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Chapter 196: Change is Good (1)

Translator: Leo Editor: Frappe

*BAM*

Bright lightning flashed outside the window followed by the rumbling thunder.

The light illuminated Angele's face.

He sat near the table beside the window, focusing on the notes he was writing down.

A black slim neck vase was standing on the table quietly. Its ceramic surface was clean and smooth. On top of the vase, there was a fist-sized glowing crystal that brought light to the room.

The light from the crystal was gentle and bright.

*BAM*

The thunder shook the ground again.

Angele put down his notebook on the table, stood up, and walked to the window.

It was noon. He had stayed in the house for about ten days and discovered that a storm would strike the area every three days. The weather here was quite queer.

Angele kept studying the spells he learned recently and once again he was certain that his mentality would not increase just by meditating every day.

He also did not see any people selling advanced meditation techniques, as those techniques could only be acquired through joining powerful schools. Without needed resources, it was extremely hard for wizards to progress.

Modifying spell models was a long-term task; he needed to spend years on the project. Angele had learned many spells over the years. He purchased dozens of low-level spells when he was in Ramsoda, and his goal was to complete the modification for all of them.

Angele thought for a while and sighed with complicated feelings.

Through the window, he could see the branches dancing in the wind. The screen created by the downfall was hitting the surface of the lake. The water in the lake looked muddy after the soil on the side was brushed down by the storm.

He saw two pedestrians passing by the further side of the forest. The only path around his house lay there. The two people were wearing long raincoats walking fast in the heavy rain.

Angele turned around and looked around. He was in the study. Two tall bookshelves were filled up with books, random notes and data sheets covered the table along with several small glass bottles with spell materials.

In the corner of the room, there was a black statue of a flying eagle standing in the corner. The eyes of the eagle were two glowing amethysts.

In the center of the white wool carpet, there was a dark Calatrava cross surrounded by a circle.

It was a beautiful house but the place was empty.

Angele glanced around knowing that he was the only person in the room. Raindrops were still hitting his roof and windows furiously.

Loneliness filled up his mind again.

"Well…" Angele sighed slowly, then checked the time. "It's about time."

The study was on the second floor. Through the window, Angele saw blue steam rising from outside the fences and a tiny white pigeon appear in the intense steam.

He opened the window. The white pigeon slowly landed on the windowsill and shook the water off its feathers.

"Master Green, your transactions at the trading tower have new responses." The pigeon's high-pitched voice echoed in the room, sounding like a young girl.

"Thanks, got it." Angele grabbed some black beans from his pouch and threw them on the windowsill.

The pigeon lowered its head and quickly finished all the beans.

"Also, master Green, please be careful with your belongings. We have multiple reports of wizards' houses getting robbed when they were out. Many rare materials were lost. I think it's a good idea to hire some guards or followers. Do you need any recommendations?" The pigeon raised its head after finishing the food.

"Thefts?" Angele was surprised. "Who's doing this? Why are they targeting wizards?"

"It's quite common here, you know, some races are gifted with such skills. If they become wizards, they'll get even better," the pigeon said sarcastically.

"So, who are you recommending then? I do need to build some small guarding posts around the house." Angele would be staying in this area for a while. Nola was safe and rich and also a great place to collect knowledge and rare resources.

"What type of guards do you need?" Pigeons like this were trained by Ivan's family members. They were great at delivering messages from a long distance.

"Give me 3 Knights and 3 Wizard apprentices. That'll be better. Apprentices can check the unknown energy waves and Knights can help with daily issues…" Angele nodded.

"Sure, I'll send you a list of those who are available. The guard posts will be built soon for you too." The pigeon slight shook its wings.

"Now, if you'll excuse me." The pigeon turned around and flew into the air. It became a ball of blue steam and vanished into the rain quickly.

Angele closed the window. With a flick of his fingers, the carpet and windowsill were dried up within seconds by the Fire energy particles.

He then covered the crystal lamp with a piece of black cloth. Angele pushed the door open, walked down the stairs, and put on his rain cloak.

He left the garden through the fence gate.

The rain hit his gray cloak hard. The howling wind was brushing on his face.

Angele put on his hood, lowered his head, and walked toward the trading tower along the narrow path.

Visibility was low in the heavy rain. He could barely see the road several meters ahead.

After about 20 minutes, the trading tower Angele visited before appeared in his sight.

Only five people were using the tower in the rain. Two white robes were chatting by a carriage.

Also, several white robes and green robes stood by the path. It seemed like they were waiting for their trading partners.

Angele glanced around. His sight fell upon a green robe with a blank expression on his face. The man had a scorpion-shaped scar on his forehead and an eye patch covering his right eye.

He noticed Angele's presence and stepped forward after checking Angele's appearance.

"Gray worm?" he questioned in Anmag with a low voice.

"Wisp?" Angele responded.

The green robe pursed his lips and shook his head, thinking that he should have given Angele a better codename.

"Well, let's find a quiet place." He sent Angele a message using the energy particles.

Angele nodded, turned around, and led the man to the shadow of a large tree.

They stood under the shadow and stared at each other.

The one-eyed man took out a fist-sized translucent orb from a pouch.

"Let's do the trade then."

Angele nodded his head and the man tapped the surface of the orb with the index finger.

A ray of flame came out of the orb and stopped in front of Angele. It floated in the air, slowly solidified, and turned into a crystallized strange rune.

The rune looked like a red ruby with a dot in the middle that slowly rotated in the middle of the air. The rain was dropping through it. Obviously, it was created with pure energy.

"You can read some to check the book." The man looked at Angele.

Angele nodded and pointed at the red glowing rune.

*CHI*

The rune turned into a red cloud. Information was being transferred into Angele's brain directly.

After several seconds, Angele lowered his finger, and the red cloud returned into the orb.

"Great, that's the information I needed." He only had a peek at what was inside the book, but he had already gained some helpful information about the whole enchantment system. Also, he was certain that he made the right choice.

"Shall we start then?" The man lowered his voice and let the orb float in the air. He pressed his hands against the orb and closed his eyes.

Angele raised his hands and put them on the orb with his eyes closed as well.

The orb floated in the air. Green and red glows appeared inside. Each of the colors controlled half of the orb.

After about ten seconds, the two moved their hands away from the orb at the same time.

They remained silent for a while.

The man in green robe suddenly raised his head. "I'll assume the formula you gave is legit."

"Well, there's no point in me giving you a fake one. Also, I hope you didn't remove any chapter in the book." Angele stared at the man.

"I'll never do that. I've been selling books like that for years and never had any complaints. If you find something that doesn't seem right, you can come find me, I'll do my best to make sure the book you get is proper," The man shook his head and explained.

"Good then." Blue light dots flashed in front of his eyes. Zero had already checked the content of the book and reported that there was a 90% of chance that the book was real.

"Alright, let's exchange our communication runes then. If there's a problem, we'll be able to talk to each other." The man drew and flower shaped rune in the air as he spoke.

Angele drew his black rune in the air and the rune from the man sank into his hand.

"Great. See you then." The man turned around and walked away quickly.

Angele watched the man disappear into the rain. He then pulled up his collar and started heading back.

Trading like this was usually not protected by any organization. It took time to test the materials or the knowledge people got and that increased the risk of trading with strangers.

However, the Six Ring High Tower would record each of the tradings conducted using the trading tower. People needed to leave their unique communication runes in the system and if anything happened, the organization would track down the one who provided fake items. Even if he escaped, his family would have to take the responsibility.

The wooden token Isabel had given had a similar function. If Angele did anything wrong during the trade and ran away, Isabel's family would be deemed responsible for his behavior.

Angele started checking the enchantment knowledge he just acquired after returning to the house.

He finished the lunch brought by the Wizard apprentice and studied until the sun started setting.

Angele sat in the reading room alone, the rain outside already stopped.

"Several important points were missing but the basics are there." Angele felt relieved, the first trade he did was successful.

'Zero, how's my body condition? Is my mentality still increasing?'

'Checking…'

'Angele Rio. Strength 3.6. Agility 5.3. Stamina 6.2. Mentality 23.4. Mana 22.7. Genetic limit reached. Healthy.'

'How's the illusion signet?' Angele questioned.

'The great harpy's bloodline is affecting your body…Your resistance to illusions has increased.'

Angele felt disappointed, as his attributes were not increasing. He had no idea how long he needed to increase the mentality to 40, but the potion formulas that would help increase mentality was expensive and hard to find, even in an area with rich resources like Nola.

Chapter 197: Change is Good (2)

Translator: Leo Editor: Frappe

The potions gave Angele a tremendous help when he was still a Wizard apprentice. However, after he became a formal Wizard, only high-level potions would increase his mentality. The Potion of Tranquility and the Awakening Potion were no longer effective. He needed high-level potion formulas and to collect the rare materials required for the concoction of such potions.

He quietly sat at the table for a while, yet he couldn't figure out a better option as the main problem was the lack of resources.

"So that's why Wizards spend hundred years looking for ways to advance. The gap between each stage is huge. No wonder they can't reach the next rank. I must gather an enormous amount of resources for me to gain mentality quickly…but how did the ancient Wizards rank up so easily…What did they learn from the other worlds…?"

Angele muttered.

He was certain that Master Liliana and the old Wizards he had met before all needed an immense number of resources to progress.

Based on the knowledge he had, the increase of mentality required a physical body. That was the reason why converting oneself into energy form would be the last thing a Wizard wanted to do. Once he lost his physical body, it would be impossible for him to progress further, as his mentality would remain at a certain level.

A Wizard's rank was determined by the level of spells one could cast, and casting high-level spells required a high mentality level. In other words, mentality level could be used in determining a Wizard's rank.

Angele thought for a while but did not reach any valuable conclusion, so he decided to visit more ruins that were left by the ancient wizards when he had the chance.

The ruin Angele had entered was built thousands of years ago. However, he wanted to explore the ancient ones that were underground or in the dangerous zone of the Gem Sea. If he could manage to find those ancient ruins, it would be possible for him to uncover the secret of the ancient wizards.

He removed the black cloth covering the crystal lamp.

Under the dim light, Angele raised his right arm and a small bump appeared on his shoulder, moving quickly toward the center of his palm. A crack appeared on the surface of his skin, revealing a chain of keys.

Angele held the keys in his hand and tapped them with his left hand.

*CHI*

Light flashed upon the keys surrounded by a white glow.

'Prepare to test the source of the illusions.' Angele ordered.

'Test no. 324, test preparation, ready,' Zero reported right away.

Angele narrowed his eyes and shook the keys with his right hand.

*CLANK*

The noise made by the key hitting each other echoed in the room.

Intense heat hit his palm as Angele closed his eyes.

He was surrounded by darkness after opening his eyes again.

Angele was still sitting on the same chair at the same location, but he could not see anything in the room.

*ROAR*

He heard beasts roaring from all angles.

Angele stood up quickly. Three silver metal scars appeared on his face and blue light dots flashed in front of his eyes. Those light dots became the only source of light in the room.

He suddenly stepped forward.

*Kata-kata*

Clear footsteps kept echoing in the darkness.

Many red dots of light were spreading to all angles. Angele was in the center of it. They looked like wide-open eyes searching for something specific.

The light dots kept moving around and disappeared into the endless abyss.

*CHI*

Angele's right arm was suddenly slashed by something. Fresh blood was dripping down his hand.

'So this is the first stage?' Angele slowly raised his left hand. The signet in the center of his palm was glowing.

*CHI*

A strange noise appeared from behind.

*KA*

The energy wave from the signet blocked the strike. Angele could feel the intense heat coming from the center of his palm.

One of the light dots extinguished as the attack missed.

*CHI CHI CHI*

The noise sounded like arrows leaving the bow; the beast roar echoed in the space.

Lines of black strings were stabbing Angele quickly, but the energy wave from the signet kept blocking in the incoming projectiles for him.

The number of red dots of light reduced as the time passed.

*PA*

The place became silent again as the last light dot disappeared.

Angele was breathing heavily. Sweat from his forehead was dripping down his chin. Bloody wounds were left on his face and arms. He closed his eyes again after calming down.

He returned to his chair again after reopening his eyes.

The surroundings were still same. However, the table, crystal lamp, bookshelves, and the carpet were decaying slowly, including the wall and the floor.

The objects were aging, almost as if they traveled in time.

The surface of the wooden table was covered in white dust. Its red color turned darker, and some cracks appeared on the edges.

The light from the crystal lamp darkened and slowly extinguished.

The floor, the carpet, and the walls, all lost their color and became rough.

Angele sat on the chair with a blank expression on the face.

"Stage two…" He raised his right hand.

The silver glint on his skin disappeared slowly. Wrinkles climbed up the back of his hand with dots of dark age spots.

"I shall not fail this time!" Angele's expression turned serious.

He slowly stood up, raising the left hand in the air, and slightly waved.

"Hades! Mophillia!" Angele shouted.

A dark light ball was released from the illusion signet and strange noises echoed in the whole room.

The light ball was expanding; something was about to rip it open from the inside.

Time passed; wrinkles showed up on Angele's face as well. His appearance changed from a young man to a dying man within minutes, but he was still channeling the spell with his left arm raised in the air.

*CHI*

The dark light ball was finally ripped open from the middle.

An enormous creature slowly moved out of the dark glow.

The creature had the body of a female human, the wings of an eagle, and a long snake tail.

The creature's body was covered in metallic black scales and the noise made by her tongue sounded just like a snake. Her seven-meter-long body twisted around Angele slowly. It almost felt like the creature had bones.

Angele rubbed the great harpy's head carefully and the life energy power returned into his body. The wrinkles disappeared within seconds.

The golden eyes of the creature narrowed slightly. Her long snake tail formed a circle around Angele and trapped him in the center.

The great harpy had a beautiful face. Her skin had a dark metallic color, giving off the impression that she was covered in armor. Instead of hair, Angele saw black twisting tentacles over her head. Under the black eagle wings, he did not see any arms, and the feathers were coated with dark energy particles.

*CHI*

The harpy was excitedly moving around Angele, trying to please him like she was a pet.

Angele raised left arm and the creature's body started shrinking. She transformed into a strange snake that was about one meter long and twisted around Angele's left arm, her tail still wiggling.

"Finally…I succeeded…" A relieved smile slowly appeared on Angele's face.

He left the table, walked to the window, and carefully pushed it open.

The same forest and the same lake, but it was already late afternoon; everything looked golden under the setting sun.

The world outside the window was deadly silent.

"This, is the illusion world the keys led me to? Or…the great harpy's bloodline opened it for me?" Angele muttered.

"Tell me, where is this place?" He turned his head to the harpy on the arm.

"Ha…Night…mare…" The harpy's voice was hard to hear.

"The Nightmare Realm?" Angele was surprised. He just realized that he was probably walking on the same path the ancient wizards walked on.

Recently, Angele kept testing the evolved illusion signet and the keys. Zero tested the chip from inside the keys and slowly developed a method to strengthen the signet. Although he had not yet understood the principles, the method still worked.

He thought the illusions were from the strengthened signet, but it seemed like…

"The great harpy has the ability to communicate with the Nightmare Realm…so I'm considered as the inheritor of the harpy��s bloodline…" Angele quickly connected everything together and found a plausible explanation.

Legends spoke that great harpy could pull creatures into the illusion world, but no one knew that the illusion world was the Nightmare Realm.

There were no rules in the mysterious Nightmare Realm. It was one of the ancient worlds discovered by the ancient wizards.

The creatures from the Nightmare Realm still had many bloodlines left in this world.

The records in the book were true.

Angele slowly rubbed the harpy's body. Flows of information were transferred into his mind and the information explained the connection between the Nightmare Realm and this world. It was the hidden treasure in the great harpy's bloodline.

"I need to go back first. I need to collect more information about this world before proceeding." Angele barely had any intel on this realm. He could imagine how cautious the ancient wizards were when they entered an unknown world for the first time. The natural laws of different worlds varied. It was possible that his spell had a different effect here. Angele was not sure if he could protect himself from the attack of strange creatures.

Angele raised his left hand and pushed forward.

*BAM*

A circle of a translucent wave was released from the center of his palm.

His sight blurred for a second and finally returned to his real house.

"The Nightmare Realm…" A clean smooth metal mirror suddenly appeared in front of him.

The reflection of his face looked unfamiliar. His blue eyes turned golden, which was the color of the great harpy's eyes.

"Amazing…" Angele looked at the signet on his palm. The color of the signet had darkened, like a distorted crack that led to the unknown abyss.

Chapter 198: Peace (1)

Translator: Leo Editor: Frappe

'The effect of the ancient blood turned me into an inheritor of the great harpy…' Angele waved his left hand and the metal mirror sank into his skin.

He turned to his shoulder and saw nothing there. It seemed like the great harpy stayed in the Nightmare Realm.

Angele could feel that a small part of his soul was left in somewhere far away from here, it was the place the great harpy stayed at. They could sense each other's presences, but there was no way for them to communicate.

"So, can I take things out of the Nightmare Realm? Or…was my physical being actually there…?" Angele wondered while rubbing his chin.

'Zero, show me the recording. I need to do some investigation.' He sat down.

'Searching…Transferring the scene to your brain…'

The events that happened not so long ago visualized in front of Angele's eyes.

He used his mentality to monitor the changes happened to his energy wave and body condition. Furthermore, Zero displayed the detailed body data in Angele's sight.

Ten minutes later, the blue lights dots around his eyes vanished into the air.

'I was right. It was only a small part of my soul that was taken into the Nightmare Realm.' Angele finally understood what happened. 'The great harpy from the signet was not complete…She existed because I was in that world all the time. The ancient blood in the signet was weak and the creature I saw is just…an incomplete illusion.'

The ancient great harpies and the regular ancient harpies had low intelligence…They communicated through basic methods and were living by their instinct. Those chaos creatures had the brains of one-year-old kids. Although they were strong, they had no way to control themselves. That was why the ancient great harpies were wiped out by the ancient Wizards. Their power, however, was still incredible.

Angele thought for a while.

'So I need to double check if the world really is the Nightmare Realm. I need to be more cautious if it's the real one. Nightmare Realm is one of the countless worlds the ancient Wizards spent a long time investigating…Chances of finding rare resources are very high, also…'

Angele narrowed his eyes slightly. 'The special abilities the great harpy has…With its ancient bloodline, I was able to enter an ancient world. That might be the reason why so many Wizards were trying to extract the pure ancient blood. I shall keep the method as a secret and look for more notes left by ancient Wizards.'

It was possible that someone was spying on him. The pigeon said there were thieves with special techniques around here. Angele carefully created a thin layer of silver metal to cover up the signet on the center of his palm.

'Alright, I'll check what effect the signet has on me.'

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

Three days later.

Angele stayed in the small house beside the lake. He spent the whole time trying to test the abilities of the evolved signet. He had not yet got the chance to read the Fire enhancement method he acquired not so long ago.

The illusion from the keys was no longer a threat to him. Shadow beasts would attack him during the first stage, but Angele could easily dodge their strikes. With the help of the great harpy's ancient blood, the shadow beasts stopped attacking him after about 15 times of tests. They were not concerned about Angele entering their space anymore.

Angele did some experiments and realized that there were more than 1000 shadow beasts in the illusion space. Their attacks could penetrate any physical barriers, but they could be damaged by energy attacks. The shadow beasts would revive after being killed after about three hours. It seemed like they were being trapped in another dimension by the keys.

Angele assumed that those beasts were related to the Wizards from Axis of Time. If a Wizard was immobilized in the dark space, no matter how strong he was, the beasts would be able to kill him sooner or later as they would keep spawning. However, it was nearly impossible to stop a strong Wizard from moving around.

Also, the beasts would only strike when the keys hit each other. They were sensitive about human blood and flesh.

Angele's signet and ancient blood of harpy helped him enter the dark space anytime he wanted.

The Nightmare Realm was the second stage, but it seemed like there was an internal cooldown timer. Angele tried many times after the first time, but it seemed like the great harpy was resting while collecting energy to take him into that world. He had no idea how long it was going to take.

Angele decided to check on the harpy later as there was nothing he could do at the moment.

By the end of that day, Isabel sent someone from her family to Angele's house.

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

"You must be Wizard Green?" In front of the door, there was a middle-aged man in a white robe with a silver owl sewn on his right chest asking politely.

Angele nodded. "Did master Isabel send you here?"

The male Wizard nodded as well. "Yes. My name is Rossi and I'm master Isabel's follower. I've been working for her for about 20 years already."

"Come in, please." Angele turned around and led Rossi to the living room. "Take a seat. I just came here not so long ago, so my apologies as I don't have the time to decorate the room."

"That's totally fine. Thanks."

Rossi walked into the living room but did not sit down. He just stood by the table and slightly bowed to Angele.

"Wizard Green, Isabel asked me to bring you the resource you asked for. Please take a look."

Angele rubbed his chin. "Ah…I forgot to check master Isabel's communication rune. I've been really busy recently." He pursed his lips to an apologetic smile.

A light blue glint appeared on his nails as Angele raised his right hand. Blue smoke rose from the back of his hand and it looked like something being ignited.

Several seconds later.

The blue glint disappeared from his nails, instead, a pattern with a flying bird was drawn by flowing blue energy strings in the air. It almost looked like there was water on those strings.

Angele raised the other hand and carefully tapped on the pattern.

His skull numbed for a second and a female voice was transmitted into his brain directly.

"Green, we found the heart of the tree. It's included in this delivery. Also, I added some other items to that. You saved me back in the ruin, so I want to show my gratitude. I hope you can accept them." Isabel's voice sounded tired. "Also, Rossi is someone you can trust. I've known him for more than 20 years, so there's no point in hiding our relationship in front of him. One more thing, you know the amount of rhino blood I need, right? Can you prepare it for me? If you need any other rare materials, just tell me, I'll try my best to find them for you. Rossi will be in charge of delivering them to you."

Angele released some mentality waves and quickly created a small complicated rune model in the air. After the model was completed, he focused the wave on the rune.

'For sure. Also, it'll be great if you can find me some formulas of potions that help increase mentality. You know what I needed, I owe you one.' He opened his mouth but no voice came out.

All his voice was collected by the communication rune and his words were delivered to Isabel.

The communication rune worked like a voice mailbox. When it was activated, he would be able to hear the messages delivered to him. It had a range limit, but it was convenient to use.

After replying to Isabel's message, Angele waved his hands, and the blue strings vanished into air.

"I'll ask the workers to carry the items inside." Rossi saw Angele finish checking the messages.

"Sure." Angele stood up and nodded.

Rossi clapped his hands.

A group of short men wearing black coats carried white boxes into the living room.

They breathed heavily as they lined up the white boxes on the floor carefully.

Those men had messy hair and large noses. Their skin was dark and their bodies were muscular.

Also, all the men had black beards on their chins, with length varying. They finished their work quickly while keeping everything in order.

A short man with the longest beard walked to Rossi and Angele, then bowed politely.

"Sir, everything is here. Do you need us to do anything else for you?" His voice was deep.

"That's all. You guys can go have some rest now." Rossi smiled.

"We'll stay outside the house. Just let me know if you need us to do something," the short man nodded and responded.

Angele looked at the man. The man's head was around his waist, but they carried the heavy boxes into the living room easily.

"Dwarves or Gnomes?" Angele asked after all the short men left the house.

"They are dwarves, forest dwarves. They're born with magic resistance, so they can stay in Nola." Rossi explained, "Forest dwarves enjoy peaceful lives. They came to Nola about 30 years ago. Most of them are working as farmers or workers. They earn good money here. Even if they decide to go back to their hometown, the amount of money they have will be enough for the rest of their lives."

Angele felt a bit speechless. "Are there other races like them here?"

"Well…yeah. The ghost pigeons, I think you have already seen them around, they are in charge of delivering public messages. Also, the dryads in the Snake Bird Cliff's territory have the ability to purify the air. The older the dryads are, the better they can increase the air quality. The dryads created an area with the best air in Nola. People who want to live in the area will be charged a monthly fee. The area is under Snake Bird Cliff's control." Rossi chuckled. "They found themselves a great way to make money actually. Their business is growing well."

Angele shook his head and smiled.

"Dwarves, ghost pigeons, and dryads are the main races living here. There are also many races with much less population, but I'll have to prepare a long list for you if you really want to know more about them. If you have time, you can go check the area they live in. It's marked on the map with a red circle," Rossi added.

"Got it. Nola is a great place. Everything is new to me." Angele smiled again.

"Oh, one more thing. If you want to go to that area, I suggest you hire some centaur warriors. They are honest and reliable. There was one time that I left a piece of ice tongue scale on the ground and one of the centaur warriors returned it to me after picking it up. If he had decided to sell it, he could easily purchase a full set of high-quality gear with the money he'd get."

Rossi recalled the event and smiled. "You know that ice tongue scale is nearly impossible to track, right? That thing has no smell and it's translucent. If the warrior decided to keep it for himself, there'll be nothing I can do about it."

"I'll think about it. Honesty is welcomed anywhere on this land." Angele slight nodded.

"Alright, let's check the items now." Rossi raised his right hand and pointed at the boxes on the floor.

Each of the boxes was about a meter wide. They were heavy and stable. The boxes' edges were covered by silver iron strips with rivets.

Angele grabbed the key Rossi handed over to him and crouched in front of one of the boxes. He opened it quickly after unlocking the lock.

Inside, there were pieces of yellow wood with various sizes. Some were large like a human's head but some only had the size of a fist. Angele noticed some blood stain on the inner walls of the box.

The fragrance of flower mixed with the smell of blood permeated the air as Angele picked up one of the wood pieces.

He held the wood piece in hand and started scanning it using the chip. Blue light dots flashed in front of his eyes.

"How many boxes of the heart of the tree are here?" Angele stood up and questioned.

"18 boxes. The other five boxes have different items inside," Rossi replied.

"Sounds great." Angele smiled. "Thanks for delivering those to me, Rossi."

"It's my pleasure to work for you and master Isabel," Rossi bowed and said politely, "Now if you'll excuse me…"

"Sure, I'll see you later."

Chapter 199: Peace (2)

Translator: Leo Editor: Frappe

Angele opened the five boxes one by one after Rossi left.

In each of the first four boxes, there was a huge white egg and bits of wood filled up the rest of the space to prevent it from breaking. The egg was about one meter long and half a meter wide.

On the surface of the egg, there was a blinking silver rune, most likely used to store the information about those eggs.

Angele checked all the runes and finally understood what those humongous eggs were.

They were the gift Isabel mentioned in the message. These four rhino eggs were the ones she acquired while collecting the rhino blood.

All the eggs were about to hatch. The only thing Angele needed to do was to remove the silver runes. The baby rhinos would consider the first person they saw as their owners after breaking out of the egg.

The rhino had the similar size as the glowing elephants, but their strength was stronger and their stamina was higher. The creature had a slow speed, but it could draw life energy from the earth and recover extremely fast from physical injuries.

Rhinos were popular as they could endure a certain amount of damage for their owners. Isabel gifted Angele four rhino's eggs. Even if Angele decided to trade them for other rare resources, it would bring him a great profit.

Although there were ten boxes of the heart of the tree, there was only one heart. The heart's size was enormous and had to be cut into pieces for delivery.

The last box was filled up with magic stones. There were also several crystal cards lying in the middle with some rhino blood samples.

The members of the Bennies Family knocked on the door as soon as Angele finished carrying all the boxes to the storage room.

It was Ivan, the Wizard apprentice that helped Angele back at the trading tower.

"Master Green, here is the list of available guards and apprentices." He clapped his hands and two strong men carried a huge square book into the living room.

The book had a black cover; the length of its side was about one meter and was about half a meter thick.

*BAM*

The book was dropped onto the floor. It sounded like a large stone hitting the ground. The two men bowed to Angele and Ivan before leaving.

Angele walked to the book and opened the cover. Inside, he could only see high-quality pictures of people. The information of the person on the page was slowly transferred to his brain through a special force field.

The Knights were listed on the first half of the book and the Wizard apprentices were listed in the second half. Some of the Knights already served in Nola for years and Angele knew that the radiation of energy would have negative impacts on their body. There was a limitation on how many years they could stay in Nola, so he decided to look for the ones that came to Nola recently.

Angele spent a while to check the list and picked five Knights that came from the other side of the Gem Sea. Three men and two women, they arrived at Nola not so long ago. According to the information from the book, all of them had no relatives and they could stay in Nola for at least 20 years.

The Wizard apprentices listed in the book all reached at least rank 2 and under their pictures were communication runes. If the rune was no longer glowing, it meant that other wizards had already signed a contract with them. There were probably several wizards reading the list at the same time.

Angele listened to Ivan's explanation as he read through the information of the apprentices.

"This is the complete list of apprentices that entered the land through the Sea Hawk Dock. I would suggest you make the decision quickly if you see someone you want…"

*CHI*

Angele finally found someone he was interested in and decided to send the contract, but the apprentice's communication rune stopped glowing as Angele was about to put his finger on it.

Angele shook his head and stared at Ivan.

"Does this happen often? I was about to send a contract to this guy."

Ivan shrugged, brows knitted. "Well, yeah…Wizards know who they need. Some apprentices are stronger and have better family backgrounds. They are quite popular, you know."

"It's a different story for Knights. The list was made by the master wizards of the Six Ring High Tower. All the apprentices or Knights on the list all registered at the obelisk and were asking to be hired. There are many lists like this in the three major organizations, but the names in the book may vary. Still, you need to be fast if you want to hire a good apprentice."

"Knights are usually not that popular." He added, "They're weak and have many limitations. Apprentices can assist you in the experiments and some of them are capable of handling the materials."

"Yeah, I can understand that." Angele nodded and kept reading the list.

About half an hour later…

"Huh?" Angele suddenly stopped at a page.

The rank 3 female apprentice's picture looked familiar. There was a serious expression on her pretty face. The blond ponytail was hanging behind her head.

Angele confirmed his assumption after reading the information transferred to his brain.

'Nancy Aria. Age 22. From Labyrinth College. Rank 3 Wizard apprentice.

Language: Anmag.

Proficiency: Wizardry books scribe. Combat expert.

Service History: None.

Family Condition: Unknown. Relatives were lost during the war.

Risk of Hiring: Situation in Labyrinth College is complicated. Think twice before sending the contract. She is certainly talented but sadly caught in the fight between two strong families.

Information Provider: Marry Rodler (Snake Bird Cliff).'

The communication rune under the picture was still glowing. It seemed like no one had sent a contract to her yet.

Obviously, the information on the hiring risk was the main problem, as no one wanted trouble.

'Nancy is from Andes Alliance and she's the daughter of the Duke, right? A war is going on in Andes Alliance?' Angele wondered. His family and professor Adolf were still living in the alliance. If there was a war, he would have to return to that land again.

Angele did not join any organization and was not sure what was going on with Ramsoda. It would be hard for him to send letters overseas.

He thought for a while and finally put his finger on Nancy's communication rune.

*CHI*

The rune's glimmer became faint and the light was absorbed into Angele's finger.

Nancy was 16 years old when Angele met her for the first time on the boat. According to the information, she was 22 years old already, but Angele was not sure if the data was correct.

Many years had passed. Nancy's face was still beautiful, but she was no longer a teen.

Angele recalled the day he cured Nancy's wound using saliva and wood bits. She probably still remembered that.

The memory made Angele smile.

Hiring Nancy was the best option for him at the moment. First, he knew the girl, and he wanted to ask her about the situation in Andes Alliance. For the risk, he already had problems with Miloshine Family, White Mist Forest, and Labyrinth College. The two Liquid stage wizards Angele killed earlier were related to the old wizard with a red beard and there was still a price on his head.

After sending out a contract, Angele kept turning the pages and sent contracts to four more apprentices, two females and two males. They were all about 20 years old and all of them were good at handling materials.

It took Angele about two hours to finish the whole process.

Ivan waited patiently beside the sofa with a smile on his face the whole time.

Once he saw Angele close the book, he stepped forward.

"Master Green, are you done?"

"Yeah." Angele nodded and responded, "Can you also send someone to the public area and tell an apprentice named Asuna from the River Arrow…umm…never mind." He suddenly stopped, realizing that there was no point in bothering the girl.

"Help me locate an apprentice named Yuri from the White Tooth Castle. I need to know his situation. I heard he was sent to the border several years ago."

"The border? Are you sure it's the border of the White Tooth Castle?" Ivan looked surprised.

"Why?" Angele stared at him, looking confused.

"Two years ago, all the apprentices and wizards guarding the border for the White Tooth Castle all died for an unknown reason. The Northland Alliance and White Tooth Castle sent a sentry team there together but nothing was found. Last year, the apprentices that were sent to the border all died again, and White Tooth Castle decided to quarantine the area around the border to do further investigations," Ivan explained.

"Is that so?" Angele felt depressed. Yuri was the only friend that had sent a letter to him, yet it seemed like he lost his life at the border.

"Yeah, sorry. I need to leave soon, let's confirm the people you selected." Ivan walked to the book, closed his eyes, and pressed his hands against the cover.

Ten seconds later, Ivan opened his eyes.

"So, five Knight and five apprentices. The Knights are all available since they are still on the list. For the salary, two magic stones per year for each Knight. If they advance during the contract period, you need to add one magic stone per year. Well, if they somehow become Grand Knights, the contract must be modified. Rank 2 apprentices will cost you 20 regular magic stones or mid-level magic stones per year and rank 3 apprentices will cost you 40 regular magic stones per year. If the apprentice has some special skills, the price might increase," Ivan explained politely.

"Not a problem." Angele just acquired a whole box of magic stones from Isabel. He also had several crystal cards and magic stones that were more than enough for daily use. The total number of the regular magic stones in that box was more than 10,000.

"I'll ask them to come to you after the contract is signed. What time will work for you?"

"How long do you need to send messages to all of them?"

"Two days. Ghost pigeons are fast. The only problem is those people live in different areas, so it may take some time for some of them to get here. Also, I heard that you need guard posts?" Ivan questioned.

"Yeah, bring your workers here and finish the job as soon as possible. I'll pay for everything. Use high-quality stones if possible. You can arrange that for me, right? After the guard posts are finished, ask the Knights and the apprentices to come here."

"Sure." Ivan smiled.

Chapter 200: Hire (1)

Translator: Leo Editor: Frappe

"Now, if you'll excuse me…" Ivan bowed and left.

Angele carefully closed the gate of the garden and applied some energy particles to the handles. It was the easiest way to set up an alarm. Some strong Wizard had certain spells that could help guard a small area for a certain duration. Spells like those were effective, but an energy stone was required to support them.

Angele still had a long way to go. He still needed to learn more and collect more materials.

He returned to the house and started checking all the delivered materials. The heart of the tree and Black Rose Oil were two main components of the Tree Killer potion, and he still needed to find some supplementary materials.

Angele already finished purifying the Black Rose Oil when he was still on the ship. He put it in a small bottle and kept the bottle in the pouch. The size of the heart was huge but after the purification process, only a small amount of essence was left.

The purification was boring and complicated, but he had to stay focus.

Angele spent a long time to clean the ten boxes of the heart of the tree and after the purification, he only acquired a small tube of essence solution.

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

Ten days later…

In the morning, the clean sunlight penetrated the tree leaves and dropped onto the land. A golden glint was left on the grasses and the surface of the lake.

Beside the lake outside the house, a young man in a gray robe led a group people toward the white house after passing through the trees. The group members' genders varied; some were wearing metal armor pieces and some were wearing gray robes.

The leading man stopped in front of the fence and turned around.

"This is Wizard Green's house. You all signed the contract, but you still need to prove to him that you're capable of completing various tasks. Otherwise, he might ask you to leave right away." He warned in a deep voice, "Also, watch your word choices. From what I know, Wizard Green is kind and easy to talk to, but if you somehow offend him, I don't know what he'll do."

One of the young male apprentices stepped forward and nodded.

"I know, Ivan. Let's enter the house first. I'll show my respect to him for sure, don't worry."

The rest of the group remained silent, only glancing around and checking the surroundings.

There was a girl with a blonde ponytail wearing a brown leather suit in the group. There was a blank expression on her face, and she was staring straight at the door of the house. The girl's leather suit was covered in scratches and the edges were no longer sharp. It was clearly worn out.

The girl's face was pale. She stood there steadily with her right hand on the handle of her crossguard sword, giving off the impression that she was nervous.

It was Nancy, who had just signed the contract from Angele.

The two apprentices beside Nancy kept a distance from her, trying to avoid any contact with the girl.

Ivan's brow furrowed as he saw Nancy in the group.

'Why did Wizard Green offer her a contract…?' A hint of confusion flashed in his eyes but showed nothing on his face.

Ivan turned around and looked at the window of the house. There was a man standing on the second floor while looking at the group.

Suddenly, a familiar voice echoed in Ivan's ear.

"Send them in one by one. I think I need to do some simple test."

Ivan nodded and turned around again.

"Master Green wants to test your ability. Enter the house one by one. Who wants to go first?" He glared at the group and questioned with a light tone.

"I'll go first." A man with a mustache stepped forward. He was wearing a silver metal armor suit and his hair was covered by a white scarf. The man had a brown wooden longbow and a black quiver on his back.

He quickly opened the gate and walked to the house.

The door opened by itself as the man approached.

After several minutes, the man walked out of the door with a depressed look on his face.

"What happened? Nicotine?" a female Knight asked in a low voice. It seemed like the two knew each other.

The man with mustache shook his head but did not say anything, as he quietly left the place.

The female Knight pursed her lips and looked at the house.

"I'll go next!" She stepped forward.

The rest of the group was getting anxious. It seemed like the test given by Wizard Green was difficult, since the first one was already sent back.

Nancy stood by the side. Her grip on the sword handle tightened. She needed the job badly. Although the people from Labyrinth College would not do anything to her in Nola, they could still keep spreading the rumor.

Nancy already stayed in Nola for several years, but no one wanted to hire her. The comment left on her information page made people think that hiring her was too risky. Nancy already spent most of the money she brought here and she wanted to hunt the mutated beasts in the forests, but those beasts were way too strong for her. She was hurt during one of the hunts and the injuries were still affecting her.

She had to spend more money on purchasing healing gels. The enchanted items she had were broken during the fights with the people from the Labyrinth College, and she did not even have the money to fix the high-quality leather suit that she was wearing.

Although the average salary in Nola was high, it still meant nothing if she could not find a real job. The tracking seed planted on her body would alert the members of the college if she tried to leave Nola. The best way to escape the chase was to rent a boat, but the private boats were controlled by the three major organizations, and the merchant ship at the dock was never a safe option.

The second option was to be hired by a formal Wizard.

A formal Wizard could help her rent a boat inside the major organization's territory and the magic stones could be used to purchase more healing gels.

Nancy shook her head and stopped thinking.

Time passed. Another apprentice left the door of the house and was sent back. She quickly stepped forward.

"I'll go next."

Only six people were left, including Nancy.

Four people already failed the test. It seemed like the Wizard named Green had high standards.

Also, there were two girls with pretty faces and sexy bodies in the people who failed the test. Evidently, Wizard Green did not care about their appearances.

The rest of the group felt relieved after Nancy stepped forward.

Nancy made sure her clothes were clean. The leather suit was the only high-quality gear she had. Although it was becoming worn out, it showed that she had many practical experiences in combat. Formal Wizards loved to hire people who had battle experiences.

She entered the gate and walked past the garden, carefully pushing the door open after reaching the house.

Nancy walked in quickly.

The living room was dark, all the curtains were closed.

A man sat on a sofa on the left side of the room gingerly sipping a warm beverage.

Nancy finally had a clear view of the man on the sofa after her eyes adapted to the darkness.

It was a young man wearing a dark red leather suit. His brown hair was short and there was a silver glint on his skin. The man had an average looking face, but his skin was clean and smooth. Nancy could feel the pressure just by looking at man's cold expression.

"Your name is Nancy? Nancy Aria?" The man raised his head and glared at her. A light golden glow surrounded his eyes, almost as if the man was not human.

For some reason, Nancy felt the man's voice sound familiar and his accent had a hint of Rudin.

"Yes, my name is Nancy Aria. I'm here to take the test. Actually, I really need the job. If you can hire me, I'll be willing to lower my salary. 20 magic stones would be enough." Nancy was a bit confused. Nevertheless, she bowed to the man and replied in a low voice. This was the only chance she had, so she decided to lower her salary.

"So, it is you. I'm Angele. Angele Rio. Do you remember me?" The man stood up and smiled.

"Angele?" Nancy hesitated. She stared at the man in front of her, looking confused.

"Wait…that Angele?!" She suddenly remembered the young noble man that cured her wound on the ship. Nancy hesitated because the Wizard named Green had a pair of golden eyes and she had already forgotten what the young man looked like after so many years.

However, the man said his name was Angele Rio and his accent sounded familiar.

It was probably not a coincidence.

"Sorry, master Green, you're joking, right? I don't know why you mentioned his name, but it's not funny…" Nancy was breathing heavily. She took a deep breath trying to calm down. What just happened was shocking to her, and she was trying to figure out if this was the test.

"I'm not joking." Angele shook his head and stared at Nancy.

Blonde ponytail, clean and pretty face, and brown tight leather suit with white tight pants.

Her long slim legs and large breast caught Angele's attention. It almost felt like nothing had changed, as the girl still looked gentle and elegant.

Angele suddenly wanted to hug her. He had not met someone from the old days for a while.

He calmed down and stared at Nancy.

"I have no time to tell jokes. Tell me. What happened to Andes Alliance? Was there a war going on? And how is the Marua Harbor?" Angele questioned in a deep tone.

Chapter 201: Hire (2)

Translator: Leo Editor: Frappe

Nancy calmed down a bit, but she still felt a bit uncomfortable after hearing Angele's questions.

"So you're not joking…? You're the Angele I met on the ship?" She remembered the day Angele cured her wound using a disgusting method, but she still found it hard to believe that the young man with a low talent level became a formal wizard.

When they first met, Angele was a rank 1 apprentice while the wizard Green in front her was a formal wizard that had residential rights in one of the three major wizard organizations.

The difference was huge.

"There's no point in lying to you." Angele responded with a light tone, "Hiring you is risky, I hear. However, I want to know what happened in Andes Alliance. You're the daughter of the Duke, why were you expelled? What exactly happened to the harbor?"

Nancy finally believed that Green was Angele Rio. A formal wizard would not spend time collecting useless information about a random apprentice.

She stared at Angele, realizing that he was releasing his strong mentality wave the whole time. Nancy spent years trying to break the limit, but after her family encountered the problem, she had to escape from the assassins of Labyrinth College and had no time to progress.

Angele was no longer the son of a countryside noble. He had now become a formal wizard, and Nancy had to show her respect to him. The situation had changed. She never thought a day like this would come.

Nancy knew Angele was staring at her, waiting for the answer. Her face blushed; she lowered her head and tried to avoid any eye contact. She wanted to turn around and run away if possible. Nancy thought the reason why Angele sent the contract to her was that he wanted to mock her. The incident that happened on the ship ended awkwardly.

She could feel that her cheeks were burning.

Nancy calmed down after several seconds. This was her only chance to get hired since other wizards were scared about her background. Most of the wizards would try to stay away from trouble and no one wanted to get dragged into the war between organizations. It would be a great waste of time, but it seemed like Angele did not care too much.

"Talk. First, I want to know what happened to the alliance." Angele was getting a bit impatient.

Nancy bit her lips. She still did not want to raise her head.

"The alliance is fine…It's my family…Something unfortunate happened…" she responded in a low voice.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

"So it's just your family? Good, as long as the alliance is still peaceful…" Angele realized the words he just said was inappropriate. Nancy's life changed after her family lost power in the alliance, but the only thing Angele cared was his own family.

"Well, sorry. I didn't mean it…It's just that I'm worried about my…" Angele looked at Nancy. The girl was arrogant, but she would draw her sword to fight for justice.

Angele shook his head. What happened to her was quite unfortunate.

"Alright, you're hired. From now on, you're one of my guards. Also, if you don't like this place, you can leave anytime you want. It's your right."

He stopped for a second and continued, "I hope you can focus your attention on the work. Unfortunate things happen. One of my old friends asked to become my follower, but her talent level was way too low, so I had to refuse her. Also, have you heard anything about the talented young man named Jared?"

Nancy nodded. "Jared successfully broke the limit and became a formal wizard last year. He's still a member of the White Mist Forest, I believe. Haven't contacted him in a long time."

Angele knew that White Mist Forest was a wizard organization beside the Labyrinth College.

"White Mist Forest…I won't be visiting him anytime soon then." Angele shook his head. "Do you know why I don't fear the Labyrinth College and why I hired you? Because they already placed a price on my head."

Nancy gritted her teeth. Her face was still blushing, but she did not really have any other choice.

"Thank you…I'll be leaving now." She lowered her voice.

"Wait, one more thing. What's going on between you and the Labyrinth College? Is the whole organization after you? Or…?" Angele wondered.

"No, I was framed by one of the wizards in the college. The school expelled me because of the rules. It's a wizard from my enemy's family that wants to kill me," Nancy explained.

"It's much better than I thought." Angele nodded. "You may leave now. I'll call you after all the tests are finished."

"Got it." Nancy turned around and walked out of the door quickly.

The bright light outside blinded her eyes for a second. Nancy raised her arms to cover her eyes. She noticed that Angele was staring at her body during the conversation, but she was not sure what to do.

Angele was not hiding anything. He just stared at Nancy's legs and breast. Although Nancy was not concerned about it, she still wanted to be respected.

It was impossible for her to tell Angele to stop as she was just a rank 3 apprentice and was ashamed of herself the whole time.

Nancy knew how hard it was to break the limit. The only apprentices from her ship who became formal wizards were Jared and Angele. The rest of the people she knew just disappeared. Some of them probably died a long time ago.

Nancy's father was killed and her family was destroyed.

It was impossible for her to return to the Andes Alliance and she had no one to rely on in Nola.

'No…I swear I'll rebuild my family and avenge my parents!'

Nancy tightened her fist and walked out for the fence. She saw other people staring at her and nodded. She stood beside the fences. Others knew that she passed the test.

There were two male Knights, two male apprentices, and one female apprentice left. They entered the house one by one.

The two Knights all passed the test, but one of the male apprentices failed.

A total of five people passed the test, including Nancy.

Ivan led the five into the living room and showed them the paper contracts. The paper contracts were protected by the three major organizations and were effective as long as the people who signed them stayed in Nola. Each contract had two copies and one was given to Angele.

Angele had the right to fire the people he hired anytime he wanted.

However, the five had to complete their duty listed on the contracts. As a wizard, Angele had more rights than the Knights and the apprentices. The world was never fair.

The two Knights signed the five-year contracts and the apprentices signed the ten-year contracts, but Nancy was asking for a contract that was specially designed for servants.

If Nancy and Angele agreed on signing the servant contract, Angele would have to share everything with her. Nancy knew that Angele was someone who could save her from the threats she was facing.

"Are you sure about this? The servant contract?" Angele's brow furrowed, staring at Nancy.

It seemed like the girl had already calmed down.

"Yes, I've made my decision." Nancy nodded with a serious expression on her face.

"The servant contract is a lifelong contract. I know what you're thinking, but I can't trust you. It's impossible for me to sign a contract like that with a girl I haven't met in years." Angele shook his head. A follower must be someone he could trust. Tia was probably his best choice, but he had not visited her in a long time.

Angele asked the others to leave. Only Nancy was left in the living room. He decided to make things clear.

Nancy looked disappointed.

"But I can take you in as my follower though I need you to help me handle certain things, are you fine with that? It's better than being just a guard. I'll raise your salary too." Angele thought for a while and gave Nancy a chance. He needed someone to take care of random daily issues, so he could focus on doing the research.

"Of course, that would be great!" Nancy accepted the offer right away.

Nancy knew Angele was just being cautious, but she was certain that Angele was interested in her talent and skills. Some wizards were attracted to her body, but they still backed off after reading her information. Nancy's skills would not be put to use if she was hired by wizards like that.

One of her classmates traded her virginity for a position in a wizard's lab. However, the wizard lost his interest in the girl quickly and sent her to another wizard. The girl tried to escape, but her new owner killed her with his vampire pet. The wizard told the public that the girl sacrificed herself for an important experiment.

This was the dark side of this world. People without power had impossible odds in surviving the competition.

Outside Nola, no one would question why a formal wizard killed a Knight or a weak apprentice. Their lives did not matter that much to their organizations. Only the gifted ones were important.

In a world like this, rights were acquired by the strong and powerful.

The wizard society was cruel. The best option for the weak ones was to stay out of sight or return to the mortal's world and find a normal job.

What Nancy needed at the moment was to find a strong wizard to serve. Without the wizard organization, it was nearly impossible for her to leave Nola, but living in Nola without a job would be hard.

Angele talked to her. They were from the same city, so Nancy felt a hint of warmth from him. Nancy was also a student of Professor Adolf and Angele might treat him better just for that.

Nancy decided to give everything Angele wanted from her, including her body. It was a tough decision to make, but she doubted if she could find someone better.

"Honestly, I don't trust you. I can take you in as my servant, but I need to leave a rune on your forehead. What do you say?" Angele said calmly.

"The Symbol of Obedience? Not a problem." Nancy hesitated for a second and nodded her head.

"Good, you can tell others you belong to me now." He smiled and tapped Nancy's forehand with his finger.

*CHI*

A twisted black snake rune appeared between Nancy's eyebrows. The Symbol of Obedience was usually placed on people's foreheads. The symbol represented that the servant belonged to a certain wizard. Nancy was now allowed to share part of Angele's rights.

Angele placed a special rune that only dark wizards knew. It had some special functions that would help connect him with the servant.

Most importantly, the rune could help him locate the location of the servant by using the obelisk. The rune could be placed on any living beings and the energy wave it released could be easily tracked.

The rune had two limitations. First, it could not be applied with force. Second, the one who used the rune must have a higher mentality level than the one who accepted the rune.

Angele did some simple modifications to the rune. He had found a certain method in Ramsoda's library. The energy waves the rune released could constantly send the sounds around Nancy to him.

If Angele wanted, he could monitor the situation around Nancy anytime.

Angele was a formal wizard and was also a dark wizard. He could not trust a girl like Nancy. The only and most important thing to him was power.

Chapter 202: The Formula (1)

Translator: Leo Editor: Frappe

Angele asked Nancy to go to Ivan for the servant contract. He then closed the door and walked upstairs.

It was dark in the house. His footsteps echoed in the living room.

Angele walked to the study on the second floor and pushed the door open carefully.

Inside the room, the crystal lamp was still glowing under the piece of black cloth. The dim light penetrated the cloth and slightly brightened up Angeles' sight.

He closed the door, walked to the table and sat down slowly.

On the surface of the wooden table, there was a notebook with the knowledge system of enchantment recorded on it.

Angele removed the black cloth, grabbed the feather pen from the side, and was about to finish the work.

Suddenly, a blue light dot flashed on his right middle finger and some smoke slowly rose from the nail.

"Green, I found the formula you needed. It's in my family's treasure room. The formula is protected by a special technique. The information will disappear in half an hour if copied down to a piece of paper." Isabel's voice was transferred into Angele's ears.

"So, what do you want me to do?" Angele was not surprised. Isabel was from a strong family and it was within his expectation that they had the rare formula in storage.

"There'll be a dinner party the day after tomorrow. I'll send you the invitation." Isabel sounded calm. "You must leave the area protected by my family's defensive magic circle within 20 minutes after reading the formula."

"Not a problem."

The blue smoke vanished into the air.

Angele rubbed his nail slowly and a smile appeared on his face.

He pulled the drawer open. It was full of translucent crystal boxes, and inside each of the boxes were different types of material powder.

Angele made the powder not so long ago, as he was preparing to concoct the Tree Killer Potion.

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

Two days later, the sun was setting.

In front of the house by the lake, an enormous white neck eagle carefully landed by the fences.

The eagle's wings were more than six meters long, the feathers around its neck were white, and the rest of its body was black.

A young man wearing a brown leather suit with a leather helmet jumped off the back of the eagle.

The man turned his head around and looked at the other side of the lake. A team of dwarves was working on the construction site. He could even hear the noise here.

"They are building the guarding posts for me." The young man became surprised at the voice that came from behind.

A man with brown hair appeared from nowhere and stood right in front of him.

The man had a pair of golden eyes. The shape of his pupils was identical to a cat's and almost looked like they were glowing.

"Ah, wizard Green, I'm sent here by master Isabel," The young man bowed to Angele and responded politely, "Please get on the white neck eagle's back. It'll take you directly to the dinner party."

"Is that so?" Angele glared at the eagle.

The two-meter-tall eagle looked scared. Its wings trembled and backed off. Strong noise kept coming out of its beak.

Angele chuckled. "It seems like the eagle doesn't want me on his back."

"Master, your mentality wave is making the eagle panic…" The young man walked to the eagle and took out a small pill from his pouch. The eagle calmed down after swallowing the pill.

"It's good now, master."

Angele nodded and rubbed the eagle's hard feathers. He then applied some force to his feet and jumped right onto the eagles back.

It was surprisingly comfortable to sit on the creature's back. The feathers were warm and smooth.

Angele sniffed the air. There was a strange flower fragrance coming from the eagle.

The young man stood by the side and bowed to Angele again.

The eagle raised its wings.

It felt like gravity disappeared for a second and Angele saw the land moving away from him. The objects around were also becoming miniature.

Chilling wind rushed into his ears and the collar of his clothes.

Angele turned his head to the side glancing down.

The size of the house, the lake, and the construction site was shrinking in his sight. The working dwarves looked at him for a second and lowered their heads.

The only thing he could hear was the noise made by the wings and the wind.

Angele held some of the eagle's feathers tight to stabilize his body. Also, he lowered his upper body to reduce the resistance from the wind.

The trading tower, the forest, and the gray paths were quickly moving away Angele's sight.

The eagle was flying forward quickly. Several apprentices raised their heads and stared at it. From Angele's view, they looked like tiny sesame seeds.

Angele took a deep breath and looked to the right.

He could see a white obelisk partially covered in the fog. Brown houses were built around the obelisk. Angele could see flying mounts landing and departing.

Between the obelisk and Angele, it was a sea of dark green trees. Pedestrians and carriages were slowly moving on the gray twisted paths.

Angele turned his head to the left side.

It was the endless black city road, which looked like a long black string lying on the edge of the trees.

It was getting darker and darker.

After about 20 minutes, Angele saw a group of white buildings from the back of the eagle.

The eagle leaned forward and started flying down.

There were two other white neck eagles landing. An empty square was built in the center of the buildings with white slates on its surface. There were already more than ten eagles waiting on the square.

The people who just got off the eagles were having some light conversations as they walked to the largest building ahead.

Most of them were wearing white robes. Their genders varied but they all looked young. Angele knew those people were well-educated just by watching how they behaved.

Angele's eagle slowly landed on the square.

A servant wearing a gray robe quickly walked to him.

"Master, the party will start in half an hour. You can wait at the family hall in front." The servant was a young girl with a clean face. The mentality waves she was releasing indicated that she was a rank 1 apprentice.

"Sure." Angele jumped off the eagle's back.

He turned around and looked at the eagle. It was the first time he rode a flying mount; the experience was refreshing.

"How much is a white neck eagle? Can I buy them from the market?" Angele questioned.

The girl hesitated. It seemed like she did not expect Angele to ask a question like that.

"You can't buy a white neck eagle from the market, my friend." An energetic male voice came from the left side.

Angele saw two bold people walking toward him.

A strong bold man with a sexy bold woman walked over smiling politely.

The two were wearing red robes and there were complicated patterns embroidered on the edges of the collars. The pattern had the shape of an eye.

"You are?" Angele smiled as well. The mentality waves the two were releasing indicated that they were both at the Liquid stage.

The female servant walked away. She did not want to interrupt the conversation between the wizards.

"I'm Vincent. Vincent Astin. I'm…Isabel's classmate."

The bald woman said after Vincent, "I'm Alice, a classmate of Isabel."

"My name is Green, a friend of master Isabel," Angele responded politely.

"Huh? Friend?" The bold man looked surprised. "You're that iceberg's friend?"

"Come on, let's go to the palace first," Alice interrupted.

The three walked slowly on the white slates together, heading to the white palace ahead of them.

Many wizards greeted the two bold wizards on the way. It seemed like they knew many people here, but several wizards were keeping a distance from the two. Angele saw a hint of fear from their eyes.

"Wizard Green, let me be honest with you. I didn't believe that master Isabel invited an outsider to the party. Well, excuse my ignorance, I'm not looking down on you. I think you know how important Isabel is to their family. All the elders are supporters of the inheritor system." Vincent lowered his voice.

"Inheritor system?"

"Oh, right, sorry. I forgot you came to Nola not so long ago." Vincent rubbed his forehead. "Let me explain this to you. The place is ruled by two different types of wizards and each of the groups control three signal obelisks. In the Six Ring area, there are signal obelisks, three cities, and one wizard school. The supporters of inheritor system want to stop outsiders from entering their territory to keep the purity of their bloodlines. The Six Ring area has one of the best resource points in Nola and our members are selected from the elite wizards."

Angele nodded. "So it's similar to the mortal's noble systems. They only marry the members of the families to keep their bloodlines pure."

"You're correct." Vincent shrugged. "We're not that bad actually. The White Tooth Castle and the Snake Bird Cliff are much more serious on that. The Snake Bird Cliff makes sure that their bloodlines are not shared with the outsiders and White Tooth Castle is trying to recreate ancient bloodlines. The merged bloodlines will make people mad…Their members make me sick."

"So…the family controlling the Six Ring area has the similar plan?" Angele wondered.

"Yeah." Vincent wanted to say something else, but he suddenly stood straight and bowed. Alice stopped smiling and bowed as well.

Angele raised his head. He saw two women in white robes walking in the middle of the road chatting.

The two women looked young. On the collars of their clothes, there were two nail-sized silver rings.

"Hey, bow to them." Vincent pulled Angele's sleeves.

Angele nodded and bowed to the two women right away. Vincent grabbed his hand and pulled him to the right side of the road.

Chapter 203: The Formula (2)

Translator: Leo Editor: Frappe

Angele eyed the women again without being noticed.

The one on the left had a long black hair trailing over her shoulders. The woman had a blank expression on the face. Her skin was clean and smooth. Strangely, the woman had no eyebrows, Angele saw a hint of coldness from her long slim eyes.

The woman on the right had a balanced body. Her red hair looked like burning flame, but she had no ears or nose. Angele noticed that there were many scars on her head and those scars made her face terrifying.

Nothing caught Angele's attention and he decided to lower his head.

However, the woman with no eyebrows suddenly stared at Angele in his eyes.

Angele felt intense pain hit his skull. It felt like ice water went into his eyes, and his eyeballs numbed.

He lowered his head quickly and rubbed his eyes several times.

"Haha, don't ever try to glare at master Flan again." Vincent chuckled. "She acquired the Frost Winter three hundred years ago and served in the war between Northland Alliance and the underground races for 20 years."

"My bad."

Angele collected some Plant energy particles to cure his eyes and creased his eyebrows.

Vincent shook his head and stopped talking. It was not the first time he had seen something like this.

The three kept walking forward.

Angele's sight slowly recovered. Flan used a high-level technique to damage the nerves around his eyes, and his force shield was penetrated by her strong mentality wave.

The woman had no body temperature. Even her mentality wave was freezing.

"Who exactly is this master Flan?" Angele asked after feeling much better.

"Master Flan and master Quelina are two of the seven two-ring wizards in Six Ring High Tower. I'm not sure if you're familiar with the ancient ranking system, but the two already reached rank 2 a long time ago," Alice responded before Vincent could open his mouth.

"Master Flan is Isabel's family leader and master Quelina was sent here by the headquarters that's located somewhere in the Gem Sea. This area you see here is just a division."

Angele nodded but did not say anything. He was surprised by what he was just told. There were seven rank 2 wizards in Six Ring High Tower, yet this area was not their headquarters.

It was also the first time Angele met rank 2 wizards.

He could barely feel the mentality waves the two were releasing. It almost felt like he was looking at two average wizards. Angele was not sure if something happened to their mentality after reaching rank 2.

The people passing by all bowed to the two-ring wizards, but the two did not pay any attention to others and were just chatting using the energy particles.

Angele took a deep breath and decided not to glance at them anymore. He had not yet understood how his eye nerves were damaged. The chip did not warn him ahead and no spell was cast. The only possibility was that Flan's mentality was way higher than his.

He stopped thinking and walked in the crowd with Vincent and Alice. They entered the gate of the white palace together.

The walls and floors in the palace had no engravings. Everything was made from white jade. A large sapphire was embedded on the top of the gate. Several female apprentices stood on both sides of the hallway greeting the guests on the way.

Inside it was a spacious hall. There was a three-level fountain built in the middle, and at the top, there was a white jade mermaid statue. The mermaid was half-naked, lying down with a leaning water jug in hands. The clean spring water was constantly coming down from the jug.

There was a long rectangular table on the side. It was covered with different dishes and wines. In the right corner, a group of musicians wearing black noble suits was playing instruments.

Angele did not find any lamps in the hall. The gentle white light from the glowing roof brightened up the whole place.

Vincent and Alice went to talk to their friends after leading Angele into the white palace.

Angele spent several minutes walking around the hall and found Isabel standing in a corner talking to two female wizards. He chuckled after seeing Isabel trying her best to smile.

Isabel saw Angele walking toward her. She finished her conversation quickly and turned around.

"Welcome to the party, Green." Isabel remained calm. "I hope you have a great time here today."

"Thank you for the invitation." Angele smiled.

Isabel nodded slightly and walked straight to the gate.

Angele heard a voice being transferred into his ears from the communication rune.

"Go to the backyard. Someone will show you the formula. Don't just copy it down on a paper. Use whatever special method you know to record it and leave the area within half an hour. The formula will disappear before that." Isabel's voice echoed in his ears.

"Understood," Angele responded through the rune.

He had already acquired all the materials required in concocting the potion and the only thing missing he needed to do was craft it. With the help of the Tree Killer Potion, his mentality would increase to the same level as a Liquid stage wizard.

Angele walked out of the hall through the side door and headed to the backyard behind the white palace.

Several white robes stood in the garden having some random conversations.

The only one Angele knew here was Isabel. This place felt like a different world for him. It would be impossible for him to meet the two rank 2 wizards if Isabel did not send him the invitation.

A man with a silver circlet walked to Angele as he entered the garden.

"Master Green?" the man questioned in a low voice.

"Yeah." Angele nodded.

The man quickly took out a tiny black box.

"This is a copy of the scroll. Time is limited. I assume you know how to record it."

"For sure." Angele grabbed the box but did not open it. He hid the box under the long sleeve and held it tight in his hand.

"The flying mount has already been prepared for you. Just go to the square when you're done." The man sent the words through energy particles.

Angele nodded again and turned around, heading to the small path on the side of the palace.

He saw many light wizards relaxing and chatting. Most of them were Liquid stage wizards and some of them were at Crystal stage based on their mentality waves.

From Angele's view, most of the light wizards never experienced real battles. The only thing they did was doing researches all day. Fighting and killing were never part of their peaceful lives.

Angele felt like he was a wolf walking in a group of sheep. The light wizards around him had no self-defense awareness, as they only relied on their force shields from their Talent Spells. Strong Dark Wizards knew many ways to penetrate shields like that. The easiest way was to focus the burst damage on a single point. Most of the wizards here had higher mentality level than Angele, but they had almost no practical fighting experience in the battlefields. They were living a peaceful life, but Angele doubted if those wizards had the ability to retaliate in case the underground races' invasion got worse.

Angele knew how hard it was to survive in this world. He constantly covered his body with a thin layer of metal. Most of the physical or magical damages could be reduced.

Without the metal layer, he would die from the ambush of the two light wizards back on the ship. The light wizard's weak force shield would not stop the acid liquid from touching his body.

Angele heard Isabel's voice coming from behind as he walked out of the hall.

"Thank you for joining my birthday party today, it's my honor to…"

He did not stop and instead walked straight toward the square.

Most of the people were listening to Isabel's speech in the hall. There was barely anyone on the road.

The walls on both sides of the road were glowing. They provided enough light for Angele to see the objects ahead.

He returned the square where the eagle landed quickly.

A female apprentice was waiting there with a white neck eagle on the side.

"Master, everything is ready," she whispered.

Angele nodded, walked to the eagle, and jumped onto its back.

The white neck swung its wings several times and flew into the dark sky.

Angele could feel the connection between the box in his hand and the shield protecting the area. However, as the eagle increased its altitude, the connection was weakened.

He was basically stealing from Isabel's family, but he wondered why no one detected him leaving the shield's proximity.

An ancient formula like this one was priceless. Although Isabel was an inheritor of the family, the current leader should not give it away so easily.

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

Inside the room of one of the taller buildings in Isabel's family territory.

Two light wizards stood in front of the window and watched a white neck eagle disappear in the night sky.

"So that's Isabel's lover we read from the report?"

"I heard he's just Isabel's friend. A Gas stage wizard. Should we go after him? Isabel just gave him one of our rare formulas."

"It's fine. Isabel is our hope. She's the best among the possible inheritors. Margray has a bunch of mistresses and he spends way too much time playing with women. Christin wastes a ton of materials each year. We can't keep wasting the resources like that. Isabel only wanted a potion formula, it's not a big deal."

"Alright then. One more thing, ask the members to bring Para back. The Astins are acting like they don't care about us recently. We need to pressure them as soon as possible."

"Sure, it's been 20 years already? We need to keep our people's positions in the organizations. The guards around the resource point are helping the assassination team recently. It's our chance!"

Chapter 204: Flan (1)

Translator: Leo Editor: Frappe

The eagle looked like a black dot traveling in an endless black screen.

The two crescent moons were blocked by the thick clouds, with only a hint of white glow penetrating.

Angele lowered his body on the back of the eagle. His face turned pale.

He leaned to the side and looked down. Between the dark forest, there were several carriages slowly advancing with yellow lamps in front.

In the area further ahead, Angele saw a hint of red light. Some people were probably camping in the forest.

Angele took out the black box from the sleeves and opened it carefully; inside it was a fist-sized crystal orb. Blue light dots gathered in the center of the orb. They were a special type of glowing sand.

He pressed his index finger against the surface of the orb.

"In the name of Isabel Jones," he invoked the incantation.

The blue light dots were absorbed into his finger and the light disappeared within seconds.

A blue leather scroll slowly unfurled itself in front of Angele's eyes.

The scroll floated in the air. It was surrounded by a blue glow and its edges were decorated with complicated silver patterns.

At the same time, the scroll was turning into energy particles and starting to slowly vanish into the air.

The blue glow illuminated Angele's face. He focused on reading the information recorded on the scroll. On the other hand, Zero was transferring everything he saw into its storage.

Black runes and encrypted messages covered the scroll and some of the words were hard to understand.

Ten minutes later.

Angele took a deep breath. He felt much better.

'Finally done…The mentality wave I detected was probably from the two-ring Wizard Flan, the leader of the Jones Family…'

According to the description on the book, only wizards who managed to acquire two Talent Spells through unknown methods would be given the title two-ring wizards. They could instant cast level 2 spells. Still, Angele did not even know what a level 2 spell could do.

The level 1 spells were restricted when he was still at the school and level 2 spells required special permits for wizards to view.

The mentality wave Angele detected a while ago was horrifying.

He probably needed to fully activate the evolved illusion signet to escape the tracking spell.

The illusion signet could only be fully activated for two more times. However, Angele was not sure if that was still the case after the incident of the signet absorbing too much unknown energy. The signet was still modifying his body and the ancient bloodline was still developing. If the signet disappeared after two usages, the modification probably would not be completed.

'If I didn't learn the mentality compression method, I wouldn't be able to detect the wave.' Angele pointed at the scroll with his finger and it turned into countless blue light dots before vanishing into the air.

He turned his head around and checked the surroundings.

The white buildings disappeared from his sight a long time ago.

Angele looked at the sky. The thick clouds were no longer there.

White glows surrounded the two crescent moons in the night sky. The seemingly infinite number of stars looked like illuminating sand being spread on an enormous black screen.

Two meteors drew a long arc in the air and disappeared.

Angele lowered his head and put the black box into his pouch.

Flying in the silent sky alone was an enjoyable experience and the beautiful view calmed his mind.

The familiar lake beside Angele's house appeared in his sight after a while.

The starry sky cast a reflection upon the clean surface of the lake. It almost looked like the stars dropped into the water.

The white neck eagle slowly landed in front of the fences with its huge claws.

Angele jumped off the eagle right away.

The eagle roared, almost sounding like a horse neighing. It then swung its wings and flew into the sky.

Angele watched the white neck eagle fly away and disappear from his sight.

'The formula should be real. I need to recheck if I have all the materials. After concocting the potion, I shall start preparing for reaching the next stage.'

*Plop*

Suddenly, something jumped out of the lake and fell back in within seconds.

Angele walked to the lake and crouched.

The surface of the water looked like a mirror, reflecting his upper body.

Under the dim moonlight, there were several green light dots moving in the lake.

The green light dots paired up and swam around.

Angele took a closer look and realized that it was a fish with a pair of glowing green eyes.

"Interesting…" He was a bit surprised.

Angele raised his left hand, dipping his fingers into the frigid-cold lake.

Without any movement, waves spread on the surface of the water.

After several seconds, the fish swam toward Angele's fingers.

*Plop*

He moved his hand out of the water. The fish with green eyes bit one of his fingers.

Angele grabbed the fish and walked to the house.

He walked passed the fences and opened the door. He then entered one of the rooms on the second floor.

White glowing crystals were embedded into the walls, bringing enough light into the room.

The room was divided into several areas. The area in front of him had black bottles, cases, and shelves on the floor.

Several large tables were standing silently on the left side of the room. They were covered with lab equipment such as beakers, test tubes, burners, and glass bottles.

On the right side, there was a tall white cabinet that looked like a refrigerator.

Angele walked to the cabinet, opened the doors, and threw the fish into a small water tank.

More than metal water tanks lined up in the cabinet and they were painted in black.

He put most of the strange fishes he caught from the lake into those tanks.

Angele carried out one of the black water tanks and closed the door. He put it down on the table, then he sat down and used a silver tweezers to pick up a strange creature with the shape of an earthworm.

He threw the creature into a glass with yellow sticky liquid and heated it up.

Angele turned the room into a laboratory not so long ago, he collected the creatures and plants with interesting properties to do researches.

Also, the laboratory could be used to test the potions.

Angele already asked Zero to decrypt the encrypted information when he was reading the scroll he acquired from the Jones Family.

'Zero, is the decryption finished?' Angele questioned.

'Decryption successful. Rare mid-level potion: Demos's Stinky Water.'

'What? I thought it was the Tree Killer Potion…Transmit the information into my brain.'

Angele closed his eyes. He could feel a massive information flow during the transmission of information into his brain.

'Potion that will increase your mentality. Side effects, unknown. Source, unknown. Main material, Thorn of Sizis, Fur of Sailor's Sand Seagull, and the Flaming Heart.'

"The Flaming Heart…" Angele was surprised, then looked disappointed after.

It was a high-energy crystal that could only be obtained from the deep magma. Its rarity was on par with the heart of the tree.

"Time to look for a substitute material…"

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

In the next ten days, Angele decided to purchase some basic materials from the market and concoct some potions to trade for resources, but he was not sure if he had enough resources to trade for the Flaming Heart that was found in the trading tower. The price was a bit ridiculous, but he failed to find any material to substitute for it.

Before Angele sold the Ghost Voice potions he concocted, Isabel sent someone to deliver the materials for Demos' Water to him including the extremely valuable material, the Flaming Heart.

It was a heap of expensive materials, but Isabel did not ask for anything in return.

The Demos' Water was hard to concoct. Isabel had already done her best, and Angele had ten chances to try. It was the first time that Angele would concoct this potion and he was unfamiliar with the materials, so he had to be cautious during the process.

Isabel did not know that Angele's skill was higher than most average potion masters.

Angele asked the person Isabel sent here to deliver the purified rhino blood back and returned to his laboratory.

It took about ten days for the dwarves to finish building the four guarding posts. There was a five-meter-tall stone tower standing on each of the posts. The tower was gray and rooms were built for people to live inside.

The apprentices and Knights that passed the tests already arrived at the guarding posts, including Nancy. They finished correcting the contracts and organizing their private lives before moving into the stone towers.

Nancy stayed with the other female apprentices.

Ivan helped her complete the servant contract and she officially became Angele's first servant.

A servant had higher pay than the guards. Angele was still looking for an assistant, but he had more important matters to deal with at present. He had asked the dwarves to build an underground laboratory and moved all the equipment inside.

Besides doing experiments, handling materials, and simulating the concoction process, the only thing he did was to make sure that the creatures he kept in the water tanks were still alive. It was not against the rules stated by the light wizards to do experiments on unintelligent creatures.

Life was peaceful recently.

The guards would take turns to patrol around the lake and the house. Nancy was in charge of purchasing materials, making dinners, and selling potions at the trading tower.

Isabel would send materials and resources to Angele from time to time, and in return, Angele would deliver purified rhino blood back to her.

Several months had passed without Angele noticing.