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Chapter 205: Flan (2)

Translator: Leo Editor: Frappe

*CHI*

Angele rubbed his fingers on the window. The noise it made was irritating.

A clean line was drawn on the misty surface of the glass.

He stood by the window and peeked outside through the line.

It was early in the morning. Dried yellow tree leaves floated on the surface of the lake. On the other side of the lake, there was a white stone tower. Knight Hillar, who was outside the tower, was leaning against the tower and was sipping a warm beverage. Angele could see the breath coming out of the man's mouth. Hillar was wearing a brown leather armor suit with a black snake pattern on its back. The horned helmet and shoulder guard were eye-catching.

"Winter already…" Angele took a deep breath and stretched his back.

A group of small black birds flew by the window and chirped. They flew around above the lake for several times and left.

"I thought there were no birds in this forest?" Angele turned around and looked at Nancy.

"It's December already. The birds from the west coast are migrating. They wouldn't usually stay in the Six Area due to the intense energy particle movements in the air, but you will see them during the winter from time to time," Nancy quickly explained.

In the study, Nancy stood beside the table quietly, serving a plate of burger steak and white bread. There was also a plate full of colorful fruits.

"Breakfast time." She lined up the silver plates on the table.

"Sure." Angele walked to the table, then grabbed the knife and the fork.

"How's the preparation of the materials?" he suddenly inquired.

"Master Isabel sent us some more material cases. I've collected most of the materials you listed on the note."

The material cases were sealed with spells, so Nancy had no idea what was inside. Angele asked her to collect the materials for some low-level potions. The only thing she knew about those cases were Isabel's runes marked onto them.

Angele contacted Asuna and the River Arrow recently and asked them to purchase some basic materials for him. Those materials were delivered using sealed cases as well.

He did not want others to find out about what he was planning to concoct. If someone leaked the number of materials he purchased to the public, the wizards would know how high his success rate was, and it would be a serious problem.

Angele too had finally finished preparing the materials needed for advancing to the next stage.

All the materials for Demos's Water and the Tree Killer Potion were prepared. The Demos' Water would help him increase his mentality and the Tree Killer potion would increase the chances of him successfully advancing to the next stage.

Angele cut the burger steak into pieces and sent them into his mouth.

"I've recently heard a rumor that Labyrinth College is planning something big. Stay around the house, Nancy. Don't leave the safe zone."

Nancy nodded.

"Alright, you can leave now." Angele pointed at the fireplace.

A small fireball appeared in the air and lit up the firewood.

Nancy left the room and closed the door carefully.

Angele finished off the rest of the burger steak. It had been grilled to perfection and was topped with sweet sesame sauce. The surface was crispy and the inside was juicy. It was a tasty dish.

"After this thing is done, I shall start concocting the potions and try to advance to the next stage." Angele leaned to the side and looked through the window. It was a peaceful moment for him to enjoy.

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

There was a tall white obelisk standing quietly in the chilling wind. The top of the obelisk was surrounded by white clouds and the view down there was blocked.

A small platform was built on top of the obelisk. A woman with white tight suit sat in the center of the platform with her legs crossed. She had a long black ponytail behind her head.

The edges of her sleeves and collars were all embroidered with silver patterns. Two crossed silver rings were painted on the back of her coat.

The woman had a pretty face, but there were no brows over her eyes. Her expression was serious and her eyes were closed. Water was dripping down her chin and blue light dots were flashing around her body.

Her ponytail and cloth were flying about in the howling wind.

The white arched gate behind her was slowly pushed open.

A tall man with a white mask stepped onto the platform.

"Master Flan, master Red Brow from the Labyrinth College wants to talk to you. What do you think?" the man questioned in a low voice.

"Red Brow?" Flan opened her eyes. Her pupils had the color of the sea. The blue light dots slowly vanished into the air.

"Sure, let's see what he has to say." Flan stood up.

"Understood."

The man quickly invoked some incantations and pointed his hands toward the ground.

Three twisted red rune appeared in front of Flan and started glowing.

Rays of light were released from each of the runes, coming across each other and forming a special pattern.

An old man wearing a long robe with three different colors slowly appeared in the center of the light rays.

The old man's shoulders bowed. His eyebrows and beard were flaming red, but his messy hair was silver white.

The old man glared at the man with a white mask, asking him to leave. The man with white mask bowed and disappeared into the gate.

"Flan, long time no see. I want to you to find someone for me. He's a dark wizard," the old man spoke slowly.

"Who exactly?" Flan wondered.

"This one."

The Red Brow raised his right index finger and pointed in the air. A twisted gas vortex appeared from nowhere and right at its center, there was a mirror-like light screen. The face of a young man with brown hair slowly illuminated on the surface of the screen. Strangely enough, his eyes were surrounded by a golden glow and his pupils were vertical.

"Huh?" Flan creased her forehead. "What do you want him for?"

"I want him dead! From your reaction, I assume you know this man." Red Brow nodded slightly.

"I know him, yeah." Flan nodded. "Tell me what happened first? People at your position usually don't care about a Gas stage wizard. Also, by the way, I know you have people in the Six Ring Area. I want them gone as soon as possible."

Red Brow narrowed his eyes. "What do you mean? I can't tell you the details, but the situation is getting worse. I'm sending more people to you right now."

"Summon them back then. Do you understand?" Flan's voice was deep and powerful.

"It's master Narry's decision!" Red Brow was almost yelling.

"Narry? Do you really think I care about her?" A cold smile appeared on Flan's face. "Old man, just stay in your organization and enjoy your retirement. I already forgave you for what you did that year. If you try to provoke me again, I'll send you to hell."

Red Brow was disappointed. "Flan, that kid killed two of my followers and you're trying to protect him?"

"He's my granddaughter's only friend and you want him dead? Isabel is all I have right now. You'll be dead in three days if you hurt this young man," Flan threatened him sternly.

"How dare you…!"

Flan cut the communication screen before Red Brow could finish his words.

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

In a tall black tower, far from the Six Ring area.

Red Brow took off the tricolor robe and put on a long black robe. He was enraged.

"Fu*king Flan Jones! I wasted so much mentality to track that young bastard down!" He cursed in a low voice, "Contact Vidia and his members and ask them to retreat! That crazy b*tch really meant it!"

"Yes, master," a female apprentice responded politely. There was no soul in her eyes, as though she was a puppet. She turned around and left the room.

Red Brow wiped some dust off his black robe.

"She doesn't even care about what master Narry thinks, god damn. The trace of Light of Thor was lost, and I need to dig something out from this little bastard. My special units are still in Six Ring area…I shall wait for master Narry's return and then communicate with Flan again…"

The old muttered but it almost looked like he was speaking to someone else.

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

Flan walked down the obelisk and entered a hidden stone room.

Her special rune was blinking on the surface of the door. The rune had the shape of a huge black octopus. The octopus had eight black tentacles coated with a purple glint.

The stone door slowly closed as Flan entered the room.

The room was dark and a lone white stone table stood quietly in the center. On the table was a silver mirror with complicated engravings on the edge.

Flan walked to the table and tapped on the mirror carefully with her finger.

*CHI*

The reflection of her face disappeared. Instead, a bedroom with blue walls showed up.

The bedroom had luxury decorations. A young girl with a balanced body was slowly taking off her white robe. The robe dropped to the ground, revealing the white lace lingerie within.

It was Isabel, who was currently changing her underwear.

She grabbed some new underwear from the closet and slowly took off the lingerie she was wearing.

Flan stared at Isabel's perfect body. There was a hint of hysteria in her eyes.

"You're… mine…" She whispered, "No one can hurt you, I'll give you everything…" Flan's face blushed, her mind filled with sick desires.

Flan had started observing Isabel's body since she was young. She had planted many hidden runes in Isabel's living space and would spend several hours watching her every day.

With the runes, Flan could monitor Isabel's body condition and everything she did within range. Her heart rate, blood flow, the amount of hair she dropped on the floor, and the time she slept, Flan knew everything about her. Isabel knew that her grandmother was observing her daily life, but she never noticed those hidden runes.

Isabel looked exactly like the young Flan, and Flan was enjoying the strange pleasure that came from monitoring her granddaughter's daily life.

Chapter 206: Preparation (1)

Translator: Leo Editor: Frappe

Several hours later, Flan slightly tapped the surface of the silver mirror.

The scene vanished into darkness and the mirror returned to its original state.

Flan stood in front of the table. As she blinked her eyes, she started thinking.

She then turned around and walked out of the stone room.

Outside the stone room, a woman wearing a white mask was waiting quietly. She bowed as Flan stepped out of the door.

"Master Flan, master Isabel sent out several cases of materials again."

"To the wizard named Green?" Flan questioned.

"Yes."

"Potion materials?"

"Yes."

"He's living a better life than the Potion Masters in the family. Whatever, a Gas stage wizard, it's fine if she's having fun."

Flan finished her word and walked down the spiral staircase.

"Where are the guards for the family resource point?"

"Waiting for you down the obelisk."

"Time to show the elders what the Jones Family is capable of."

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

In the house beside the lake.

Angele walked down the stairs and reached a small door below the staircase.

The door was painted white. It had the same color as the wall, so it was hard for others to find.

Angele tapped on the door. A red dot flashed on its surface and the door opened itself, revealing a bright underground tunnel. The tunnel led to a spacious basement.

White glowing crystals lined up on both sides of the wall. They looked like small diamond-shaped lamps.

Angele walked into the tunnel and pressed his hands against the door.

Silver liquid slowly filled up the gaps around the door, resulting in the door almost looking like it became part of the staircase.

After the door was sealed, Angele turned around and walked down the tunnel.

There were four closed doors on each of the walls in the basement. Different signs were hanging over each of the doors: Material, Creature, Potion, and Spell.

Angele walked into the material room and opened the door.

A whole pile of black boxes was stored inside.

There were also several wooden barrels with meat jerky, fruit wine, and special wheat.

Angele walked to a white box on the left side and opened it carefully. Inside were two test tubes that contained blue and red liquid, protected by cotton pads.

The red and blue liquid was glowing under the dim light.

Angele grabbed the two test tubes in hand and left the material room. He then entered the potion room.

Inside the potion room, there was a shell-shaped black metal table covered with crystal lab equipment.

A head-sized glass container with black sticky liquid was being heated using a fat burner and the liquid inside was bubbling. The bubbles were rising and exploding on the surface of the liquid. White smoke formed small vortexes after the bubbles exploded and they looked like clean white roses.

Angele stood in front of the crystal container and observed the reaction quietly. After several minutes, he took a deep breath and slowly removed the stopper, then quickly poured the liquid from the test tubes into the container.

*BOOM*

Intense dark smoke spurted out of the crystal container and formed a goat's head in the air. The goat head was more than half a meter tall and its spiral horns were eye-catching.

Angele was satisfied with the result.

"Baphomet…The demon with a goat's head and a human's body…so the materials I collected are correct. Good thing I stored them well."

The smoke floated in the air for about ten minutes before disappearing.

The black sticky liquid inside the crystal container turned into translucent clean liquid. It looked just the water from the lake.

Angele calmed down and took out a black stone piece with a white rune engraved on its surface.

He dropped the rune stone into the container.

Angele stared at the container carefully and observed the reactions happening inside as he started invoking the incantation to activate the rune.

The deep and loud incantation echoed in the room. The words were hard to understand, but his voice was calm and steady.

The rune stone slowly moved to the center of the translucent liquid.

The rune stone broke into countless small pieces as Angele invoked the incantation.

Angele's incantation got louder and louder, and the rune stone pieces almost completely dissolved in the liquid.

The progress was going well. He looked relaxed.

Suddenly, Angele increased his chanting speed.

*CHI*

The dissolving black rune stone pieces gathered together. They merged and returned to the original shape within seconds.

However, the white rune on the stone's surface slowly vanished into the air and the rune stone was no longer surrounded by the gentle glow.

"Damn…"

Angele sighed.

"That was close. I spent so much time preparing the materials…" He eyed the black rune stone in the container with a disappointed look on his face. Angele picked up the crystal container and poured everything into a stone wash basin.

"I need to start over again." Angele shook his head with his brow furrowed.

It was difficult to stabilize the Black Rose oil and clean the heart of the tree. Angele's original plan was to make the Tree Killer Potion first but failed.

'Zero, collect the results and restart the simulation.'

'Task created, simulating…'

Angele walked to the shell-shaped table and sat down on a chair. He closed his eyes and started to go through the mistakes he had done during the process.

Although Angele had simulated the process using the chip and increased his success rate, he was still lacking in practical experience. The Potion Masters had a lower success rate, but some of them spent dozens of years to improve their skills and most of them could stay focused during the process.

Angele needed more practice to improve the concoction process, which would take some time.

'I'll do it again in ten days. Let me try the finished Demos' Water first.'

He opened the small drawer and grabbed one of the small pink crystal bottles. The liquid inside the cylinder-shaped bottle was dark.

Angele removed the stopper from the crystal bottle.

*CHI*

Red smoke spurted out of the bottle and slowly disappeared into the room.

A creamy milk smell permeated the air. Angele's expression turned serious and started meditating right away.

Although concocting Demos' Water had a low success rate, the number of rare materials Isabel sent to him was enough for Angele to try four times before successfully obtaining one high-quality potion.

The hardest part of potion concocting was the mentality merging process. It required a high expertise in mentality manipulation. Otherwise, the reactions happening in the container would not happen. Usually, a Potion Master needed to try multiple times before finding the right methods for different potions. However, many materials would be wasted during the testing phase.

This was the reason why it required a huge amount of resources to train a Potion Master.

Angele skipped the testing phase by using the chip's simulation function. The best plan given by Zero after the simulations would increase his success rate greatly. However, many things could happen when concocting a mid-level potion, and he still needed to find the right amount of mentality to use by himself.

After the plan was improved to perfection, Angele concocted about 20 bottles of Demos' Water.

The correct way to use the potion was not to drink it but to let it evaporate. The effect of the potion was strong and one-fifth of the liquid would be gone in two hours.

By inhaling the gas from the evaporated potion during meditation, Angele's mentality would increase at a much faster rate.

It was the first time Angele tried to use the potion during the meditation. He had, after all, spent way too much time on preparing the materials for the Tree Killer potion.

The gas had a creamy smell and was moving into Angele's ears and nose quickly.

It almost looked like Angele's body was absorbing the mysterious red gas and the scene looked quite strange. The red gas kept spurting out of the crystal bottle and revolving around his face.

Angele slowly woke up from the meditation after a while.

His face turned pale and he quickly sealed the bottle with the stopper.

'Zero, how long did I meditate?'

'Meditation length, 2 hours 24 minutes and 31 seconds. Mentality increased by 0.1.'

Intense pain was hurting Angele's head. It seemed that the side effects from the Demos' Water were physical.

"The name of the potion is Stinky Demos's Water…Where's the stink?" Angele wondered.

Suddenly, he covered his mouth with his hands, bent over to the side, and retched violently.

A strange but awful stench rushed into his nose after he put the crystal bottle back into the drawer.

The place now smelled like rotten eggs mixed with feces, but it made Angele's head regain clarity.

The meditation made his sense of smell keener. It seemed like the stinky smell was the byproduct produced prior to the evaporation process.

Chapter 207: Preparation (2)

Translator: Leo Editor: Frappe

The stench was becoming worse by the second. It was the first time that Angele experienced such an unpleasant smell after reincarnating into this world.

About ten minutes later, he raised his head and straightened his back.

"Well, it definitely caused some damage to my body."

Zero displayed the hologram of his body in front his eyes. The hologram was rotating slowly and red glowing dots were moving inside his body, from the head to the lungs. The distance between each of the red dots was close.

'Unknown bacteria detected, please use antibiotics immediately.'

Zero warned.

Angele knitted his eyebrows. "It seems like I need to rest for a while before using it for meditation again. I need to increase my Mentality to 40 in order to advance to the next stage, but it seems the process will take a while. Also, I reached Gas stage faster than most of the formal wizards…If I advance to the Liquid stage in such a short period, I may get in trouble. The old guys will want to know how I did that."

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

In the next several months, Angele stayed in his house and focused on meditating with the assistance of Demos' Water.

He spent his free time trying to concoct the Tree Killer Potion. However, the difficulty was much higher than the Demos' Water. Furthermore, he kept improving the current spell models and studied the Giant's Fire enchantment skills.

Although Nola should be a safe place, he was still preparing for possible ambushes from the Labyrinth College. He still had some high-quality heart bombs left but nothing had happened during these past months.

The old man with red eyebrows knew what Angele looked like and could easily recreate his appearance in a mirror using spells. Angele was still not sure what spells the old man used to track him down, so he decided to stay alert.

It seemed like someone had handled the trouble for him as there was no report on sighting spies of Labyrinth College recently. The only possibility was Isabel's family, the Jones Family, had helped him.

Angele's assumption was that he was Isabel's friend, and for some reason, the Labyrinth College feared the power of the Jones Family.

It was possible for him to win a 1-on-1 battle against a Liquid stage wizard. However, he doubted if he could last two seconds under the spells of a Crystal stage wizard. The horrifying spell cast by old wizard Melissa back in the ruin could probably purify a whole city. He could not imagine how much damage an explosive spell from a Crystal stage dark wizard could do. They could likely even easily block his heart bombs.

Wizards who had reached the Crystal stage must be extremely talented and hardworking.

Many Crystal stage wizards were only one step away from advancing to rank 2 and most of them already lived hundreds of years' time in this world.

Angele recalled the conversation he had with Isabel on the ship. She said that her grandmother, Flan, monitored her daily life.

Flan gave Angele an impression that she was a pervert.

Isabel once discussed the problem with Angele during a chat through the communication rune.

She said that her grandmother spent hundreds of years in the laboratory, meditating and doing researches after the war ended. Thus, it was understandable for Flan to develop some special interest to stay sane.

However, Angele still thought that Flan's love to Isabel was over the line.

He could probably escape the pursuit of a Crystal stage, but he was certain that there was no way he could survive the attack from a rank 2 wizard.

Angele stayed in his house, doing researches, concocting potions, and meditating. This situation lasted for years.

Finally, Angele's Mentality was increased to 40.

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

"Welcome, wizard Wisp." Angele stood in the garden with a smile on his face, glaring at the tall slim outside the fence. The tall man was wearing a gray coat with a white cap on his head. He had a strange taste in fashion.

It was high noon; the sunlight was burning. The man smiled, took off his cap, and slightly leaned forward.

"Green, it has been a while. Have you finished the Ghost Voice Potion yet? I brought you the list of the materials you asked for here," the man spoke, and Nancy opened the gate for him. He stepped into the garden and followed Angele to the house.

The garden looked much better than before after Nancy spent the time taking care of the plants. Tiny white flowers decorated the vibrant tall grasses.

"It's been done a long time ago. You can pick it up anytime you want. Did you bring me the sample I want?" Angele pushed the door open and asked.

"Of course, the sample is right here." Wisp squeezed his white cap and turned it into a piece of white cloth, then put it into his pocket. Nancy was surprised by this 'magic' he just did.

The two sat on the sofa and Angele asked Nancy to prepare beverages for them.

"You're really in a hurry this time. I tried my best to get you the sample as soon as possible." Instead of communicating by words, Wisp sent the message using energy particles.

"Yeah." Angele slightly nodded. "I used way too many resources in the recent years. I need the materials to make the catalyst and neutralizer. The experiment is at the critical stage, so I had to ask you for the sample. My apologies if it was too much trouble."

"Not a problem at all." Wisp waved his hands. "I trust you. You never failed any of our trade. It's an honor working with you." He stopped for a second and continued, "Hey, do you know the rumor going around at the trading towers?"

"Huh? What's that?" Angele wondered.

"You're master Isabel's lover, ha. What a background you got there." Wisp chuckled. "If anything goes south, I can go talk to the Jones Family."

"Come on. Well, whatever." Angele shook his head. "We've completed so many trades with no issue. You know the truth, right?"

"Of course…If the Jones Family knows about your potion concocting skills, no one will ever question your ability." Wisp nodded.

Angele showed a wry smile on his face. "Enough of that. Alright, show me your list. You still have other works to do, right?"

"Nope. You're an important client and I'm now in charge of taking care of your requests. Tell me what you need and I'll prepare it for you as soon as I can." Wisp stared at Angele.

"Is that so?" It was not a surprise at all. Angele stayed calm.

Wisp stopped talking. He took out a fist-sized crystal orb from the pocket and threw it in the air.

"Bright White Leaf from the Viema City, also called the crystal leaf. You can check its quality."

The orb rotated several times in the air and released rays of light to the surface of the table in front of the two.

The colorful picture of an item illuminated on the smooth wooden surface.

In the center of the white light, there was a piece of white leaf with rough edges lying there quietly. It had the texture of white jade and it had the size of an index finger.

That was the crystal leaf Wisp mentioned.

Angele had already met the requirement for his advancement and he had successfully concocted the Tree Killer Potion. Everything was ready, but he was still concerned about one more thing.

The success rate of advancing to the Liquid stage.

Based on the calculation done by Zero, his success rate was around 50% and that was the reason why Angele hesitated.

Angele spent a long time trying to concoct the potions that could possibly increase his success rate. He purchased various types of materials from Wisp and made countless potions.

However, it was difficult to find the right ones.

The organization behind Wisp was strong. It seemed like they could find any rare materials Angele needed. Although Angele was still trading with people from the trading tower, none of them had the same quality as the materials Wisp provided.

Angele did his research and found out that the crystal leaf was a material that could possibly increase his success rate. The leaf had many variants the last time he acquired a piece of Red Jade Leaf and the report from Zero suggested that the leaf was worth a try.

With the help of the chip, Angele had a general idea of how high his success rate was and the possible ways to increase it.

He collected much information recently, resulting in Zero's database getting larger and larger. More data helped Zero do more accurate analyses. It was like carrying a whole library of books around.

"So, what do you say?" Wisp grabbed the teacup and took a sip.

"If the color is accurate, I'll take it." Angele nodded.

"Let's check the schedule then. I'll send someone to deliver it to you. Honestly, I think you should upgrade your defensive system here…You don't even have a forcefield detection spell activated and you're storing all the rare materials here. Let me know if you need any recommendations."

"I've been considering it recently and yeah, the defense around my house is weak. The guards won't stand a chance against any prepared attackers." Angele's brow furrowed.

"It's Nola, but anything can happen. I'll bring some magic circle books to you next time. Pick any one you want, it's on me." Wisp slightly nodded his head.

"Much appreciated." Angele looked at the crystal leaf on the table. If the leaf was effective, his success rate would be greatly increased.

Wizards were usually on their own when trying to advance to the next stage. There were many books introducing different methods, but most of them were not effective. The wizard's body would develop resistance to the effect of rare materials of high-level potions due to the side effects that came with the benefits.

The success rate would fall if he did not manage to advance to the next stage on the first try. That was the reason why many wizards failed to advance to the next level. They had wasted many resources but never realized that their chances of reaching the next stage were getting lower and lower.

Chapter 208: The Crystal Leaf (1)

Translator: Leo Editor: Frappe

A wizard's attributes would be lowered each time they failed to advance to the next level. Wizards at higher ranks or stages usually had a lower physical status than the ones who just broke the limit.

With the help of the Demos' Water, Angele increased his Mentality to 40, but the potion was no longer effective right after. His body had already developed a resistance to its effect. Otherwise, Angele would try to increase his Mentality a bit more. Higher mentality increased the success rate of advancing to next stages.

The potion was extremely effective at the beginning. However, in later stages, only the side effects which remained were still affecting his body.

Wisp arrived with the sample when Angele was still checking his body condition.

There was a small glass box over his palm. Inside it was a piece of white leaf surrounded by a light white glow.

"That's the crystal leaf. We put a lot of effort into collecting those leaves for you. Several wizards were hurt and some apprentices died. It was a hard mission." Wisp smiled.

"I understand. So, what do you want from me? Just say it. To be honest, I didn't expect you guys to actually find the leaves for me. I respect your organization's power." Angele stared at Wisp right in his eyes. "I've always wanted to know who exactly I was dealing with…"

"I can't tell you the details." Wisp dodged the question. "Well, I just want you to know that we spent a lot of resources to find you this thing."

Angele sipped some black tea from the cup, his eyes blinking.

He asked Isabel about the crystal leaf after placing the order. Isabel told him that even the Jones Family could only collect about three pieces of high-quality crystal leaf each year.

The leaf was highly valuable and was the main ingredient of the best neutralizer in the black market. The basic effect of the leaf was to increase the success rate of the concoction of certain potions. Only a small amount was required for each test, and it was the dream material to all Potion Masters.

In Jones Family's material storage room, there were two pieces of top quality crystal leaf that had been acquired about a hundred years ago.

Wisp brought the physical sample to Angele's house and it was one of the leaves his organization acquired. The rest would be delivered when the trade is settled.

Angele had a blank expression on his face, but he was surprised by the power of Wisp's organization.

The Jones Family was powerful, but it seemed like Wisp's organization was even more powerful.

A third of the hidden resource points in the whole Six Ring area belonged to the Jones Family. Their family members were spying most of the important resources points and military bases. Some of them had connections with the dark wizards' organizations. Flan Jones wore a black robe during the war against the underground race. She wanted a position in the Six Ring area after the war ended, so she changed to a light wizard.

Members that had pure bloodlines were rare in most wizard families, and untalented kids would be sent other areas. They could not handle the amount of energy radiation in Nola and the only way to keep them alive was to send them to normal families.

There were about one hundred family members in Jones's territory, about 50 of them were wizards with pure bloodlines and the rest were all apprentices. The family recruited apprentices from outside Nola to do daily works for them. No one complained as they were treated much better in Nola than at their own family territories.

Only a small number of wizards reached the Liquid and the Crystal stage.

The school built by the Six Ring High Tower had a huge number of apprentices, but only several of them would become formal wizards each year.

Although the number didn't sound bad, they needed to complete dangerous lab experiments and join countless exploration missions for rare materials. Also, wizards fought with each other all the time, and a war might break out anytime since the underground races were invading the land again.

Most of the newly-advanced wizards would die in fights or experiments within 50 years after graduation. Many wizards had disappeared after joining the resource collection team.

White or dark, joining a strong organization was a wise decision to all wizards.

Major organizations would be willing to take in talented wizards.

Wisp's organization did everything they could to acquire crystal leaves for Angele and the organization's background was stronger than Jones Family. The only issue was Wisp never told Angele about the details.

"I hope you can consider our offer." Wisp sipped some tea from the cup. "The Potion Masters in our organization tested your potions and the result is surprising."

He stopped for a second, glanced around and realized that no one else was in the living room.

With a flicker of his finger, a red spot of light appeared in the air and turned into a translucent bell-shaped barrier that sealed the two inside.

Angele stayed calm. This barrier was for the assurance of privacy in their conversation from any possible eavesdroppers. He knew what Wisp was trying to say. He had been selling potions to the organization for a while, and most of the materials he needed could only be traded with high-quality potions. With the help of Zero, although Angele never mastered the proper technique of potion concoction, he could still produce potions with much a higher quality than average Potion Masters.

Wisp's expression turned serious as the red barrier surrounded them. "You're the most gifted Potion Master in the history of Nola."

"Huh?" Angele was surprised. "That's what they told you?"

"Not only that, they think if you can put more time into potion concoction, your success rate and skills can be improved further. You're possibly the only Potion Master in west coast that has the ability to concoct high-level potions. The only thing you need is knowledge." Wisp stared at Angele with a complicated expression. "I was sent to you for the first trade we made. I already knew you were talented the first time I saw the potion you handed over to me."

He put his hand on the glass box.

"You see this crystal leaf here? My organization has a great offer for you."

Angele hesitated for a second and said slowly, "You mean, you want me to join your organization?"

"That's our plan. However, it seems like you don't want the public to know about your potion concoction skills. Master Isabel of the Jones Family probably knows a bit about it, but you didn't tell her everything, right? So…" He stopped for a second.

"We know you're passionate about potion concocting, but we're not forcing you to make the decision. You can take your time and do research on the situation of the Potion Masters in Nola. If you decide to join us, we can support you with rare materials like this crystal leaf. You'll be the core of the potions department and you can discuss the art of potion concoction with the high-rank Potion Masters in my organization." Wisp emphasized on the word 'high-rank Potion Master'.

Angele knew that Wisp was trying to tell him that there were several strong Potion Masters in his organization.

The scale of Wisp's organization exceeded Angele's expectations, but he still had no idea about the organization's background.

"I'll need some time," he responded with a calm tone.

"For sure." Wisp nodded. "Take your time to talk to other Potion Masters in Nola and you'll know their situation, but only a few of them is backed up by an organization that can provide them with rare materials like the crystal leaf."

"I understand but…I don't even know the name of your organization."

"I can't tell you yet, but if you decide to join us, I can tell you right away." Wisp stood up. "Alright, I need to go, and again, take your time." He took out a small black paper ball from his pouch and threw it toward Angele.

The paper ball unfolded itself and turned into a black leather paper. Rows of white words covered the entire paper and its special ink was glowing.

Angele grabbed the paper and started reading.

'Root of Moni, 10 servings.'

'Black Sparrow Tail Flower, two.'

'Crystal of Spandy Water, three.'

…

…

There were more than one hundred material names listed on the leather paper.

Angele tapped at about ten different names and the white glow surrounding those words vanished into the darkness.

He then handed the paper back to Wisp.

"That's all I want." Angele slightly nodded.

"When do you need them?" Wisp wondered.

"Deliver it the day after tomorrow. It'll be better if you can bring everything to me in one go," Angele responded.

"No problem at all." Wisp nodded. "I'll be leaving now."

"Sure. Also, don't forget the defensive magic circles." Angele pursed his lips into a smile.

"I won't, don't worry." Wisp slightly swung his hand. A white cap appeared from nowhere and he put it on his head.

"Nancy, my guest is leaving." Angele clapped.

"Coming." Nancy opened the door for Wisp from outside and bowed slightly. She was wearing a sleeveless tight black leather coat and tight white pants, giving off the impression that she was showing off her balanced body. Nancy knew that Angele's sight would fall upon her chest from time to time. She was hoping that one day, Angele would become infatuated with her.

Chapter 209: The Crystal Leaf (2)

Translator: Leo Editor: Frappe

Angele was busy in his endeavor of advancing to the next stage. He had no time in developing a relationship with Nancy. She had taken care of Angele's daily needs in the recent years, and Angele would give her suggestions on breaking the limit from time to time. Besides paying her salary, Angele also shared some knowledge of spell models to Nancy for free.

Basic spell models were nothing to Angele already, as he could easily explain the tricks on how to master level 0 spells to Nancy.

Angele had already learned of Nancy attempting to break the limit twice. At the first attempt, she nearly succeeded but mishap occurred at the last step, while the second attempt was a mess.

Nancy had never been fully prepared for the challenge. Angele was different, as he knew his own success rate meanwhile Nancy had to test her own luck. Water of Asu was important for the process, but wizard apprentices would develop resistance to its effects after several usages and their success rate would greatly plunge. Moreover, drinking two servings of Water of Asu was an extremely risky action. Angele had the help of a Nightmare Potion and the energy stored in the chip. Otherwise, it was highly likely that he would fail in breaking the limit.

Angele was uncertain if a Nightmare Potion would still be effective for Nancy's limit breaking considering how she had already failed in doing so twice. If anything went wrong during the process, she would lose her life. Nancy did not have a chip like Angele to store excess energy.

Even at present, wizards still continued to debate on the issue of the best method for wizard apprentices to break the limit. The main effect of Water of Asu was to help the wizard apprentice burn their potential and reach their limit within a short period of time. If the wizard apprentice failed to break the limit during that time, their body would be permanently damaged.

Angele doubted if there was still any potential left for Nancy to burn.

Nancy returned to the living room after Wisp left.

Angele was still seated on the sofa thinking about the offer Wisp mentioned. He saw Nancy walking up to him and pointed at the chair on the opposite side.

"Take a seat. I need to talk to you," he ordered.

"Sure." Nancy knew she had made the right choice after seeing the number of rare materials Angele was purchasing. She once witnessed Angele handing a two-meter-tall Piranha Flower and knew Angele's potion concocting skills were on a different level.

Piranha Flowers were hard to collect and could easily be sold for more than 10,000 regular magic stones in the market. The taller the Piranha Flower was, the higher its value would be. Most wizards would use it to make some mid to high-level potions and would not sell it just for magic stones. Many rare materials like the Piranha Flower were constantly being delivered to Angele.

Nancy decided to stay with Angele as long as she could.

She walked to the chair and sat down quietly.

"What's your future plan?" Angele questioned calmly, "Are you still trying to break the limit? You already failed twice."

"Yeah…I reached rank 3 and my life expectancy is longer than mortals'. I still have a lot of time left." Clearly, Nancy still wanted to become a formal wizard.

"Let me explain something to you." Angele was trying to explain the situation to her. "Your potential is burning off. The more potential you burn during the last step, the higher your chance of succeeding will be. Your potential is determined by your talent level. Although your talent level is high, you should still consider giving up, you don't have much potential left. Even if you succeed on the third try, it'll take a long time for your body to recover from the damage."

Angele was trying to help Nancy.

Nancy turned pale as soon as Angele finished his words. "You mean…it's impossible for me to become a formal wizard?"

"That's the reality. You're a rank 3 wizard apprentice and you can live longer than a mortal for sure, that's why you still look young. Then again, you don't have much potential left if you decide to try to break the limit again. The only thing to serve as the fuel will be your life energy. You'll die if there's not enough life energy to be burnt." The reality was cruel, but Angele had to tell Nancy the truth.

Nancy lowered her head and bit her lips forcefully, no longer talking.

Angele could understand that the truth might be too hard for her to handle.

"What's my chance? Can you just tell me...?"

Angele, with knitted eyebrows, shook his head. "I'm sorry, Nancy. It's low…very low. To be honest, I have never heard of a wizard apprentice who succeeded on the third attempt after failing twice. It would be a miracle if you succeed."

Angele decided to give Nancy the advice because he had spent some time collecting information on her situation.

Her family was not completely destroyed. It was just losing its power in the city. However, they were left there to lure Nancy back. On the other side of the Gem Sea, wizards were unknown to the general public, and people had no idea what exactly she was to Nancy's family. Personages of royal blood knew how strong a wizard was. It was nearly impossible for them to hurt a wizard with physical skills. If Nancy somehow became a wizard and tried to avenge her family, her enemy would have to beg a wizard for protection.

If Nancy failed to break the limit and lose her life, the rest of her family would be killed right away and by that time, her family would longer exist.

She needed to stay alive and find someone strong to have a child with.

Nancy remained silent for a while before speaking again.

"I beg you…"

"Sorry, it's impossible. I'll stay here for a long period. I may return to the other side of the sea 10 or 20 years later, but it's not now." Angele shook his head. "I don't really care about those assassins from the Labyrinth College. They're my enemy too. I gave you this advice because we were once on the same ship."

Nancy opened her mouth and spoke with a shaky voice.

"What do you want from me…? My body? Sure, that's the only thing I have. Please, help me."

"No, you seem to be misunderstanding me. You were once on the same ship as I had been, so I'm trying to give you my sincere advice. Yes, your body is indeed enticing but that is not the main reason. You need to think twice before making your decision. If you stay alive, the rest of your family will be fine. Your enemy already knows you're my servant."

"I apologize…I need to rethink my choices…" Nancy lowered her head.

"It's fine. Go have some rest." Angele nodded.

Nancy stood up shaking her head and left the living room.

Angele saw the tears in her eyes. She was crestfallen after he had refused to assist her.

Angele sipped from the teacup again, which was already cold.

Angele had mixed feelings about Nancy. She was indeed an enchanting girl and he liked her, but Angele wondered if his feelings stemmed out of sympathy.

There were many wizard apprentices who had failed to break the limit at the West Coast and some of them tried to sign slave contracts with strong wizards, but most of them would return to their hometown and try to find something else to do. The failed wizard apprentices who chose to stay in Nola were hoping for miracles.

Nancy was strong and stubborn. There were only two choices left for her. The first one was to try to break the limit again. If she failed, her whole family would be destroyed.

The second one was to sign the slave contract with Angele and become his property. In exchange, she would ask Angele to avenge her family. However, strong wizards had a much longer life expectancy than a rank 3 wizard apprentice. Nancy did not have that much time to wait for Angele to complete his task.

Unless Angele could reach the next stage much faster than she expected.

Angele stood up after Nancy left. He carefully picked up the box from the table.

Inside the glass box was a piece of a translucent crystal leaf. Angele took it out slowly.

The leaf lay atop Angele's palm. It felt soft and warm and its twisted veins were barely visible. It almost felt like the leaf could break at any moment.

The white glow illuminated on Angele's face. A minty fragrance rushed into his nose that was quite refreshing.

'Zero, scan the leaf. Tell me if it will increase my success rate of advancing to the next stage,' he ordered.

'Task created…Scanning…'

Ten minutes later, Zero reported back.

'With five pieces of crystal leaves, the success rate can be increased to 84.75%.'

Angele smiled. A success rate higher than 80% was incredible. He was certain that those leaves would help him reach the next level, and the effect of the leaves would exceed his expectations.

Sadly, Angele's method would only work for himself. He was the son of a tree elf, and the ancient blood from the great harpy was still affecting his body. He doubted if the other wizards could survive the strong side effects of all the Demos' Water he used. When knowledge recorded on books was not helpful enough, wizards must find their own paths to their future.

Chapter 210: Defensive Set Up (1)

Translator: Leo Editor: Frappe

The crystal leaf quietly lay atop Angele's palm. With his other hand, he pointed at the door and controlled the wind particles to push it close.

He then turned around and walked to the staircase. The hidden door's gap was filled up by silver metal after Angele stepped into the tunnel.

He entered the Potions Room after walking down the stone stairs.

Angele grabbed a large slim-neck bottle from a line of clean glass bottles and quickly put different materials into it from the small containers.

There were amounts of red powder, twisting worms, and various colorful steaming potions.

Angele slightly swung the bottle after everything was mixed inside.

The random potions and materials quickly turned into dark green liquid. There was a strange meat barrier on the surface of the liquid pumping slowly like a heart.

Angele raised the bottle in front his eyes and checked the color. Blue light dots were flashing. Several seconds later, a satisfied look appeared on his face.

"That's it." He carefully dropped the crystal leaf into the slim-neck bottle.

The glowing crystal leaf exploded right after dropping on the surface of the green meat barrier.

*BAM*

Angele already knew what would happen next. He closed his eyes and suddenly, the weight of the bottle in his hand changed.

An octopus-shaped monster appeared in the bottle as Angele opened his eyes. Countless wet tentacles were trying to leave the tiny space and some of them were already hanging around the neck of the bottle twisting.

The strength of the monster was so strong that Angele could barely hold the glass bottle steadily.

Angele remained calm and pointed at the monster with his finger as it was about to leave the bottle completely.

The tip of his index finger turned into a silver needle and stabbed right into the monster's body.

Within a second, the twisting tentacles stopped moving and returned to the bottle, melting into slimy liquid. It was spurting out of the mouth of the bottle.

The body of the monster turned into a dark human's face after all the tentacles melted. The face was about the size of a palm, it was twitching in pain. Angele's silver needle was left in the center of the face's eyebrows.

"You'll burn in hell!" The face groaned, staring at Angele in the eyes with its soulless eyes.

"I'm trying to free you from the suffering." Angele had a blank expression on his face. He grabbed the monster and put his other hand into its mouth, taking out a ball of green slime. The slime was steaming out and the dark green liquid was dripping down its surface.

"Ah…!" The monster shrieked in pain. Its whole face started melting and turning into dark green sticky liquid.

The crystal leaf was a legendary material, but light wizards did not know the proper way to stimulate its full potential. One more critical thing was needed in any potion that contained this incredible material.

That thing was commonly used in most dark wizards' experiments—the hatred from departed souls.

The monster was created by all the hatred from the people Angele had killed. As dark wizards were known to practice dark magic using such materials, he had learned the extraction method from the book and decided to mix it with the crystal leaf.

The furious souls were no longer bothering Angele after being extracted to the potion. The cold expression on his face changed. He then looked elegant and wild just like the Baron from his memory. With his golden glowing eyes, Angele looked like a scion of a wealthy family.

He held the green slime ball in hand and blue light dots flashed in front of his golden eyes.

"Asura…Toriunan…" He was speaking in the ancient language, which meant "Come to me, my child." Angele's voice was light and gentle, repeating the words several times.

The slime ball started transforming when Angele invoked the incantation. Then it started withering almost as if it was being blown by heated air. After the liquid ball solidified, long wrinkles slowly appeared on its surface.

Angele's hand was still inside the solidified slime ball.

*Crack*

The green slime ball suddenly cracked open.

After several seconds, pieces of small shards dropped down the surface of the ball.

Blue sticky leaked out of the crack that quickly gathered together, turned into a small ball, and floated in front of Angele's eyes.

He heard the clean sound of a bird twittering.

The ball quickly transformed into a glowing blue bird that flew around Angele's head while twittering.

The bird drew a bright blue arc in the air.

Angele dropped the green shards to the ground and raised his right hand.

The blue bird slowly landed on the tip of his index finger and started cleaning its feathers.

Glowing blue light dots were dropping down from Angele's finger.

The blue bird was about the size of a human fist and its wings were translucent. The blue light dots came from the end of its tail.

The light dots that dropped on Angele's skin had the texture of light soap foams, gentle but freezing.

Those light dots were brighter than the dim glowing crystals in the room. The light from the bird illuminated on all the objects around.

A light smile appeared on Angele's face as he stared at the cute little bird.

Suddenly, the bird soared and turned into a blue light needle, shooting into the center of his eyebrows.

Angele was hit by the impact, causing him to take several steps back before regaining balance.

He shook his head.

The liquid inside the slim-neck bottle was no longer there. The only thing left was a shell-shaped seed. The surface of the seed was smooth and clean, a 'V' shaped glowing blue rune was engraved onto its surface.

'Crystal leaf successfully extracted, seed acquired,' Zero reported back immediately.

Angele held the black seed in hand and started observing.

"This is the seed…I can consume it together with the Tree Killer potion."

Angele nodded, looking satisfied.

"Now, I only need to wait for the crystal leaves promised by the Wisp."

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

Two days later.

Inside the Potions Room underground, Angele suddenly woke up from meditation.

He sensed the presence of unfamiliar energy wave approaching the house, but he was not sure if it was an enemy.

Angele stood up and wiped the dust off his white robe. He pushed the door open and left the room.

He then walked across the hall, went upstairs and slightly tapped the surface of the white door.

Angele made sure the door was sealed properly before walking to the door of the house.

*Creak*

The door was opened.

However, there was no one outside. Nancy was still patrolling around the guard posts.

Angele surveyed the other side of the lake. There was no one around the white stone tower. The patrolling Knights and apprentices disappeared.

His brow furrowed and he decided to summon the apprentices first by activating the communication rune.

He heard some movements from the left side of the fence.

Angele turned his head around but nothing was there. He turned his head back and was surprised by what just appeared in front of him.

A black cat was sitting by the gate. Its eyes were surrounded by a mysterious green glow, and it was staring at Angele.

Angele carefully put up his metal barrier and was ready for a fight. The eyes of the cat were so deep that they made his skull numb.

After several minutes, the black cat stood up and slowly walked out the gate.

Angele quickly rushed out of the gate and glanced around, but the cat had already left.

He noticed a black bag hanging on the gate's handle.

Angele hesitated for a second but still reached out for the bag.

The bag was made from black fur. He untied the bag and saw the furry inner layer.

Angele realized what was inside after sensing the energy wave. His expression changed as he reached into the bag.

He quickly returned to the living room and locked the door before pulling his hand out of the bag.

There were about seven pieces of glowing crystal leaves in his hand.

"That black cat…"

Angele realized the cat came from Wisp's organization. Its mentality wave was hard to detect but was extremely strong. It should be the first time he had encountered such mysterious creature.

The cat's mentality had similar properties as the two-ring wizard Flan from the Jones Family, different from any rank 1 wizard he had ever met.

"Interesting. I really want to know how strong this organization is now." Angele pursed his lips. He thought once again of the encounter and figured out that the cat was not a magical creature but a strong formal wizard.

The cat came from nowhere and disappeared without leaving any trace behind. The only reason it released the mentality wave was to let Angele detect its presence.

If the cat wizard wanted to attack Angele from behind, he would at least be severely injured. Zero would not even be able to warn him in time.

Chapter 211: Defensive Set Up (2)

Translator: Leo Editor: Frappe

It was a wise choice for Wisp's organization to ask a strong wizard to deliver the eight pieces of crystal leaves.

Angele stayed in the living room and finished checking all the crystal leaves when the sun started setting.

*Thud thud*

Someone knocked on the door behind.

He returned the crystal leaves into the bag and hung it on his belt before opening the door.

It was Rossi, a wizard of the Jones Family trusted by Isabel.

The silver owl pattern on the top right of his robe was eye-catching.

"Master Green, I'm here to deliver the materials from master Isabel."

Angele's brow knitted. The number of rare materials Isabel delivered to him was worth much more than the work he did for her. However, more materials would always be helpful and there was no point for Angele to refuse it.

"You know the location," he responded with a light tone.

"Yeah." Rossi nodded and clapped his hands. The dwarfs carried a bunch of boxes into the garden.

Angele moved to the side and watched them put down the boxes in the living room.

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

"Master Isabel…you have to stop."

Inside a manor of the Jones Family, Isabel carefully picked up a flower from the garden and sniffed at it.

A female wizard apprentice stood behind her with a disappointed expression on her face.

"Master, why are you sending all your materials to the wizard named Green? That's your allowance," the apprentice wondered.

"I think he's just using you for the materials…That's not what a true friend will do."

"You're progressing slowly recently…I'm wondering if you're sending away too many resources. The family members will notice what you've been doing soon."

Isabel hesitated and turned around.

"But…I sent him a lot of resources since the first time. I can't just reduce the number without notifying him…and he's not using me."

"There are many wizards trying to do that…We're from a strong family. I don't recall him showing his gratefulness to you." The wizard apprentice shook her head.

"I told you wizard Green is different. I trust him, he's a friend of mine."

"The main issue is that your progress is slowing down, and your grandmother will notice sooner or later. You're borrowing materials from other wizards just because you want to support your friend. A true friend will stay with you even if you stop sending him materials."

Isabel remained silent, not sure of how to respond.

The female wizard apprentice bowed and left after finishing her words.

Isabel stood in the garden and watched the apprentice leave.

"But…the only thing I can give him…are resources…" she muttered helplessly.

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

Angele watched the dwarfs carrying all the boxes into the living room.

"That's it?" He counted the number and questioned.

It was different from the last time since there were only three boxes at present. Isabel's material delivery usually came with at least five boxes.

Rossi nodded. "Yeah, that's it for this time. Master Isabel needs to keep some materials for herself recently, so we can't share that many resources with you anymore. Please understand."

"No, not a problem at all." Angele shook his head slightly. He was not in need of materials at the moment and he could summon Wisp when necessary. However, Angele was shocked that Isabel still had enough materials to support her own progress after sending him so many resources.

Rossi and the dwarfs left after Angele confirmed the materials.

Angele carried the boxes to the basement like usual and put the rhino blood into the potion room.

The number of materials Isabel had been sending to him was more than enough to pay for the stabilized rhino blood. He asked Isabel multiple times to stop sending that many resources to him, but she just would not listen.

Angele knew Isabel thought their relationship would deepen if she could support him with more materials. She had no idea how to communicate with a friend properly and would feel secure if Angele accepted everything she sent.

Angele left the basement after everything is stored and started checking the other items inside the black bag.

The crystal leaves were not the only things inside the bag delivered by the black cat. There were also six special family emblems that were crafted in silver. The patterns on the front side of the emblems varied. Some were flowers and some were birds, but all of them were surrounded by twisted runes.

"So this is the defensive rune matrix Wisp talked about." Angele grabbed one of the emblems and started observing.

The one in his hand had engravings of petals and strings on its surface.

He carefully dropped the emblem to the floor.

There was no noise of the emblem hitting the ground. It just sank into the floor quietly.

A big gray bump appeared on the floor within two minutes. Angele stepped back and started observing the changes.

The bump was suddenly stretched by some strange energy wave. It became elastic and its height was growing fast.

The gray bump turned into a cylinder-shaped stone platform that was about one-meter-tall breaking from inside. Four glowing white cracks appeared on the surface of the stone platform shining like diamonds.

The floor stopped moving after several seconds.

Angele walked to the stone platform.

The front side of the platform slightly leaned forward. It was clean and smooth. There was nothing on the surface.

Angele raised his hand and lightly tapped on the stone surface.

A red light dot emerged out of the stone and sank into his chest.

Angele could feel the information of the defensive matrix being transferred into his brain.

He then tapped on the stone surface again.

*PA*

A white distorted wave started spreading out.

The wave moved out of the wall and passed through the garden.

The area around the house with a radius of ten meters was surrounded by the white wave.

Angele learned the effective range through the information.

The defensive matrix could easily cover a large area around the house.

The name of the matrix was Soaring Night Owl, which was mainly used as an alarm system. The matrix could protect the area from being detected by low-level tracking spells. The cost was one regular magic stone per three days or one mid-level magic stone per ten days. It was not that expensive to maintain.

Not all wizards were wealthy, but it was no problem to Angele.

He lowered his hand and checked the surface of the gray stone. A red circle slowly appeared in his sight that covered most of the area on the stone surface.

It was the basic function of the Soaring Night Owl, which meant that nothing was detected within the effective range.

If a wizard tried to cast a low-level tracking spell to check the area, the circle would become a small red dot and a noise that sounded like birds soaring would echo in Angele's ears.

The magic circle had not yet been fully activated.

Angele took out a high-level magic stone and pressed it against the center of the red circle.

*Crack*

A notch appeared and fitted the magic stone in perfectly. The red circle blurred for a second and absorbed the stone.

"This high-level magic stone will keep the matrix going for months." Angele did not care too much about using a high-level magic stone. The trading he had been doing recently involved a large number of valuable resources and some of them were priceless.

After everything was done, Angele took out the two other emblems.

He decided not to put all the control panels in the same room. He opened the door to the basement and walked downstairs.

The other emblems worked exactly like the Soaring Night Owl, Angele set them up in the main hall of the basement.

Quickly, two stone platforms with red and black crystal edges raised up in the hall.

The one on the left was named the Air Bat and the inspiration came from a magic creature named air bat. It had a great range that could cover the house, the lake, and all the guard posts around his residence. Air Bat could detect the life energy waves from creatures that reached a certain level.

However, its cost was higher than the Soaring Night Owl. One high-level magic stone could only keep it active for a month. The function sounded nice, but it would only work for certain targets.

The other matrix was called the Sanctuary that was mainly used to prevent curses from wandering souls or ghosts. It was a rare defensive matrix that could only be acquired through certain ways. Angele encountered cursed souls in Moon Gin Garden and the ruin of Axis of Time. He knew how hard it was to lift curses, so he decided to be more cautious.

Wisp probably spent a good amount of time trying to find the Sanctuary for him.

Sanctuary's main function was to expel or attract the wandering souls within its effective range with a range similar to the Air Bat.

To attract the souls or expel them depended on how Angele wanted the matrix to do.

Capturing some weak souls would help Angele study them.

After the three defensive matrixes were set up, the only thing left for Angele to do was to wait for Wisp to pick up the potions he prepared.

Angele could start trying to advance to the next stage after the transaction was completed. His success rate was higher than 80% at the moment, so it should not pose a big problem.

Chapter 212: Liquid Stage (1)

Translator: Leo Editor: Frappe

The three defensive matrices successfully covered the area around the house.

Angele stayed at home and started preparing for advancing to the next stage.

Wisp finally knocked on his door the day after three days of waiting.

"Good, that's the potion we talked about, right?"

Wisp threw the crystal bottle into the air and then caught it with both hands. It was a vulcanized crystal bottle with clean green liquid inside.

"Yeah. By the way, the quality of the crystal leaves is incredible." Angele sat on the sofa and smiled.

"One more thing. I heard master Isabel is borrowing resources from others recently, what's going on?" Wisp looked at Angele.

"Huh? Borrowing resources from others?" Angele furrowed his eyebrows. "Well, the number of resources delivered to me was reduced. I was told that she was in need of a certain material. That's probably the reason."

"Reduced?" Wisp shook his head. "From what I heard, the number of resources leaving Isabel was the same as usual."

"Is that so?"

"It's impossible for Isabel to do something like this. Where did you get the intel from?" Angele narrowed his eyes.

"I know. I heard it from a trusted source, it's true." Wisp stopped for a second and sipped from the teacup. "There's no point for me to lie to you."

"Well, thanks for the heads-up then." Angele nodded.

Angele raised his hand after Wisp left. The nail on his index finger was surrounded by a blue glow, which felt like his nail was being frozen.

White smoke rose from the tip of his nail.

"Isabel, just a quick question, did you reduce the number of materials this time? Don't worry about it. Save the necessary materials for yourself, I still have plenty left. I'll still stabilize the rhino blood for you." He sent the message through the communication rune. It would take a while until Isabel could read and reply to the message due to the distance.

Obviously, someone was trying to stop Isabel from sending too many materials to Angele. Rossi did not have the guts to do something like that, so it must be someone from the family.

Angele finished sending the message and deactivated the rune. He then started thinking about the situation while sitting on the sofa.

He had had a general idea of what was happening after Wisp told him about the intel. Isabel was short in materials, yet she was still sending him numerous resources.

Most of the materials Isabel sent to Angele were kept in the storage room. They were rare and valuable, but Angele had no way to use them all. He could easily acquire the needed resources by selling the potions he concocted. The quality of the materials from Wisp was on par with the ones from Jones Family.

"Nancy, come here for a second," Angele shouted as the communication rune of Nancy flashed on his nail.

Within seconds, Nancy walked into the room with a variant of swordsman's suit. She had been doing some physical training outside. The white tank top and short leather pants revealed her slim waist. There was a long ponytail behind her head, and she was walking in a pair of brown leather boots.

"I'm sending all the unopened boxes back to master Isabel. Ask Rossi to pick them up."

"But master, you haven't checked what's inside yet." Nancy was confused.

"Just send them back." Angele waved his hand. "Also, I'll be staying in the house for a while and I will not be letting anyone getting inside during that period, including you. I have something important to take care of. I'll open the door myself when everything is completed."

"Got it." Although Nancy was not sure what Angele was planning, she nodded right away.

"Also." Angele stood up and walked to Nancy, staring at the young girl that had been serving him for years.

He could smell the fragrance of the perfume as he got closer. It was faint but enchanting.

Angele raised his hands and carefully grabbed Nancy's slim waist. Her skin was tight and elastic.

"Your clothes are too revealing…" Angele whispered in a light tone, "You can wear them for me, but not for the others." His voice was deep and charming.

"Yes…Master…" Nancy blushed, knowing fully well what Angele was trying to imply. The man did not want the others to see too much of her skin.

Angele rubbed Nancy's waist with his right hand. She was slightly sweating. Her skin was warm and smooth.

"If you don't mind me asking, after this is done, can you be my lady?" Angele spent most of his time focusing on handling the materials and concocting potions, but he knew Nancy wanted to be more than his servant.

Nancy was beautiful and elegant, Angele liked her a lot. Although it was almost impossible for Nancy to break through and they could not stay together forever, Angele still wanted to enjoy the most enjoyable moments of his life together with her.

Nancy knew what Angele was talking about. She slightly leaned against his body.

"Sure. I'll wear whatever you want me to wear…" She muttered with a face still blushing.

Nancy tipped her toes and kissed Angele on the cheek before running out of the room.

Angele could still feel the softness of Nancy's lips. He peeked outside through the door, Nancy was talking to the female Knight and the female apprentice. They were laughing and running around.

The gusts of laughter from the young girls lightened up the mood around the house.

"It's about the time." Angele calmed down, then he locked the door and walked into the basement.

The reason why the next stage was called Liquid was that wizards needed to be able to liquefy their mentality.

Angele's mentality had already reached 40.7 units and that was with the help of the Demos' Water, but it was no longer effective.

He grabbed the needed potions from the Potions Room quickly.

The Tree Killer Potion and the seed of the crystal leaf.

Angele went into the spell room and sat down with his legs crossed.

It was a square room with walls covered in complicated white defensive runes that could absorb a certain amount of energy particles. Those energy particles would be released gradually back into the environment so that they would not explode during spell tests.

The twisted white runes climbed on the dark walls and almost looked like they were alive.

To advance to the next stage, it required the wizard to find the condensation point.

Each time wizards advanced to the next rank or stage, their body conditions would change and each time they changed, some potions would no longer be effective to them. Wizards needed to keep finding more powerful materials to make stronger potions. The potions were needed to be used before their body could develop a resistance to the new materials.

One of the most important steps in the process of advancing from Gas to Liquid was the compression of mentality.

Angele's applied compression technique from Markolov would be helpful during the progress.

First, he needed to create the proper formula. The simpler the formula was, the lesser mentality would be consumed. Getting the impurities out of the mentality before the liquefaction was critical.

It sounded easy but controlling the mentality was extremely difficult for wizards since they needed to find the proper method and materials to bring the effects to the mentality.

Angele was trying figure out a complete mentality compression method using the formulas.

He closed his eyes. There were blue light dots flashing under his eyelids.

There was no light in the spell room. Angele sat in the darkness unmoving and was breathing heavily but slowly.

Two hours later.

Suddenly, Angele opened his eyes, with his hands glowing. Rows of glowing red runes surrounded his body, flashing as their shapes changed.

The red glow on Angele's hands almost brightened up the room.

The activity of his mentality wave was getting intense.

'Simulating the mentality model…Gathering mentality…' Zero's mechanical voice echoed in his ears.

A hologram of his body appeared in front of Angele's eyes.

Countless red light dots were moving toward his head on the blue hologram. The dots looked like strange ants and their speed was fast.

The red dots came from different parts of Angele's body.

The red dots from his feet slowly disappeared.

Angele could not feel his feet anymore, almost like his feet were cut off.

After that, his legs, hands, and other parts numbed as the red dots left those areas.

The red light from Angele's hands was getting intensely bright. After several seconds, the light balls left his hands and gathered in front of his chest. The light blinded Angele's eyes. He was not sure what was inside.

Angele could barely feel any of his limbs after most of the red dots left.

The hologram showed that the red dots from his stomach and chest were moving into his brain as well.

It felt like something stabbed in his heart, which caused it to stop pumping.

Blood in Angele's brain was almost boiling. It almost felt like the veins were going to explode.

The pain from the heart and the brain were so intense that Angele's face started twitching.

He suddenly opened his eyes and mouth.

A silver needle shot out of his mouth and penetrated the Tree Killer Potion in front of him.

Chapter 213: Liquid Stage (2)

Translator: Leo Editor: Frappe

*CHI*

The silver needle was coated with the dark green liquid from the potion and the liquid splashed onto Angele's body. Several seconds later, his skin was painted in green.

Angele's cold body was warmed up again. The surging life energy brought him back to life, and the blood in his vein started circulating again.

His heart was still not beating due to the power of the Tree Killer Potion.

With the help of the potion, Angele's pale skin turned red and was absorbing the green liquid quickly.

Each serving of Tree Killer Potion could keep him alive for about two hours, so he needed to hurry.

He started following the basic rules and procedures to construct the necessary runes while he was still meditating.

Angele's mentality model was shrinking and transforming as the runes changed his mind.

The huge amount of mentality was concentrated into translucent rune models that varied in shapes and sizes. Also, some of the runes were moving toward each other and some were rotating.

Time flew.

Two hours passed by.

Angele used another serving of the Tree Killer Potion with the help of the silver needle.

The green liquid splashed onto his body again.

He consumed the last serving of the potion after another two hours passed by.

Only the last half an hour was left. He barely managed to modify all the mentality models into the translucent rune models that looked like ants moving around.

Angele finished organizing all the models, then started the basic meditating that he had been doing for years.

Suddenly, all the translucent mentality models started repositioning by following a specific pattern.

The models lined themselves up and started hitting each other like building blocks. They merged together after several seconds and turned into a new model.

After the models became larger, they started moving toward each other again. There was not a single gap between any of them.

Several minutes later, only eight large mentality models were left.

However, it seemed like there something stopping those models from merging. No matter how Angele repositioned them, there was always a large gap between them.

Angele opened his eyes and his mouth. The silver needle quickly skewed all the seeds of crystal leaves and sent them into his stomach.

Something cold and freezing exploded in Angele's stomach and that kind of feeling rushed into his head.

All the remaining mentality models were then coated with some vibrating light red slimy liquid.

Angele started meditating again.

This time, when the gap appeared between the merging mentality models, it was filled up by the light red liquid.

*CRACK*

All the mentality models merged into one complete piece.

It looked like a translucent crystal orb. The orb's surface was solid, but inside it was the translucent gasified mentality. Angele created an energy barrier to stop the gas from leaking out of the orb.

In the core of the crystal orb, there was a special force that was pulling everything toward it. Angele did the calculations using the mentality compression method and this was what he came up with.

Different wizards would acquire different abilities or perks after advancing to the next stage, such as faster casting speed, spell power buff, and body improvements. Their appearances might change as well and that was why some wizards' faces were covered in strange tattoos.

There were also many possible negative consequences if things went wrong during the advancing process. Some wizards even lost the ability to support their force shields with the right amount of mentality and could then easily be killed by physical attacks. It would be a critical weak point since most wizards needed protection when channeling their spells.

Angele created the mentality orb with thousands of tiny mentality models and each of the models was specifically organized. Their force orientation was modified, which was why the core of the orb could keep everything together.

When the power created by more than a thousand mentality models was directed to one single point, the damage it could do would be incredible.

The crystal orb floated in Angele's mind quietly and it almost looked like it had a physical form.

The translucent orb was still slowly shrinking, still progressing as Angele had planned.

The green color disappeared from Angele's skin after a while. The life energy waves from the mentality crystal orb replaced the red dots in his head and kept his heart pumping. The blood flow also returned to the normal state.

According to the records in the books, each time a wizard advanced to the next stage, a new mentality crystal orb would be created. Angele was trying to acquire his second mentality orb and advance to the Liquid stage. After the orb became stable, the solid barrier protecting it would disappear and reveal the core's true form.

The sealed mentality inside the orb could no longer be taken out, as one orb represented one Talent Spell, but at the same time, he would lose a great amount of mentality.

Wizards were evolving by advancing to the next stage or rank. They could acquire the abilities and talents from different strong creatures, including the ones that could control the nature.

The large mentality orb could provide the minimum amount of life energy to help Angele stay alive.

Time flew by.

Eight days passed.

In the afternoon.

Only a tenth of the original size of the mentality orb was left and it looked like a walnut.

Suddenly, Angele opened his eyes.

*Crack*

Cracks appeared on the surface of the crystal orb.

The cracks covered the orb slowly and it started shedding. The orb was shrinking quickly.

The appearance of the core was revealed when the orb shrank to the size of a rice grain.

It was a sticky water drop and it just floated there without making any noise.

'Finally, it's done!' Angele knew that the shedding was the process of removing the impurities. The amount of impurities in his mentality was above average. He gained his mentality through shortcuts and the impurities was a byproduct of the potions he had consumed.

Angele finally acquired a drop of liquefied mentality, but his mentality point was reduced to a single digit.

He needed a long time to meditate before regaining the liquefied mentality.

During this period, he could only use the mentality he had after breaking the limit.

The liquefied mentality drop had nothing to do with the mentality he had before breaking the limit. The two were different, as the liquefied mentality drop used the mentality he had acquired after becoming a formal wizard.

Each time he advanced to the next stage or rank, he needed to regain the mentality through meditation and turn it into mentality crystal.

Also, he would be able to acquire one more Talent Spell after reaching the Liquid stage.

If a wizard had enough knowledge about the nature of strength, ability, and power, they would be able to turn them into Talent Spell or Talent Ability.

That was what differed between wizards and apprentices.

Ancient wizards could master the talents of the magical creatures, prevent natural disasters, and control plagues as long as they had enough knowledge.

However, modern wizards did not inherit the technique. They could not communicate with other worlds, so they lived in a world full of mysteries.

Angele started meditating after acquiring the liquefied mentality drop. He needed to recover.

He expected the decrease of mentality since the impurities were removed, what left was the pure and compressed mentality.

However, he was surprised to see that Zero had absorbed most of the impurities while the mentality orb was shedding.

It seemed like the chip evolved again. Zero now could handle more complicated calculations.

The biochip was operating as part of his brain. He could check the whole calculation process if he wanted to, but those processes were complicated and it would take a lot of time for him to do them himself.

After the chip finished upgrading, most of his mentality was recovered and he had already stayed in the basement for more than 20 days.

He had not eaten anything during the time he had just spent. The fat and nutrients in his body were converted to enough life energy power to keep him alive.

Angele needed to check the plans given by the Zero. He wanted to know what he gained from the advancement. He used a special method to compress his mentality and he was curious about the outcomes.

Angele was certain that he did everything properly. He would choose the best plan after checking what Zero had to offer.

Chapter 214: Charming (1)

Translator: Leo Editor: Frappe

Angele sat on the floor of the spell room. Weeks of meditation had reduced him to skin and bones.

There was a silver glint on his pale skin and his lips were gray, but his eyes were still as bright as the daylight.

He glanced around the room.

The white runes on the black stone floor were covered with a thin layer of dust.

The thick stone walls prevented Angele's energy waves from leaking outside and, at the same time, the runes stabilized the energy flow inside the room.

"That took me a while…" Angele sighed in relief.

Zero's mechanical voice echoed in his ears.

'Body scan completed. Unknown changes detected. Analysis available.'

'Show me.'

Blue light dots flashed in front of his eyes and they brightened up the dark room.

'Analysis completed. New ability acquired: Bewitching.'

'Bewitching? What's that?' Angele was surprised. He had never seen anyone acquire an ability like that after reaching the next stage.

According to the books, most wizards had their attributes increased after reaching the Liquid stage.

'Bewitching. Your words, behaviors, and energy waves will affect others around you. They're now more likely to agree with the points you make."

'Ah, so it's like a hypnotic spell.' Angele raised his arms.

Suddenly, countless black flowery patterns climbed up the back of his hands, which looked like black vines twisting around his body.

Some of them had the shape of a vortex and some looked like straight strings. Angele felt uncomfortable by just staring at those patterns.

The black patterns stayed away from his face, but they spread to all his other body parts.

Angele stared at the back of his right hand. There was a glowing snake-shaped black pattern.

'No energy waves and it doesn't require mentality to activate. So, it's just a byproduct of becoming a Liquid stage wizard?' Angele wondered.

Angele tried to control the black patterns using his mind.

Quickly, the black patterns vanished into his skin and everything returned to normal.

'Zero, show me the information on Bewitching. There's something I need to know.'

'Transferring information.'

Rows of data about the Bewitching ability were transferred into Angele's brain.

The data was acquired from the memory of the great harpy's ancient bloodline.

The legend said that the great harpies were expelled by the elders because of their ability called the Bewitching, causing them to find another place to live.

When they had the intention to kill, these black patterns would appear on their body and the living beings that saw the patterns would be seduced. The patterns were invisible to others most of the time, but whoever saw them would be trapped in the illusions. People with strong resistance to the illusion would find the harpies charming, but they could turn the ones with weak resistances into their slaves.

This was their most terrifying ability besides the ability to enter the Nightmare Realm.

Although Angele only inherited a small amount of the ancient blood, this talent ability still awakened after he advanced to the next stage.

'The great harpy was eliminated thousands of years ago. Most records only talked about the ancient harpies. Also, there are many wizards with strange tattoos on their body. No one will ever find out about my secret.' Angele was not so concerned about the possible consequences.

Most of the time, the tattoo would stay invisible and only people with special abilities could see them.

When Angele had the intention to kill his enemy, the tattoo would appear on his skin, and his opponents would be impacted by the special ability.

'I think Bewitching can do more than that. Zero, can you do the scan one more time?' The memory from the bloodline was incomplete, but Angele wanted to know what exactly the ability could offer more.

Rows of data were flashing in front of his eyes and Zero finally reported back after several minutes.

'Bewitching. Scan result: The ability can create illusions and distract opponents during combat. Also, it can make the living beings around you trust you.'

'Weak point: people with special ability will be able to see the invisible patterns and will try to stay away from you due to fear.'

'Huh? That's a weak point? Well, at least I can understand why the ancient wizards spent so much time eliminating the whole race.' Angele slowly stood up.

His legs numbed and he almost fell to the floor. Angele had seated there for too long that his blood flow was interrupted.

He raised his arms, which presently looked like two slim wooden sticks.

Angele stood in the spell room and rested for a while before he could walk again. He opened the door slowly and stepped into the main hall.

The place was empty and silent. The stone walls were covered in gray dust, and it seemed like nothing happened during the past month.

Angele sealed the door when he entered the basement. If anyone wanted to open the door from outside, he would have to attack it with high damage spells or powerful physical skills.

He slowly walked into the material room and opened the door.

Angele had stored water, fruits, and nuts in several barrels for emergency situations.

He opened one of the brown barrels, reached out for a dark dried fruit and ate it.

The dried fruit was made from black bananas. It was soft and sweet, and Angele also tasted the fragrance of wine.

The fruit could provide him with calories and minerals quickly.

Angele finished half of the barrel before putting it down. He then started sipping from another barrel with some wine inside.

There were also meat jerkies and white bread.

He finished eating after about half an hour.

Angele had already recovered about half of his lost mentality after resting for a while and the liquefied mentality drop remained stable.

He was still weak so he decided to stay in the basement for a bit longer.

After about half a month, Angele was fully recovered. He was still thinner than before, but it was hard to notice under the long white robe.

*PA*

He sealed the barrels one by one and lined them up.

He walked out of the door after the room was cleaned.

Angele walked upstairs and pressed his right hand against the door.

*CHI*

The silver metal left the gaps and returned into his body.

*Creak*

He opened the door.

It was dark outside. He could hear the insects making noises outside the house.

Angele closed the door carefully and stepped forward, then he saw a plate full of food on a small desk in the front.

The moonlight illuminated on the silver plate. There a small bowl of fish soup with some minced meat inside and it was garnished with vibrant green scallions.

Angele could still smell the fragrance of the fish soup in the air.

'It's probably Nancy…' Angele guessed. Although he asked Nancy not to get close to the house, she still decided to prepare food for him every day in case Angele was hungry after finishing his task.

The living room was deadly silent. Clear moonlight cast a reflection on the floor. The window was open and the curtain was being pushed back by the chilling wind.

The air in the room was refreshing.

There was a glowing crystal orb on the gray control panel in the center of the room. The orb was covered by a piece of black cloth but the bright white light still leaked through the gap.

Beside the door, there was a large French window with a thin white curtain on both sides.

On the opposite side of the window, there were the sofas and tables.

The walls of the room were decorated with the paintings left by the previous owner. Most of them were about landscapes, from plains to deserts, and it seemed like they were drawn by the same person. The edges of the frames were covered in luxurious silver patterns.

Hanging from the center of the ceiling was a flower-shaped crystal chandelier with a diamond-shaped ruby in the middle. The ruby was surrounded by six long glowing crystals inserted into the six petals.

There was no light coming from the chandelier as the glowing crystals had used up all their energy.

In the corner beside the window, there was an inconspicuous dark gray potted plant.

It was the first time Angele observed his living room so carefully. He walked to the plant and saw a wooden sign on the pot. The sign was about the size of an egg, the words on it were written in Anmag and it said: Ash Wood.

The plant looked like a dead tiny tree, nothing special.

Angele opened the door and stepped out of the room.

The garden was surrounded by fences. It felt like walking on a thick blanket with the grasses on the ground.

He walked around the garden, turned by the end, and reached the back of the house.

Between the trees outside the black fences, there was a gray stone house sat quietly in the darkness. The brown wooden door was closed tight and Angele could hear someone breathing from inside.

Angele stared at the stone house and sighed with mixed feelings. It was Nancy's place, wherein Angele had asked the dwarfs to build the house with a special high-quality stone.