inhuman. Many mortals and wizards died. The stronger wizards decided to make a scale to measure the strength of their opponents. That was the prototype of the ranking system. The scale could be applied to any ancient race. It was also the first scale used to decide the ranks of Wizards.'

'3000 years ago, the scale was improved due to the extinction of many races. Human Wizards were the strongest at that time, so they changed the ranking system to provide a better measurement for the Wizards.'

'And the one we are still using was created in the year 1429.'

Angele furrowed his eyebrows, '1429? That's one hundred years ago. How old is this book…?'

He thought for a while and started reading again.

'Titles of the Wizards.'

'Wizards are ranked on how many spells one can cast without getting a backlash. Based on the level of the spells, there are nine general ranks.'

He saw a chart under the explanation. The nine-level system was carefully explained beside the chart. Details on how each level was determined were written inside the chart.

There was a signature spell between each stage, which was used to measure Wizards' ranks. Also, the power of wizards at the same rank varied due to the difference between the Talent Spells they had.

The power difference between the ranks was tremendous. The same spell could deal ten times or even 20 times more damage when cast by a wizard at a higher rank. That was the reason why a low-rank wizard had to show respect to high-rank wizards. They never know what would happen if a high-rank wizard became infuriated.

There were 9 ranks for wizards, each rank differing in the way they communicated and how they pay respect to wizards at higher ranks. Angele finished the book quickly. He skipped some of the lore, but he had a general idea about the wizard's ranking system.

'9 ranks and 9 class levels…?' Angele returned the book to the bookshelf and started thinking. At the end of the book, it mentioned the most famous wizards in the 6000-year history. They were all rank 7 wizards, but they were far from reaching the top rank. Although they did not reach the top rank, everyone related to wizards on this land knew about their names.

Based on all the information Angele collected recently, he had a better understanding about the landmarks. Ramsoda College, Liliado, Santiago, and Northland Alliance, all those wizard organizations were founded on the southern side of the land. They were close to the coastline, and they all had their territories.

10% of the land was controlled by Wizard organizations. On the other side of the Ramsoda Empire, there was a huge desert, and by going across the desert, people could reach the wizard organizations on the northern side of the land. Communications between southern wizard organizations and northern organizations were hard due to the long distance.

The area Angele was in right now was called the Dark Land of Wizards by Wizards from other areas. It meant that the place was for wizards who focused on destruction. Ramsoda and Northland Alliance liked the nickname because the damage spells they created were incredibly powerful than the ones created by other wizard organizations.

Angele recalled the days when he was on the ship. They stopped by several docks and wizard apprentices went to different wizard organizations. Yuri went to a place called White Tooth Castle. It was very far from Ramsoda and would take Angele years to reach there on foot.

It seemed like there were many Wizard organizations on this land, but they could not communicate with organizations from other areas due to the travel distance.

Angele thought for a while and started wondering how the other apprentices he met on the ship were doing. Goody guy Yuri, unruly Nancy, talented Jared, Luc Lando, and Velvet, they all went to different organizations.

Loneliness filled him up from within. He barely had any friend at the school. Benedict was the one Angele had the most conversations with, but he was from another organization.

'I don't have anyone to talk to here…' Angele looked around and thought.

He looked around. The library was still silent. Angele missed the days he spent at the Baron's territory and the days he had at Marua Harbor. He decided to pursue his goal alone, but sometimes he wondered if he made the right choice.

Angele shook his head. "One day, I'll meet them again," he muttered.

He left the library and decided to check every area of the school. He had always wanted to learn more about the school since he was accepted, but he did not have the time to do so. The main hall could only be entered by formal wizards. There was a black barrier blocking the entrance. Wizard apprentices could not even peek inside.

There were only three vendors left at the trading area. One of them was the place Angele purchased his first set of potion concoction equipment.

The Mission Hall was the place he accepted requests. It was empty as well, but there were still many requests listed on the board. The school was huge and it could easily fit more than ten thousand apprentices.

There were many faculties in the school, and there was a huge selection of programs offered by the faculties. For example, Energy Modification offered more than ten different programs, Enchantment and Necromancy offered more than twenty programs. However, most of the programs had no student, and masters would only be sent to teach the program when there were enough registered students. After the war, many masters and students had not returned yet. Angele doubted if courses were still being offered by the faculties.

The library, Potions Department, lap area, and service department were the places Angele already visited. The dorm was separated based on the faculties.

There was one last area that Angele would like to visit: the garden area.

Chapter 111: Riverside (2)

Translator: Leo Editor: DarkGem/Frappe

Most of the people who went to the garden area just wanted to relax while observing different plants. The area also helped the air circulation underground. There was a small artificial lake in the middle of the garden, and several high-quality, white stone benches were built beside the river.

The lake was clean and the water was still.

Angele picked a white bench and sat down under the tree. He felt relaxed just by looking at the beautiful scenery.

A large, triangular golden crystal was inserted into the middle of the ceiling, rays of gentle light shining upon the lake. The light was simulating the sunlight, and it made the whole garden area bright.

Angele sat on the bench. He could feel the chill from the stone as he pressed the surface of the bench with his hands. It was strangely smooth, as though the surface was coated with a special translucent paint.

The wind blowing over Angele's face was warm and smooth, tree leaves and grasses started shaking in the wind. The large, triangular crystal cast the reflection upon the surface of the water. It almost looked like there was another piece of a crystal inside the lake.

Angele rested for a while. As he was about to leave, he heard people talking from the other side of the lake. Several people walked out of the bush. They were wearing gray robes.

There were female wizard apprentices and three male wizard apprentices. They looked young. One of the girls had an attractive body and a charming face. She was talking to a male wizard apprentice on the side.

The five were walking toward the benches on the lakeside. They were here to relax, that was what Angele assumed. They were not too far from him. With the help of Zero, Angele could easily hear their conversation.

"For real?" The charming girl opened her eyes widely and asked admirably.

The male wizard apprentice by her side nodded. It looked like he was proud of himself, "Yes, I almost finished learning my first spell model. The basic courses are finally done. I spent a whole lot of time studying before I returned to the school."

"Come on, you spent most of the time eating and sleeping. You only learned the spell model because your talent level is high." The other male apprentice laughed, "I'm very close to finishing the first spell model as well. I spent a bunch of time studying as well."

"I'm so jealous of you two." The girl shook her hand with a depressed expression, "Lisa and I am still learning Spell Arrangement. For some reason, we just can't get the hang of it. We probably still need one or two more years before we can learn our first spell models."

"Malfa is very close to the top level of rank 2, so we can rely on him after that. I think Malfa's family will spend all the resources on him, right? My dearest Malfa?" the other girl mocked.

The five were having a good time around the bench. Most of their conversation topics revolved around the male wizard apprentice named Malfa. The other four asked him questions about courses from time to time. One of the girl wizard apprentices was cute and vibrant, while the other was quiet but sexy.

Angele sat on the bench and listened to their words and laughs. He had this thought on his mind that he was not the fresh apprentice anymore after all the time he spent learning and meditating. He had already reached the limit as a rank 3 wizard apprentice. Time really flew by.

Angele watched the young wizard apprentices on the other side of the lake. He knew he was already at a much higher level than them. He needed to set his goal higher. He sat there for several more minutes before he stood up and started heading back. There were still things he needed to take care of, so he did not want to waste time anymore.

He quickly disappeared at the corner of the only path behind the bench.

"Coco, what are you looking at?" Lisa saw her friend was looking at the other side of the river. It looked like she was attracted to something.

"You guys saw the man on the other side? He gives me a feeling that he…" Coco thought for a while, but she did not find the right word to describe her feeling.

The three male wizard apprentices raised their heads and saw the lonely shadow of the man who was heading to the exit of the garden.

"He must be a rank 3 wizard apprentice." Malfa sounded jealous.

"How do you know that?" His friends all stared at him.

"His mentality… is incredibly strong!" Malfa lowered his voice, "Much stronger than mine! I saw him looking at us when we were talking. His eyes were glowing."

"What?!" Someone yelled. All of them were shocked.

"His eyes were sharp, but I didn't see them glowing."

"I could feel it. Being stared at by him wasn't pleasing. It felt like there were needles stabbing into my skin." Lisa furrowed her eyebrows.

Malfa nodded, "That's what my grandfather told me before. When a rank 3 wizard apprentice reaches the limit, it means his mentality is nearly to that of a formal wizard's and his eyes will start glowing. My mentality is strong enough to observe the energy particles around his eyes. We should stay away from wizard apprentices like that man, and we should never provoke him!"

"So… his almost has the mentality of a formal wizard!? You're kidding, right? Malfa, this man looked like he is at our age!"

"I'm not joking," Malfa spoke in a deep tone.

The five stopped talking. Their achievements were nothing compared to what the man had at his age. Malfa almost felt ashamed of talking about the first spell model he learned in front of the man.

"Well, there are geniuses in this world, and they'll do anything better than us anyways." Malfa sighed, and he laughed.

"Yea, let's continue with our earlier conversation." The other young man nodded.

They recovered from the shock and started talking again. It almost looked like nothing had happened.

However, the girl named Coco was still peeking at the direction the man headed toward from time to time.

'I must move forward. I need to stop wasting my time…' Coco thought. She put her hands behind her and clenched her fists.

**********************

Angele walked down the tunnel. He had no idea that his strength gave a stranger motivation, but he would not care even if he knew what happened after he left.

There were many things he needed to do now. He needed to find the substitutes for the required materials of Potion of Tranquility, choose his Talent spell, and try to break the limit.

In order to become a wizard, Angele needed the Water of Asu and a suitable defensive spell. Zero could help him calculate his success rate on breaking the limit.

Zero could help Angele determine the success rate before he actually tried to break the limit. He would not attempt it if the success rate was low. He would try to keep increasing the success rate by collecting necessary resources. There was no point for him to simply rely on luck like other wizard apprentices.

This was why Angele believed that he could become a wizard. If he could obtain the formula of Nightmare Potion from Kelly, he could use it to increase the effectiveness of the Water of Asu. According to the information he collected, Nightmare Potion could increase his success rate of breaking the limit by 30%, which was an incredible figure.

However, Nightmare Potion was one of the five hardest potions to make in Potion Study, and it was also the most complex one in the mid-level potions. Only Potion Masters could concoct them, and the success rate was low. That was the reason why other rank 3 wizard apprentices were not interested in Kelly's offer.

'Spell enhancement requires mentality and energy particles. After this is done, I need to return to Lennon city with the formula and enhance the spells I use. Although things may not go as planned, I still need to try my best.' Angele made up his mind.

Angele spent the next two days doing potion experiments. He used the stored information on materials and created multiple experiment plans. He then asked Zero to keep simulating the process and collect the results.

He also started learning the knowledge he recorded and the spell models he bought. There was so much information that he felt tired by just searching through the database. Angele had a hard time understanding all those spell models even with the help of Zero. He wondered how difficult it was for others to just learn one spell model.

Other wizard apprentices needed to memorize a huge amount of knowledge and information every day. Moreover, they needed to review the things they learned from the courses, so they would not forget. Angele could progress much faster than them because he had Zero's help in making his learning pace more efficient.

After reading the explanations about Wizards on the book, Angele already knew Wizards generally had better memory ability than others due to the amount of knowledge required to learn spell models. However, the books did not mention about Wizards having a photographic memory, and the things they needed to memorize became more and more complex in the later stages.

No matter how fast one could learn, he would still slow down when there was too much information.

Also, with the help of Zero, Angele had a different learning curve than others. People usually had to keep reviewing the learned knowledge and convert it into long-term memory. However, Angele only needed to understand the things he wished to learn once, and Zero would take care of the storage of his memory.

Although his talent level was low and it seemed like he was unlikely to become a wizard, he still managed to speed up the process with the chip's support. He could increase his success first and try to break the limit after finding the right timing. It would take him some time, but it was totally worth it.

Chapter 112: Procedure (1)

Translator: Leo Editor: DarkGem/Frappe

Under the dim light, Angele stood beside the lab table as he looked at the huge yellow claw on it quietly. The shadow of his head covered a small part of the table.

'Adjusting… Energy output increasing… dissolving the materials…' Zero reported.

Angele raised his right hand slowly. There was a thin layer of red coating on his palm, almost like he dipped his right hand into some paint.

He carefully pressed the yellow claw with his palm.

*CHI*

The noise sounded like he was grilling meat.

The large yellow claw started melting from the area Angele pressed. It became a ball of yellow slime after about ten seconds, which stuck on his right hand.

Angele used his left hand to draw runes in the air. Those runes were surrounded by red glows and were flashing. Those runes looked strangely beautiful inside the dark room.

The yellow slime on Angele's right started solidifying as the red runes disappeared.

The slime ball started boiling, bubbles forming on its surface. The room was filled up with the steam coming out of the slime ball that stank.

Zero kept providing information to Angele by putting up holograms in his view. Angele's eyes were wide open as he stared at the slime ball carefully. As time passed, the slime ball was getting smaller and smaller. It seemed like the heat was reducing the ball's volume.

Half an hour later, the slime ball was reduced to the size of a palm. Angele closed his eyes slowly. He had not rested for a while, and he stopped drawing the runes in the air as well.

"Finally, it's done," Angele mumbled. He opened his eyes and started observing the small yellow ball on his palm.

"Had to use the special method to melt the hardest part of a Claw Warrior. This purified ball is one of the best materials for making the inner armor. Its magic resistance is high." Angele nodded. He carefully covered the ball with a piece of black cloth and placed it inside a box on the floor.

He then took out a gray egg out of his pouch. Angele had traded his snacks for it on his way back, but he had no idea what it was. He asked Zero to scan it, but the result only indicated that there was an unknown species inside the egg. Information about it was not included in the database.

Angele asked Allen and the Elder, but they said it was just a random egg. They assumed it was a scorpion's egg.

Angele put the egg under the light. He rotated it around and kept observing it. The egg was actually quite heavy, about one kilogram to 1.5 kilograms, and it did not have any distinct smell. Its surface was gray and coarse.

'Zero, do you know what this egg is? Based on all the data I collected recently?' Angele asked.

'Please determine the shell's component first,' Zero responded.

Angele nodded and crouched down. He searched through the box and took out a round, black case. He put down the case on the table and touched the lid with one of his fingers. A small green light dot rose upon the surface of the lid, unlocking the case immediately.

Angele opened the case carefully. There were five, petal-shaped, small containers inside. Four were at the corners and one was in the middle. Each of the containers was filled up with gel, liquid or dust. Those colorful materials were crafted by Angele not so long ago. Angele grabbed a slim glass rod and added some green gel on the tip of it. He then carefully applied the gel onto the gray egg.

His eyes started glowing again, and he stared at the egg, 'Checking… Analyzing its reaction with acid…'

Some green smoke rose from the surface of the egg silently.

'The probability of the egg being of the Red Needle Dark Scorpion species is 81.3%. It could also be an egg of the White Needle Dark Scorpion species, the probability is 12.9%...'

Angele guessed it right, 'I knew it was an egg of Dark Scorpion. Based on the information I acquired from the book, a grown-up Dark Scorpion would be about one meter and was an aggressive

creature. Problem is, this scorpion does not do any poison damage, and it could only do basic physical damage. I can tame it, but one scorpion won't do too much for me. If I can tame more than ten scorpions, I can order them to guard my manor after I become a formal wizard.'

Angele shook his head and put down the scorpion egg. Although it was not rare, it was still one of the rewards he obtained from the trip. There were not many scorpions in the market, so he could probably sell it for several hundred of magic stones. He put the egg back into the box and covered it with silk.

There was one last thing he needed to do today. Angele took out an ancient telescope from the box. It was made from copper, and it could be retracted by pulling either end.

"It's probably used for communication." Angele found a small door on the left side of the telescope. He opened it right away by pulling the handle. There was a diamond-shaped notch inside and three black metal strips on the side.

"Alright." Angele grabbed a magic stone and inserted a magic stone into the notch. The three metal strips held the magic stone in place. He then closed the door after making sure he did everything correctly.

Angele knocked the scope three times and started waiting. The telescope started shaking. It was almost like something was dragging it toward a certain direction.

It was the first time Angele saw something like this. He released the telescope and it started leaning toward a certain direction after floating into the air.

*CHI*

A ray of white light came out of the scope and dropped to the ground. A lady in a white robe appeared in the shell-shaped light. It was almost she was right in front of Angele, but he knew it was something similar to a hologram.

"We meet again." The lady was about 20 years old. Her brown hair draped over her shoulders.

The lady looked gentle, but Angele could sense a hint of arrogance from her eyes.

"I'm Delanya. Do you remember me?"

"Delanya?" Angele furrowed his eyebrows, "Princess of Liliado? Princess Delanya? Sorry, I didn't recognize you." He leaned forward and bowed to Delanya.

"It's fine. It's just a title, I don't really have any power in hand. You lent me a hand back in the garden and you saved my life," Delanya spoke in a light tone, "Since you figured out how to use the telescope, we can communicate through it in the future. Liliado is not too far from Ramsoda, I haven't had the chance to express my gratitude to what you did for me in the garden. Tell me what you want, I can probably send you some."

Angele had something on his mind.

"If you do wish to help me, I'm wondering if you could get me some Water of Asu? Situation in my school is bad, the Potions Department doesn't sell it anymore." Angele knew Liliana would take him in as her disciple since he already reached rank 3, but the school would not simply share Water of Asu with him. His talent level was 2, and he needed more Water of Asu than wizard apprentices with higher talent levels.

Delanya scrunched up her eyebrows, "Water of Asu… I don't have much left. How much do you need?"

"How much can you send me?" Angele was excited that Delanya actually had it.

"Two servings," Delanya shook her head, "That's all I can send. I need it as well. Although I'm a royal member, I can't just simply send a large amount of Water of Asu to you."

"That's so generous of you. Two servings would be great." Angele nodded and smiled.

Delanya nodded, "Great. When do you want me to send them to you?" She was happy that Angele was satisfied with what she could offer.

"I'm on a mission, and I'll return to the school in half a month. I'll take the telescope with me, and I'll contact you when I arrive at my destination. You can ask someone to send to me after that."

"Sure. Did you harvest any rare material from the garden? Can you share some with me?" Delanya asked.

Angele thought for a second and responded, "I traded most of them for magic stones. I don't owe you anything, so we should probably follow the rule. We can trade."

"What do you want?" Delanya asked, "I can see that you're going to try to break the limit. I'm actually very close to that as well. Do you need enchanted items? Or defensive spell models? Or maybe some weapons?"

"Do you have any Wind or Fire defensive spell model?" Angele wondered if she could offer something better than the ones he bought.

"Wind or Fire?" Delanya hesitated for a second, but her expression did not change, "I have many Fire defensive spell models, but not many Wind spell models."

"I have a Claw Slime here. I can give you half of it, but I want a modified defensive spell model. However, if modified defensive spell models are hard for you to obtain, I'll take basic defensive spell models as well." Angele lowered his voice.

"Modified ones? That's nearly impossible." Delanya scrunched up her eyebrows again.

"Well, basic models will be fine then, but I want two of them. Also, can you give me some potion formulas?" Angele shrugged, "Forgot to mention it to you that I'm currently majoring in Potion Study."

"Sure. I can't leak my organization's modified spell models to you. Potion formulas are not a problem to me, but I can only get you the basic ones. I'll send you… maybe three basic potion formulas." Delanya lowered her voice as well. She suddenly turned around after finishing her words. It seemed someone was behind her.

"Someone is looking for me. I'll talk to you later."

"Alright." Angele nodded.

*CHI*

Delanya disappeared as the light from the scope disappeared. Angele caught the dropping telescope with his hands.

Chapter 113: Procedure (2)

Translator: Leo Editor: DarkGem/Frappe

Angele held the telescope in hand and pushed the tip to make it retract to its original length.

He pulled the door open again. The magic stone inside the door already turned gray. It seemed that using it to communicate required a fair amount of energy.

Angele closed the door again and tied the telescope with a strong black rope. The telescope was important to him at the moment, so he decided to keep it safe.

"Water of Asu… I saved her, but I didn't expect her to repay me something so valuable." Angele rubbed his chin and smiled.

He looked around his room and flicked his finger. The wind energy particles put the fire in the oil lamp out and the room became dark.

Angele crossed his legs as he sat on his bed. He closed his eyes and started meditating.

***********************

Two days later.

Early in the morning.

Inside the border of Liliado.

A shell-shaped gray city was surrounded by the sea of trees. It was almost like the city was a huge burnt mark in the middle of a forest.

Tall, black stone walls separated the city from the forest. There were four entrances on four sides of the city. People were entering and leaving the city constantly.

It was a sunny day, and the wind was soothing. Several white birds circled above the city while chirping.

At the west side of the city, a gray carriage was slowly advancing toward the city gate. The carriage was mixed within the travelers. There was no fancy decoration on it.

The carriage belonged to a foreign caravan. Most of their carriages were gray, and all the coachmen were wearing white scarfs. The men in the caravan all had a thick beard on their chins, and most of the women were chubby.

The caravan was noisy at this moment.

"Greenwood! One more! Do it one more time!"

People on the street were yelling. They were staring at a carriage in the middle of the caravan.

The coachman of the carriage had a strong body and was wearing a gray scarf as well. The man was in a colorful noble suit, and he also had the thick beard on his chin. There was a black hawk standing on his right shoulder that was stretching its wings.

"Greenwood! Show them what you can do!" The man patted the hawk lightly.

The hawk flew into the sky. It screamed and started hovering around. Its cries sounded almost like it was singing rhythmically.

People watching the hawk all started cheering and clapping. Some people even stopped what they were doing and they were attracted to the hawk's screams.

"Greenwood won the hawk singing contest in the southern province not so long ago!" the man shouted proudly.

"There's no such contest! Come on, old Bass!" Someone laughed.

"Oh, I'm sure he's telling the truth! He held the contest himself!" Someone else mocked.

People started laughing after hearing those words. The atmosphere there was electric.

A young man with blonde hair stuck his head out the window and glanced around. The man's face was pale. He was wearing a yellow tight noble suit and looked quite handsome. The young man had a pair of sharp eyes. He looked gentle and calm. It seemed that he was not concerned about the singing hawk.

"We've arrived at Emma City, master." The young man closed the window and talked to someone inside the carriage.

"Oh, we arrived already?" Another young man with short blonde hair opened the window on the other side and started looking around, "We are getting close to the stable. Go notify the people behind us."

"Understood." The young man with a pale face nodded in affirmation. He opened the door and jumped off the carriage. He then started heading toward a carriage in the back.

Three carriages slowly left the caravan and the coachmen of the carriages reported to the guards.

Four people got off the leading carriage. They were all wearing noble suits with different colors. Two of them were wearing gray robes and there were black crosses drawn on the back of their robes. The guards bowed to them immediately after seeing what they were wearing.

"Greetings!" the guards shouted after bowing. They placed their right fists over their heads and straightened their backs.

The crowd waiting to enter the city got noisy after seeing their gray robes and started backing off in fear.

"It's the mysterious men!"

"Mysterious men! It's Master Michele from the Nunnally Family! I know him!"

"The other one is Master Kelly! I saw her once about ten years ago."

People started whispering.

Michele and Kelly walked toward the carriage in the middle after being greeted by the guards.

A young man with brown, short hair opened the door and jumped the carriage. His eyes were sharp like an eagle's eyes and he was wearing a gray robe as well. He glanced around and the crowd tried not to make any eye contact with him.

"Is this our destination?" the young man with brown, short hair asked in a low voice.

"It is, Master Angele." Kelly smiled.

Angele nodded and pulled his collar up. He started stretching, "Hurry up, I have something else to take care of after this."

Angele sounded like he was the one giving orders, but Kelly and Michele already knew how strong Angele's mentality was after doing some research. Thus, they decided to fulfill any requirements he had. They knew Angele could kill them easily if they made him enraged.

"Sure, everything is going as planned. Angele, have some good rest tonight. We will finish him off tomorrow." Kelly spoke in a light tone.

Angele nodded. He suddenly turned to the right and looked at the hill before entering the city gate.

"What!" A young girl in a green one piece crouched down immediately after Angele looked at her direction. She had been scared witless that she dropped the copper telescope in her hand.

'He was looking at me? How is that even possible! At this distance? How?!' The girl's face turned pale from fright. She was certain that the young man was looking at her, and felt uncomfortable right after making eye contact with him.

"Why is he helping Kelly…" The girl was still feeling sick and her eyes started aching, "I need to report the situation to Gondor right now!"

She recalled the moment Angele stared at her and shivered.

"Those people… Gondor is so kind and gentle, why are they trying to kill him?!" She held her fist tight, "It seems like Nunnally Family hired someone strong assisting them this time, I need to hurry up!"

The girl ran down the hill right away and disappeared into the forest.

*******************

The study's main tone was yellow and was filled with luxurious decorations. There were two small bookshelves beside the wall, but only several brown books were displayed on it. There was also a white table in the middle of the room.

Beside the table, there were two armchairs. Angele and Kelly were sitting opposite to each other. Rays of bright sunlight went through the windows and streamed into the room. The curtain floated in the stiff wind, but Angele still felt relaxed in the chair.

There were about six maids standing beside them. A girl in a short gray skirt was pouring them drinks from a small copper pot.

Two cups filled with blue liquid were gently put down on the table in front of them. A sweet, milky aroma pervaded the air.

Kelly grabbed one of the cups and smiled, "Try it. It's a local specialty, Silky Milk Tea."

Angele held the silver cup in his hand and shook it slightly. The blue liquid inside the cup was clear and charming, Angele knew it must be something special just by looking at it.

He took a sip. The first thing he tasted was the milk, but then he felt the kick that was the sweetness and sourness from the special ingredient. Actually, the tea almost tasted like a rich and aromatic strawberry yogurt.

"Well, get to the point. Who's our enemy?" Angele put down the silver cup and asked in a light tone.

Kelly's expression changed, "We'll take care of the others, the problem is Gondor. Some old guy is helping him and he was the one who attacked us from behind the last time based on the intel we collected. Please make sure the old guy doesn't bother us when we're finishing off Gondor and the rest of his family."

"That's it?" Angele nodded, "Lure him out and I'll take care of it."

"Thanks a lot," Kelly chuckled, "Would you like to meet the leader of my family?"

"Nah, it's fine. I want to have some rest. Just give me a room." Angele declined her offer.

"Sure." Kelly clapped her hands, "You, lead master Angele to his room."

"Yes, Miss Kelly," the girl that poured them tea responded.

After Angele left the room, Kelly laid her back in the armchair and started sipping the milk tea.

"Miss. Kelly, you're finally here." A middle-aged nobleman rushed into the room and yelled, "I'm wondering if you can take that punk out this time?"

"Don't worry, I'm sure we can swallow the Stephen Family this time," Kelly sneered.

"An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth," Kelly gritted her teeth and spoke in a cold tone.