364 - 372
Chapter 364: Funeral (1)
Translator: Leo Editor: Nou
Angele stayed in the mansion for a while and checked the situation of the matrices. The crystal card could still support them for about half a year, so they did not need to be replaced yet. He gave some more food to Freia and returned to the main world.
Morrian, Seth, and Milan left the ruin after resting for several days. They left Vivian's gifts to Angele before leaving.
Angele put the gifts into his travel case and left the ruin, heading directly to the Mermaid's Song.
The distance from the ruin to the Mermaid's Song was short, so it only took him about ten days on the road.
The city was a mess. Many people were crying on the streets.
Three funerals were being held in the city and the atmosphere was heavy.
Walking down the main street, Angele saw people carrying white and black coffins around.
He turned left and entered a narrow street. Most of the pedestrians on the street were women and children, with barely any young men in sight.
Angele was wearing a long black robe. He walked down the brown-paved street and headed towards the direction stated in the message from the communication rune.
Reaching the end of the street, a large grassland—covered with white tombstones—appeared in his sight.
The orange light from the setting sun illuminated the tombstones, giving the place a peaceful and quiet feel.
There were people gathering at the graveyard and some were lowering the coffins into the graves carefully. There were also wizards reading eulogies and paying tribute to the dead.
Angele walked to a group of people that was standing by the forest.
Most of them were wearing black outfits, and they all had serious expressions on their faces.
There were about 30 people there, and they were all holding white flowers in their hands. A small band was playing some sad, mournful music with their violins and harps.
People were still coming to the graveyard despite the dim sunlight.
A wizard was preparing for a eulogy with a black book in hand.
As Angele walked toward the group, the wizards noticed his presence and started greeting him.
"Master Angele."
"Master Angele, you're here."
Angele nodded as he walked, heading straight to the coffin.
The coffin was open and the former department head, Cruise, was lying inside. His body was covered with black flower petals and black silk. Cruise was donned in a black suit, with an eye-shaped ruby lying on his chest.
Dozens of white flowers surrounded the coffin.
As Angele stood in front of the coffin, he could hear Cruise's relatives crying.
He bowed slightly and took out a plain black box from his sleeves. Crouching down, he carefully placed the box to the right of Cruise's body.
He then stood up and walked to Cruise's family.
To the right were a five-year-old boy and two girls. They all had blond hair and pretty faces.
Angele patted one of the girl's head lightly. She was about 17 or 18 years old.
"Julie, let me know if you need any help. Don't worry, I'm your father's good friend, and I respect him a lot," Angele spoke in a light tone.
"Thank you…" Julie was the oldest child of the three. Her eyes turned red, and she was trying not to cry again. "Thank you, master Angele."
Angele looked at the three children, shook his head, and sighed with mixed emotions. He turned back around and rejoined the group.
A tall, eye-catching man was wearing a dark green swordsman's suit in the group talking to several other wizards with a hushed voice.
As he saw Angele walking to him, he ended the conversation with the other wizards and turned around.
"Master Angele, long time no see." He hugged Angele slightly.
"President Barry, it's not a long time, just two years. What happened? Was it really just an accident?" Angele's brow furrowed. "Cruise did not seem like the one who would try to advance without preparation."
"I'm sorry but that's just what happened." President Barry was the president of one of the three schools in the Mermaid's Song. He was one of the stakeholders in the city.
The old man was hundreds of years old, and he was a friend of Cruise.
"Cruise was dying and he had to give it a try. If he succeeded, his life expectancy would increase again; however…"—Barry sighed—"his wife passed away a long time ago and he was just worried about his children."
Angele knew what Barry was implying. "Yeah, that's the problem. Julie and the other two children are not talented and Cruise's family probably won't take care of them. I understand that this is the rule in the central continent… Children without talent will not be considered as formal members of the family. The situation will get worse as Cruise already passed away. What's your plan?"
Barry turned around and looked at the three children. "I don't have any child and I need to take my students to the frontline. I don't think I can take care of them. I'm counting on you and Piatto. You two were close to Cruise, right?"
Angele nodded. "No problem. Cruise treated me well, and although we chose a different path, I respect people who would sacrifice their lives for their dream. I'll help take care of his children and a peaceful life is probably the best for them."
"Yeah… A hundred year is nothing to us… however, they're just mortals and they can't even live that long," Barry sighed.
"Don't worry, I'll take care of it." Angele's sight fell upon the three children on the other side. They reminded Angele of Frey and Freia in the Nightmare Realm.
The difference was that the youngest one here was the boy and none of them had the talent like Frey had
Angele and Barry just stood there and stopped talking but none of the other wizards around tried to approach them.
Angele was the son of the third elder. Barry was a strong wizard with a high position. People wanted to talk to them, but they knew it would not be a wise choice to approach them at the moment.
The funeral started minutes later.
A bald wizard in a black robe with golden trimmings walked up to the coffin. He stood in front of the people and in his hands was a thick black book.
"Cruise Einzbern. He served in Northern Iceland for four years and he died as the head of the Human Resource department in the Mermaid's Song…" The old man started listing Cruise's major achievements in a deep tone.
The band was still playing the elegant, but sad music. The sound of the violins and the harps, in addition to the scene, was quite melancholic.
The people attending the funeral sprinkled some silver dust over Cruise's body after the old wizard finished the speech. The glowing silver dust slowly dropped down and quickly coated the surface of the body.
The dust was called the Soul Savior, and it was used to protect the dead ones from the Necromancers. A strong wizard designed it hundreds of years ago.
It was getting dark, and the wind was getting stronger. The sky was slowly covered by the clouds.
Seconds later, bean-sized raindrops fell from the sky, which quickly turned into a downpour.
*PA*
The people around the coffin opened their black umbrellas.
Angele raised his right hand and created a black metal umbrella to prevent the rain from dropping on his head. The umbrella looked identical to the ones used by the others.
The raindrops struck the surface of the umbrella and made some light noise.
"Master Angele, you're here?" Several young wizards greeted Angele as they approached him from behind.
"Rook, what's going on with all the funerals in the Mermaid's Song?" Angele watched several coffins being dropped into the graves and questioned a young man using energy particles. "I just arrived and I'm not familiar with the situation."
These young wizards were also members of the Human Resource Department, and they all had more than twenty people working for them. They were all rank 1 wizards, and they were the main force there.
The man named Rook had a bitter smile on his face after hearing the question.
"The situation in the War Drum City was much worse than the Mermaid's City," Rook started explaining. "One of the legions in the frontline was ambushed by the alliance's main force. Thousands of people died, only several hundred of them survived…"
"Seriously? Those alliance dogs…" Angele cursed and looked Rook. "Take care of Cruise's children for me. They're mortals and I want them to live a peaceful life."
Rook looked at the coffins and a hint of fear flashed in his eyes. "I thought the wizards were the strongest living beings in this world, and we can get most of the things we want in our lives. I don't understand why we should keep progressing until I heard about Master Cruise's death…"
Angele glanced at him but did not say anything else.
The rain was getting heavier and heavier. The coffin was quickly lowered into the grave and was covered with flowers.
The people around started leaving.
When there were only several people left, Angele decided to leave as well.
"Master Angele."
A young girl's voice stopped him from behind.
Angele turned around and he saw Julie standing in front of him with the two other children. The young girl and young boy held their sister's hands tightly as they were staring at Angele.
"What happened, Julie?" Angele asked softly.
Chapter 365: Funeral (2)
Translator: Leo Editor: Nou
"Can you take us with you, Master Angele?" Julie begged as she grabbed ahold of her brother and sister's hands.
"Sorry,"—Angele shook his head slightly—"I can't adopt you."
He knew that Cruise had many political enemies when he was alive. As a friend, he had wanted to help the man's children, but without the intention of adopting and treating them as his own.
He also knew that it was not the first time Julie tried asking for a wizard to adopt them; however, no one wanted to become the target of Cruise's political enemies. The best way to help the three children was to keep them out of this fight. People wouldn't care as long as they were mortals.
Angele sighed. "Go talk to Barry and study in school. You'll find a good job in the city after you have graduated."
After saying that, he left.
Angele would not become the department head after the death of Cruise. The headquarter would send someone else to replace Cruise, and Angele could keep doing his job as an assistant.
He declined all the party invitations from his colleagues and returned to the mansion by the Ness River.
Angele had decided to stay in the mansion and focus on practicing the Molten Core River.
The required runes and magic circles for the fourth stage were extremely hard, and he was still having trouble understanding them.
He had wanted to take his time to study the magic circles, explore the Nightmare Realm, and spend more time with Freia.
*******************************
Air transportation city, by the edge of the Abyss Canyon.
Under the dim sunlight, the Abyss Canyon looked like a huge fissure in the land, with chilling air breathing out from the darkness.
The orange light from the setting sun illuminated the ground, and the ladder-shaped clouds were painted in gold.
*Crack*
A white leather boot stepped on a small rock, flattening it.
It was a woman with a huge chest and a charming face. She was wearing a long tight robe, and her face held a cold expression.
Her skin was clean, her face pretty, and her right ear was long and white, covered with grey fur.
The woman glanced around the area.
"This the last place that I detected Terry's vital signs," she muttered.
Two men in white robes were behind the woman.
One of the men crouched and touched the ground to check the dust.
"The death wave that ended a while ago already erased all the living beings from the area and we won't be able to locate the murderer." His brow furrowed. "Master Erwin, I think we're just wasting time, we should find Master Julian and…"
"Are you questioning my decision?"
The woman named Erwin turned around and glared at the man.
"Yeah." The man stood up and responded in a cold tone, "Master, you're just wasting your time."
*BOOM*
The male wizard's head exploded like a watermelon, his brain, mixed with the shattered bones, splashed on the ground.
Erwin lowered her right hand calmly.
"It has been 500 years since someone last questioned my decision…" She turned her head around and stared into the abyss again.
The male wizard's dead body fell to the ground. Black strings of smoke rose from the dead body and formed a human's face. There were no nose nor ears on the face, and the scene was terrifying.
"Master Erwin! What you just did was unacceptable and I'll report the situation to Master Phil!" The human face roared in anger and slowly disappeared into the air.
Erwin was not concerned about what the face just said—she was still looking at the abyss. The other male wizard did not react to the incident either, and it seemed like he didn't care that one of them was just killed.
"Terry… I'll avenge you…" Erwin spoke in a light tone.
"Master, a rank 4 wizard in the air transportation wants to speak to you through communication rune. What do you think?" the man questioned.
"No. He's just a rank 4 wizard without the inheritor magic circle and I'm sure he doesn't have any important matter. Everyone thinks that Terry and Cena were killed by the underground race, but I'm seeing something different. They were murdered by someone else," Erwin explained. "I'll stay here for several more days. You can go back first."
"Yes, master." The man bowed and left, leaving the other man's body on the ground.
*************************
The Nightmare Realm, in the mansion beside the Ness River.
Angele stood quietly in the center of the living room and started thinking in front of the two matrices' control panels.
Phoenix stood on the wooden bird stand in the corner of the living room singing in a strange voice. The bird had cleaned its feathers with its beak, and its body was a bit larger than before, surrounded by a golden glow.
The morning sunlight went through the window and dropped on the floor, dividing the living room into two areas.
With Zero's help, Angele was able to analyze his progression: 'My advancement with Molten Core River slowed down again. It'll probably take me four to five years to reach the bottleneck of the fourth stage.'
Wizards needed to find their own ways to break the bottleneck, but some of them needed at least one hundred years to figure out the way. Although Angele had the help from the biochip, it would still take him a while to advance to the next rank.
'My enemies will find me sooner or later. I'll need to find some other ways to increase my power.' Angele recalled the scene he witnessed in the stone room and it was making him excited.
'Zero, is the analysis of the Frozen Wave Matrix completed yet?' Angele asked. He had spent most of his time practicing the Molten Core River, so he had asked Zero to analyze the matrices for him.
'Task completed. The Frozen Wave Matrix has been partially analyzed. Creating the basic model.'
A simple graph of the matrix was displayed in front of his eyes.
It was a diamond-shaped picture with five blue dots.
Four dots formed the diamond shape, and the dot in the center was blinking.
The dots were all connected by the energy strings.
'That's the basic unit of Frozen Wave Matrix?'
The structure graph for the complicated matrices usually contained multiple basic units and was hard to understand, but Zero did a good job analyzing them. Angele could have always studied the structure himself, but that would've taken a lot of time and he might become bored halfway through.
It only took Zero five months to create the basic model for the basic unit of the Frozen Wave Matrix, and even then, it was able to simplify the graph by a lot.
Angele looked at the simplified graph of the matrix, and it was the simplest graph of a matrix he had ever seen.
The book related to the matrices could never teach him something like this.
'Show me the data,' he ordered.
*DI*
Rows of complicated data were displayed under the blue graph.
The most important information was the function and energy consumption of the matrix.
'Function: Release energy shockwaves. Damage, zero. Good for alarm. Range is decided by energy consumption.'
'Energy consumption: 1.52 degrees/hour.'
Angele looked at the simple graph and sighed with mixed emotions.
'The powerful Frozen Wave Matrix is created with such weak basic units…'
He walked to the sofa and sat down. Taking out five regular magic stones, he placed them on the table just like the five dots on the graph and used some clean water to create the energy strings and connected the stones.
After all the stones were connected, Angele used his right index to tap on the magic stone in the center of the basic matrix.
A translucent shockwave was released from the center of the matrix and it started expanding to all angles. The shockwave quickly covered the whole living room.
Angele was satisfied with the result.
'That's the basic unit of Frozen Wave Matrix. Zero, analyze the basic unit of the Twisting Matrix for me and find the two energy cores of it. Also, see if you can try to combine the two basic units.'
He wanted to create an energy center using the two matrices, and he wanted to connect the two matrices in such a way that only one crystal card would be needed to deliver energy to them.
The ultimate goal was to connect all the matrices in an area and power them all solely through one crystal card.
'Task created. Analysis started…' Zero's mechanical voice echoed in his ear.
Angele headed to the second floor and entered the reading room.
The reading room was rebuilt into a laboratory. Freia was no longer allowed to enter the room and there was a defensive magic circle set up outside the door.
Bottles with various sizes were located in the room, and many crystal bottles had glowing liquids inside.
There was a white platform in the center of the reading room. A female, with a slim body and half the height of an adult, was lying on the platform quietly with her eyes closed. The female had a pair of translucent wings, like those of a dragonfly, and her hair was silver.
She was a corpse of an unknown species, and Angele had been studying her body for a while.
The dead body was surrounded by an invisible force field, with a diameter of about two meters, and no living being could enter the area.
Angele had not yet found a way to destroy the force field. He had purchased a small energy absorption matrix from the market and he had thought that the force field would disappear if there were no longer any energy supporting it.
He could have tried to break the force field by force, but he didn't want to damage the body.
Angele walked to the body and tried to touch the dead body.
*CHI*
It sounded like a soap bubble was pricked by a finger.
Angele knew that it meant the force field was no longer supported by a sufficient amount of energy. Raising his right hand, Angele created a small silver dagger as he tried to stab into the chest of the body.
However, before the tip of the dagger contacted the body's skin…
*BAM*
A ball of purple flame covered the whole dead body.
Angele did not expect it and his finger was scorched by the purple flame. His expression changed and he took several steps back quickly.
White, green, and red glows flashed on Angele's body and the purple flame was slowly extinguished. The tip of his index finger already turned purple and it was hard like crystal.
The body was still covered in the purple flame as it slowly melted and started evaporating.
"Damn!" Angele was not sure what he did wrong, however, the purple flame reminded him of something.
He quickly raised his right arm and the dark red armband flashed.
*WOO*
The armband started absorbing the purple flame from the dead body.
Chapter 366: Tomb (1)
Translator: Leo Editor: Leo
The purple flame was extremely powerful. Angele's finger was crystalized within seconds, he could barely feel his index finger now. It was almost like his finger was cut off without any pain.
Angele watched the body melting in the purple flame. His expression changed several times before the flame disappeared completely. He walked to the white platform and lowered his body.
He extended his left hand to touch the remains.
'The flame is… interesting…' Blue light dots flashed in front of Angele's eyes. However, Zero did not find any valuable information even after scanning for a while.
'It's just the remains of the dead body, but I didn't expect the purple flame at all. She must have been a strong creature before death. I should probably check that area again…' Angele walked to the window and looked over the forest on the other side.
Strong creatures had to possess special bloodlines. Angele knew that he should try to extract the bloodline from the creature.
There was excitement in his eyes.
Angele cleaned the platform and found some helpful tools. He left the reading room and locked the door.
He went to the garden and played with Freia for a while. Angele returned to the living room and started meditating again after checking the matrixes.
**************************
The night fell.
Angele slowly woke up from the meditation and checked the surroundings.
The whole mansion was deadly silent and it was cold.
Other than the wind and rustling trees outside, silence ruled everywhere.
The chilling wind came from the opened main door, causing it to clatter along with it.
The only light in the living room came from the moon. The blue moonlight illuminated the living room's floor.
Angele stood up from the sofa and wiped the dust off his robe. He walked to the second floor and stopped by a room on the left.
He raised his right hand and pressed on the door.
*Crack*
The door was unlocked with a crisp sound.
The bedroom was dark and there was a ball of fiery golden light standing quietly on the bed. The light ball was jumping around and there was a long tail on its back. The ball was the only source of light in the room.
The light ball was a red bird—it was Phoenix. The bird had been taking care of Freia for days.
Freia was sleeping on the large white bed and Phoenix was scampering around her. Angele could see the blue veins on her clean skin. Freia's brow furrowed, it seemed like she was having a bad dream. There was an anxious look on her face and she was struggling.
Angele walked to the bed and rubbed Freia's cheeks slightly.
The anxious look disappeared from Freia's face right after Angele touched her cheeks. She quickly calmed down as her expression relaxed.
The girl was breathing at a steady rate.
Angele covered Freia with the blanket and waved his right hand.
Phoenix flew into the air and landed on Angele's right shoulder, it started cleaning its feathers again.
Angele turned around, left the room, and closed the door.
He walked down the stairs and left the mansion.
The white mansion was surrounded by darkness; the blue light from the sky went through the thick clouds and illuminated the mist. It looked like the sun was about to rise.
Angele tightened his robe as it was a bit cold. The only light around came from the glowing crystals in the mansion. The visibility was low outside due to the thick blue mist.
He stepped on the wet and freezing grass.
*PA*
With a flick of his finger, a pink energy wave appeared around his body and started expanding right away. The energy wave disappeared into the air seconds later.
The circle warmed up his body and Phoenix was relaxing on his shoulder. The bird released a thin red glow to brighten up the surroundings.
With the help of Phoenix and the high-temperature force field, Angele walked through the translucent barrier with no hesitation.
*CHI*
The bird and the wizard passed through the defensive barrier with no problems and stepped among the black vines.
Angele entered a small forest beside the mansion after passing through the vines. He checked the map using Zero and turned right.
The chilling wind blew on the tree leaves, making a loud noise.
Angele walked in the forest, checking the map several times. He asked Phoenix to double-check the direction and increased his pace.
He returned to the location where he found the dead body quickly.
It was an enormous tree with a wide tree trunk.
The tree was about four meters wide and there was a black cave under its root. It seemed like the cave lead to a dark tunnel, but Angele could not see anything inside.
The tree was relatively short when compared to the other trees in the forest—its height was about half of the other trees, but it was extremely wide. There was not a single leaf on the tree's thin branches.
Angele walked to the cave and crouched to its right.
'That was where I found the dead body.' Raising his hand, he pressed on the grass slightly.
The green grass was also painted in light blue and Angele checked the marks on the ground.
The only thing he found around the cave was his own trail.
'If it was not related to the spells, the body probably dropped to the ground from the sky.' Angele raised his head and looked around.
Some bloodstains were left on the branches above and there was a broken branch shaking in the wind.
Angele looked around as blue light dots flashed in front of his eyes. He used the biochip to scan the area. 'There must be something here…'
Suddenly, his pupils constricted.
He noticed a trail of small footprints behind the footprints left by him, it seemed like they were left by a female.
Angele walked for a while in the deadly silent forest, but he did not know that someone was following behind him.
Goosebumps rose on Angele's skin. He recalled the words Todd told him—that anything could happen in the Nightmare Realm.
'Damn it!' Angele knew that he might be in trouble. The footprints meant that someone was following closely behind him when he was walking among the tall trees.
Raising his left hand, the Light of the Thorn started releasing the golden rays and they brightened up the surroundings.
A golden ball of light appeared in the dark forest and the area around the cave was brightened up.
Angele glanced around cautiously and stood there for a while. He felt relieved after realizing that there was no one around him.
He told Frey not to leave the mansion during the nights when the young man was still here. Angele chose to explore the Nightmare Realm at night because the world was so different when the night fell.
Many things would only happen during the nights in the Nightmare Realm.
Todd had never left the basement during the nights as he knew that the night in the Nightmare Realm was much more dangerous than the daytime.
Angele turned around and looked at the grass again. He noticed that there was a trail left by the body on the right, it was marked by Zero.
'The thing dropped to the right of the tree at an angle, which means she came from that direction…' Angele turned to the right.
There was nothing in his sight due to the low visibility.
Angele looked at the black tree cave again. He thought for a second and slowly took out a test tube full of pink liquid.
He removed the wooden stopper carefully.
*CHI*
Red mist spurted out of the tube.
The red mist landed to the right of Angele and turned into a large, blurry human-shaped shadow. The shadow was much higher than Angele, it had the size of a small giant.
The shadow man was surrounded by the red mist and his eyes looked like two small rubies. The man had no mouth or nose, but he had a muscular body and there were red flames burning on his shoulders.
"My pleasure, master." The shadow man bowed to Angele and put his right hand in front of his chest. The man's voice was deep and hoarse. He was speaking the universal ancient language with a strange accent.
Angele nodded and pointed at the cave. "I'm counting on you," he responded in the same language.
"No problem." The shadow man hit its chest and entered the cave.
Seconds later, Angele heard some creature grunting inside the cave, but nothing else.
The shadow man left the cave and it looked like his size shrank.
"There were several guards guarding a wooden door and it looked like a tomb," he reported back in a low voice.
"Thanks, come back now." Angele nodded and unsealed the tube again.
"Understood."
The red shadow man turned into red mist and returned to the tube. The mist turned into pink liquid quickly.
Angele sealed the tube with the wooden stopper carefully and returned it to his pouch.
It was a summoner spell he learned after advancing to rank 2 and it was called the Blood Giant.
The body of the giant was made from toxic and acidic blood. The giant had low intelligence, but it could follow basic orders.
The creatures or puppets that contacted the body of the giant would be damaged by the strong venom. If the blood giant killed a creature with blood inside its body, he would absorb all of the creature's blood and use it as fuel.
The blood giant's body size would keep increasing as long as it could collect enough blood.
The largest blood giant in the history had a height of more than ten meters. His one footstep could crack the land. The only problem was that the blood giant was hard to craft and a lot of rare resources were required.
Angele was working in the human resources department and he accepted some expensive gifts from the wizards who wanted to join the Elemental Hand. He spent years crafting the blood giant using the resources he purchased and was sent by Vivian.
Angele looked at Phoenix after taking care of the guards. The bird twittered and flew toward Angele, sinking into his chest.
Angele started chanting the incantation with a low voice and created a translucent fire barrier around him.
He also formed a thin layer of metal barrier on the surface of his body and his skin turned silver.
There were two twisted, long daggers in his hands, they were also created with the silver metal.
Angele stepped into the cave after everything was prepared.
The golden light from the Light of the Thorn brightened up the cave.
Chapter 367: Tomb (2)
Translator: Leo Editor: Leo
Two long-extinguished torches were hanging on the walls on both sides. Angele walked down for about five meters and a brown door appeared in his front. He heard the blood giant killing the guards, but there was no dead body on the floor.
The door was made of wooden planks and there were large gaps between each of the plank.
The arched door had the height of an average human being.
Angele tried to push the door, but it did not move.
There was a keyhole on the left. He raised his right hand and put the tip of the dagger in the keyhole. The tip of the silver dagger melted and went into the keyhole, turning into the key.
*CRACK*
The wooden door was unlocked.
Behind the door, there was a yellow sacrificial altar and there were two burning candles standing on their stands. Their orange light brightened the area.
In the center of the altar, there was a thick book with a red cover lying on a wooden stand.
Angele made sure that there was no one behind him. He stepped into the door and closed it.
He wiped the thick white dust off the surface of the book and revealed its title: The Book of the Dead.
The characters were written in the ancient language and they looked like a terrifying black skull with two horns.
'The Book of the Dead?' Angele looked a bit confused. 'Some people will compile their greatest achievements into books before passing away and this is definitely one of them, so what the blood giant said was correct—this is someone's tomb…'
He opened the book and saw a colorful picture on the first page.
It was a cavalryman with red heavy armor and a war horse. Burning flames surrounded the cavalryman's body and he was raising a white scimitar into the air.
There was a short sentence written under the picture: Burning Knight Orlando, his bravery shall be remembered.
The rest of the book recorded the knight's achievements and how many wars he had served in. However, Angele had never heard of any countries mentioned in it.
There was no valuable information in the book and Angele returned it onto the wooden stand.
He glanced around and saw two tunnels leading to the same exit. The torches inside the tomb were still burning and the bright light warmed the place up.
A rotten smell permeated the air, it was mixed with the intense smell of pine oil. The only sound in the tomb came from the flames on the torches.
Angele turned left and passed through a short tunnel, reaching another wooden door on the other side
He unlocked the door quickly with the same trick.
Behind the door, there was a spacious hall.
There was a stone staircase on the other side of the hall, the stairs led to another altar with a plate on it. Yellow flame was burning on the plate.
There were six small caves on both sides of the hall—each side had three caves. Inside each cave, there was a book with a red cover on top of a small platform.
There was a total of six books lying on the inclined wooden stands quietly.
In the center of the hall, there was a rectangular stone coffin, small pieces of red rubies inserted into its edges. Each ruby had the size of an eyeball and was reflecting the light from the flame.
Angele slowly stepped into the hall while checking the surroundings carefully. Suddenly, he noticed that someone was approaching him from behind.
*CLANK*
Angele quickly created a silver shield and blocked a large axe coming from behind.
The center of the shield was dented—it turned into a ball of metal liquid and was absorbed by Angele's skin.
Angele quickly stabbed backward using a dagger without turning around.
However, he did not hit anything.
Angele was surprised and he noticed that another strike was coming. He blocked the slash from the axe again with a metal shield.
He quickly took several steps forward and turned around, the appearance of the enemy was finally revealed.
It was a skeleton standing beside the wooden door.
White bones formed the skeleton's body and it was holding a rusty black war axe with both its hands. The skeleton was running toward Angele, its bones shaking as it moved.
'A skeleton soldier?' Angele hesitated. 'A skeleton soldier that's not controlled by a wizard that knows necromancy?'
The skeleton soldier charged at Angele as he thought, swinging its axe down again.
*CLANK*
The blade of the axe slashed across the surface of the shield, but sending sparks in all directions was all it managed to accomplish.
'Interesting…' Angele already scanned the skeleton soldier using the biochip. The soldier was like a muscular mortal using a large war axe and it could only deal eight to ten degrees of physical damage.
Raising his right hand, Angele pointed at the skeleton soldier.
*CHI*
The long red hair on his head started growing; the hair covered the skeleton soldier's body within seconds and trapped it on the floor.
*KA*
The skeleton soldier thrashed around several times, but it could not move at all. Its war axe was still in the air.
Angele's hair looked like a red spider web, the skeleton soldier trapped in its center.
He walked to the skeleton after making sure that it could not do anything.
Angele touched the skeleton's rib cage.
It was cold and hard. The edges of the ribs already started decaying and Angele's hand was covered in the white dust from the bones after he touched it.
The skeleton was still struggling and making noises. Angele reached into the skeleton's empty chest, but there was nothing inside, just like its appearance suggested.
He then focused on checking the skeleton's skull.
Obviously, there were no eyeballs in its eye sockets, and there were some black worms crawling there instead.
'What energy does this skeleton soldier consume? Why is it moving?' Angele went around the skeleton solider and put his fingers into its eye sockets.
As expected, there was nothing inside.
'This thing does not know how to check its opponent's strength, but it was not damaged by the radiation of my elemental mentality wave… Interesting…' Angele kept thinking.
'What if I do this?' He cut some of the skeleton's bones into pieces and stabbed the dagger into its chest.
The skeleton soldier was still just struggling.
'So, this thing won't simply die… then what about…' Angele aimed at the skeleton soldier's skull with the right index finger.
*CHI*
A silver needle stabbed into the skeleton's forehead and penetrated its skull.
The skeleton was still struggling—it seemed like the attack did not damage it.
'There must be a core…' The silver needle returned into Angele's skin and he looked at the skeleton.
Blue light dots appeared in front of his eyes.
'Zero, scan the target for me. Adjust the effective range when necessary.'
'Scanning…' A ray of blue light was released from Angele's eyes after Zero reported back and it dropped on the skeleton's body.
The blue ray moved from the skeleton's skull to its feet quickly.
'Scan completed. Unknown gene change detected. Visualize it in your sight?'
'Sure.' Angele's eyes flashed again as he finished the order.
A blue light screen appeared in his sight.
A hologram of the skeleton started spinning on the light screen.
The image shifted several times—from the surface of the backbone to the stem cells, and to the cross-section of the bone's stem cells.
Angele could see the cross-section of the cells clearly on the hologram.
He gasped after he noticed what was inside the cells.
The cells were filled up with black triangular magic circles and those circles were blinking in a breath-like rhythm.
Each of the magic circles was built with three basic points and each of the points looked like the shape of "&".
'That's… incredible...'
Angele knew that runes like these ones would probably lead him closer to the ancient bloodline wizards.
The cells from different parts of the skeleton were being displayed on the light screen and they were all filled up with the simple magic circles.
Angele crouched and used the metal string to recreate the triangular magic circle on the slate. He carefully put down the three "&" on the magic circle.
The circle looked exactly like the one he found in the cells.
He took out three regular magic stones from the pouch and dropped them on the three signs quickly.
*CRACK*
The three magic stones cracked together after the third stone was dropped on the last sign. The stones turned from black to white and translucent.
The center of the magic circle slowly turned dark and it looked like a deep hole leading to the abyss.
*CHI*
An eye suddenly appeared in the center of the magic circle. It was an eye with black pupils and it had the size of a small fish. The eye looked like an eye from a mortal, but its size was increased.
'What is this…?' Angele looked at the magic circle, confused. The eye was glancing around, but nothing happened.
'If the magic circle inside the bone cell of the skeleton is the foundation of the whole thing, something similar should happen after I powered the circle up with magic stones.' Angele's brow furrowed.
'Wait, there's another possibility…' He searched through his memory. 'Maybe the triangular magic circle is just an agent and it has different effects on different things. It can power up the skeleton soldier when it's applied to a dead man's bones. I powered up the magic circle with magic stones and the effect must be related to magic stones…'
Chapter 368: The Snake Honor (1)
Translator: Leo Editor: Nou
The eye on the around was still glancing around curiously.
Angele observed the eye for a while and removed the broken pieces of magic stones.
However, the eye was still there.
'What creature is this and where does it come from?' Angele was confused. He stood up and pointed at the circle. A large metal piece was released from his hand and covered the eye.
He returned to the skeleton soldier. After thinking for a while, he pressed on its skull.
*Crack*
The skull broke into pieces, and the whole skeleton soldier fell apart.
The black and rusty ax dropped to the floor as well since there was no longer any skeleton holding it.
Angele picked the ax up and quickly checked it.
The ax had a wide blade, and a sentence was engraved on its handle: "To Chita".
The sentence was written in the universal ancient language and was a bit blurry due to the decomposition.
Angele swung the ax several times in the air.
'About 25 kilograms…' He had weighed the ax using Zero.
His long hair started to shorten, shrinking in size, and returned to its normal length seconds later.
Angele walked over to the coffin in the center of the hall with the ax in hand.
The stone coffin lied there quietly, and the rubies around its edges looked like hundreds of eyes.
He placed his hands on the coffin and pushed it slightly; however, the coffin remained tightly sealed.
Glancing to the sides, he saw that the lid had been completely fused to the coffin.
Angele thought for a while and decided not to open the coffin.
He turned around and started checking the books one at a time.
The books were all about the achievements the one in the coffin had obtained, but the authors of each book were completely different. He walked to the altar as he did not find anything valuable from the books.
He walked up the stairs and stood in front of a burning flame.
The intense heat waves were coming from the flame, but he noticed that it was burning without fuel.
There was nothing inside the bronze container, and the strong flame was floating in the air.
The bronze container was surrounded by dried, black flowers, and there was a silver short sword with a complicated pattern on its handle lying off to the right.
The patterns on the handle looked like two snakes with their mouths open—seemingly as if they were poised and ready to strike.
Angele looked all around, but that was all he found here.
He grabbed the short sword and slashed forward.
*CHI*
A ray of silver light was released from the tip of the sword, sinking into the stone wall on the opposite side.
A slim mark was left on the wall. The mark was dark, and it should be at least several meters deep.
This was very surprising.
'I don't remember applying any energy to the sword…' He held the cold handle of the sword tightly. The handle was a bit wet and the whole sword weighed as if it was made of wood.
He raised the sword and slashed forward again.
*CHI*
Another silver ray left the tip of the sword and another slim mark appeared on the wall.
Angele checked the sword multiple times, but he did not find anything out of the ordinary, even with Zero's help. It was a simple sword, but it felt like the blade was infused with something, like energy particles.
He tested the sword against random objects in the tomb, but nothing stood a chance in the face of the silver ray.
Angele carefully wrapped the sword with silver metal, creating a make-shift scabbard, and tied it to his belt.
Before leaving, he collected all the books in the tomb and tied them up with metal strings.
The magic circle was just left on the ground. Angele was certain that the eye would disappear after all the energy in the magic stones was consumed.
*Crack*
Angele pushed the wooden door open.
Right as he was about to take a step forward.
*WOO*
Chilling wind brushed the back of his neck.
Angele turned his head around and noticed the light had already disappeared from the tomb. The chilling wind had come from the depths of the dark.
His expression changed. He left the tunnel quickly and returned to the root of the large tree.
It was still night and the mist still lingered in the air. Blue lights penetrated the clouds and illuminated Angele's body.
Angele checked the surroundings and started heading back to the mansion.
However, he noticed that something wasn't right several steps later. He turned around and what he saw scared him.
The large tree was moving and struggling like a live human being.
"AH!" The tree screamed in a high-pitched voice and it was shaking its trunk, like a man in his death throes struggling to survive.
The tree's trunk, skin, and branches started melting, turning into a pile of black sticky liquid within ten seconds, and disappeared into the ground.
The only thing left was a patch of green grass, and it almost looked like the tree was never there.
Angele checked the books and the short sword. Those didn't disappear with the tree; however, the eyes of the snakes were covered with a black glow.
'I need to leave the area now…' Angele was filled with a sense of foreboding. He, filled with caution, drew the short sword and decided to leave the area.
*CHI*
A large crack appeared on the grass and a large eye appeared on the ground. The eye was looking around curiously.
The eye was about ten meters long, giving the illusion that there was an enormous beast underground looking upward.
Angele paled, recognizing the eye immediately—it was the same one from the magic circle. Even the details were identical, but its size had increased greatly.
He took two steps back and started running towards the mansion. He kept checking around him as he ran, but there were no traces of anything following after him.
Angele felt a bit relieved. There were just too many strange things in the Nightmare Realm, and although he was a knowledgeable wizard, he had no idea what was going on.
Turning around, he was surprised, instantly stopping and standing still.
A trail of tiny footprints stopped right in front of the barrier created by the metal force field, and they were disappearing into the ground quickly.
The footprints stopped moving when he stopped running.
Something invisible slowly turned around and it felt like the thing was staring at Angele. He could feel the chill climbing up his back.
Angele raised the short sword and slashed forward without hesitation.
*CHI*
Silver light flashed in the air.
*PA*
It sounded like a bubble burst. The silver ray disappeared after hitting the invisible thing.
Angele took several steps back and he noticed that the invisible thing was no longer moving.
He turned back around and started running again. Although he was still constantly checking the surroundings, he saw that there were no more footprints following after him.
'That thing probably followed me out of the mansion and I thought it left before I entered the cave,' Angele guessed.
The thing was nearly impossible to detect. It doesn't release any form of waves, whether it be energy, mentality, or soul waves. The only trace was the footprints on the ground.
Angele returned to the mansion quickly after he increased his speed.
After seeing the energy barrier and the vines, he felt much better and calmed down.
Suddenly, his expression turned cold.
Countless tiny footprints surrounded the energy barrier, but their sizes varied and they were all standing, facing the mansion.
Suddenly, as if they noticed Angele's presence…
*PA PA*
All the invisible creatures turned to Angele at the same time. Angele could not see anything, but he felt as if he was being stared at by a large group of people.
The forest grew deadly silent.
Angele's expression turned serious, he raised the silver sword again.
*CHI CHI CHI*
Several silver rays were released into the air and landed on the grass.
*PA PA*
Half of the footprints on the ground were erased by the silver rays.
Angele took two steps back and ran to the other side of the barrier.
Immediate after sheathing the short sword, he created a dark red lava ball.
He threw the lava ball into the air without looking.
*BOOM*
Intense light from the lava drops brightened up the whole forest and drove some of the mist away.
Angele could feel that the lava drops were destroying the invisible creatures.
He suddenly stopped and looked around.
Trees were damaged by the lava drops, and branches were on fire. Some golden lava drops were still dripping down on the tree trunks.
The footprints disappeared from the ground completely and the heat waves were spreading in all directions.
Satisfied with the result, he stepped into the burning flames without any hesitation and headed back to the mansion.
The high fire resistance from the Molten Core River helped him against all the incoming lava drops, and as a result, the fire didn't damage him at all.
The fire from the burning wood warmed up the area and the strange feeling was no longer bothering him.
Angele passed through the barrier and the black vines started moving again.
Taking a deep breath, he walked past the fences.
'Many things happened during my exploration. I wonder how Frey is doing now? He said he just wanted to check the cities around the area, but anything could happen on his way…' Angele sighed and grabbed the books that were still tied up by the metal strings.
Chapter 369: The Snake Honor (2)
Translator: Leo Editor: Leo
Angele pushed the door open and stepped inside. He saw someone sitting on the sofa in the darkness.
He was about to draw his sword but realized that the only other person in the main building was Freia.
"Freia, why aren't you sleeping?" Angele questioned in a gentle tone.
"Green?" Freia stood up and ran toward Angele. "I thought you were not coming back…"
Freia jumped into Angele's arms. She was trembling due to the low temperature in the living room. The girl's face was pale and her brow furrowed, it seemed like she had a nightmare.
"That'll never happen." Angele rubbed Freia's long black hair softly. "What happened? You should put on some more clothes."
With a flick of his finger, a ball of red flame beside the two, bringing warmth to the room.
Freia's face turned pale and she hesitated. The girl hugged Angele tight and she started speaking several minutes later.
"Green, I know you have left the mansion many times during the nights…" Freia's body was still trembling. "The nightmares wouldn��t stop haunting me and I decided to sit in the living room. I thought of going to the garden but I was scared to go alone. Also, I saw someone peeking at me from the forest on a rainy day, I was so scared and I wanted to talk to you. However, you were nowhere to be found, and I learned that sometimes you were not in the mansion at all…"
Angele could feel the freezing cold but soft body of the girl. He remained silent. He would return to the main world when the night fell, it was impossible for him to stay in the Nightmare Realm forever.
He had tried to take Freia back to the main world. Sadly, none of his methods worked.
There were too many mysterious things in the Nightmare Realm and Angele knew that it was hard for Freia to survive in the mansion alone. The place was too large for the girl. Freia started having nightmares after she learned that Angele was not in the mansion all the time and the fear was infesting her mind slowly.
Angele was certain that Freia would not be able to handle the loneliness even if she was a boy.
"Come on, listen, I'll stay here with you. Just sleep." Angele stood up with Freia in her arms. He walked to the sofa and the burning flame ball was still floating around.
"Thank you, Green…" Freia raised her head and looked at Angele quietly. Her expression loosened as she closed her eyes. The girl fell asleep within seconds.
Angele sat down on the sofa again and stayed up the whole night.
Sleep was not necessary for wizards. Angele would not feel tired without having any rest.
Freia slept quietly in Angele's arms. He decided to practice the Molten Core River since he had the time. Angele's mentality was increasing slowly but steadily.
The morning sunlight shined through the windows and dropped on the red carpet, the latter reflecting some bright red light.
Freia slowly woke up, it seemed like she had a good dream this time.
Freia was growing well; her breasts were larger than what other girls at her age boasted and Angele could see that through the thin black sweater she was wearing.
The girl was only wearing a white underwear on the bottom and she tried to cover it with the long sweater. Freia's face blushed as she just realized that her outfit was revealing.
Angele was still meditating and Freia realized that her "father" would not look at her in a sexual way.
Angele washed Freia's body several times when she was still young and he also helped take care of Freia when she was sick. The girl knew that Angele had seen her naked body and her face stopped blushing. Frey, Todd, and Angele were probably the only three males Freia knew; she felt shy because she knew the basic differences between men and women.
However, the males around Freia were her family members, and it was just her instinct that she did not want a man to look at her half-naked body.
Angele noticed that the girl had already woken up and he quickly scanned the sky. "Morning. Did you have a nice sleep? Go have some food now."
"Sure." Freia jumped to the floor. "I want to check the Sun Flower first!" She looked excited as she finished her words.
Angele smiled and raised his right hand.
*WOO*
Phoenix left his body and landed on his hand.
"Go with Phoenix."
"Sure."
Angele watched Freia run to the garden happily, Phoenix circling around her. He slowly stood up and his sight fell upon the books with red covers.
Angele started reading those books in the living room after breakfast with Freia.
Freia was also reading the books curiously, but she got bored quickly. The poems were tiring to read, the vocabulary used in such books was fancy but meaningless.
Freia leaned against Angele's right arm and fell asleep again.
Angele quickly scanned all the poems into the database and asked Zero to collect the helpful information for him.
He found the information he wanted quickly.
*CHI*
Angele slowly drew the silver short sword he found.
Blue light dots blinked in front of his eyes and he finally learned what the sword was.
'Snake Honor sword: A sacrificial sword that is used to stop the dead ones from reviving,' the biochip reported back.
Angele held the short sword in his hand to scrutinize it, but it just looked like a normal sword.
Angele double-checked the two defensive matrices outside the mansion and returned to the library. He wanted to finish the system he was designing.
He decided to leave the mansion again after checking the specimen he had in the lab.
It was like a different world during the daytime in the Nightmare Realm.
He decided to check the place he visited last night again.
Angele walked down the stairs and grabbed a black cloak.
"Freia, I need to leave for a minute, don't worry, I'll be back before you know it. Stay in the mansion with Phoenix." He looked at Freia.
"I want to go!" Freia woke up quickly after hearing Angele's words.
"Well, fine…" Angele had taken Freia to the forest several times before as he already knew that the daytime in the Nightmare Realm was relatively safe; he just needed to avoid dark areas.
Freia put on a black cloak as well and they stepped out of the barrier with Phoenix.
Angele checked the route he recorded in the biochip and found the location quickly.
A vibrant grassland was surrounded by tall brown trees, but it was empty.
Angele was a bit confused, he walked around but did not find any trace of that eye.
Rays of golden sunlight landed on the ground and illuminated the grass.
"Green, what are you looking for?" Freia walked around the area as well but she did not find anything interesting and she returned to Angele.
"Some… mysterious things," Angele responded.
Angele checked the surroundings. He did not extinguish the fire around the mansion last night, but he did not see any burnt trees on the way here.
It almost looked like nothing had happened last night; Angele was certain that he had destroyed a part of the forest.
He checked the surroundings carefully again, but did not find any valuable information. Angele decided to return to the mansion with Freia.
They stopped by the small wooden house by the Ness River. Freia started fishing by the water—she had a brown fishing rod and the bait she used was just some random flowers.
Angele sat on the side and started to ponder about the things that had happened last night.
He was certain that none of the strange creatures were in their soul forms. Although he acquired Snake Honor and it was a strong weapon, the invisible creatures, the dying tree, the tomb, and the eye on the ground all left a deep impression in his mind.
"Freia, you've heard many stories from your father, right?" Angele looked at the girl and suddenly asked.
"Yes." Freia nodded. "Father told us about many strange things he encountered in this world when we were young. What happened, Green?"
"How much of the stories do you remember?"
"Each of the stories was told many times and I remember most of them," Freia answered with confidence.
"Have you heard about a huge eye on the ground and something like an underground tomb?" Angele went straight to the point.
"An eye on the ground?" Freia searched through her memory. "I think I've heard about it from a tale my father told us. It was a story from the book of the church. The eye on the ground is something from the Oblivion Realm and it would only appear when certain requirements were met. Time, location, and sacrificial materials. The eye is hard to summon, and…"
Freia stopped for a second and continued, "Many hunters tried to summon the eye, but none succeeded. My father said that it was just a tale and we should not treat it seriously."
"Do you know a weapon called Snake Honor?" Angele wondered.
"Yeah, one of the widely used weapons from the churches. They were only given to the strong ones with a title called the Holy Eye and they were all very close to the Hunter Lord. My father said that he had the chance to become a Holy Eye but he was too old," Freia blinked as she explained.
"The Holy Eye had a beautiful armor, a strong mount, and the mutated creatures stood no chance if they encountered one of them…" Freia recalled.
Angele drew the short sword, it seemed like the weapon was left in the tomb by someone else and it did not belong to the Knight in the coffin. Maybe the owner of the weapon had the ability to communicate with the Oblivion Realm; also, it was possible that a Holy Eye was killed by something when he was exploring the tomb.
He realized that this weapon had the features of the concept gear he failed to acquire.
*BLOP*
Freia lifted her fishing rod and there was a small fish on the hook.
*PA*
The fish dropped onto the grass.
However, it was not an ordinary fish. The thing had countless legs and it looked like a centipede. It rolled several times on the ground and started crawling back to the water, the hook still in its mouth.
"Well, it's inedible anyways…" Freia shook her head. She removed the hook and threw the fish back to the river.
Chapter 370: Eye Devil (1)
Translator: Leo Editor: Leo
Angele glared at the small fish and threw the Snake Honor into the air.
*CHI*
The short sword penetrated the fish accurately and dropped into the water.
"Green, why did you throw the sword away?" Freia was surprised, but she noticed that the sword was connected to a silver string in Angele's hand.
*BLOP*
Angele pulled the string slightly and the sword jumped out of the water with the fish on its tip.
The sword returned to his hand and Angele started checking the blade.
The blood from the fish was dripping down the blade; it almost looked like the sword had its own blood vessels.
Angele looked at the short sword and started thinking.
Freia was still fishing using the flowers as bait and she threw most of the strange creatures with weird appearances she caught back into the river.
The sun started setting and it was getting dark outside. Freia finally stood up.
"Let's go, Green." There was a metal bucket in her hand—it was created by Angele's force field. The tiny fish inside the bucket was great for making a fish stew.
Angele nodded slightly and stopped thinking.
"One more thing, Freia. Stay in the mansion and don't even leave the main building in the next several days as I need to make sure the areas around are safe," Angele exhorted.
"Understood, Green." Freia nodded several times.
Angele escorted her back to the mansion and asked her to cook the fish stew first. He then put on the cloak again and left the mansion.
Angele walked around the mansion and walked to the small forest on the opposite side of Freia's room.
The orange light from the setting sun filled up the forest. The dim sunlight illuminated the tree leaves, tree trunks, and the grass. The wind in the late afternoon was warm and soothing.
Angele walked to the large trees and started observing.
He slowly crouched beside one of the trees.
The grass under the tree was leaning, it looked like someone stepped on it.
Angele touched the grass—it was wet and warm. He also detected a hint of energy particles.
He stood up calmly and glanced around.
*PA*
He heard someone stepping on the grass, the noise came from the deep forest.
"Who's there?!" Angele disappeared into the air, only a small hole was left in the place where he was standing at.
He turned into a black shadow and rushed to the source of the noise, moving through the woods at full speed.
*PA*
The black shadow hit one of the trees on the way and he quickly created two silver daggers in hands.
*CHI*
The tree trunk was slashed into pieces and the tree started falling to the left slowly.
*BAM*
The tree dropped to the ground, the cracking branches and the leaves making loud noises.
Angele stood beside the destroyed tree and checked the surroundings carefully.
Suddenly, a blurry gray shadow entered his sight—the shadow was running away and it was about to jump into the bushes.
Angele's expression turned cold, his body turned into a black shadow again and rushed toward the gray shadow.
The distance between them was reducing quickly.
A silver light dot appeared in front of the black shadow and the light dot hit the back of the gray shadow hard.
*BAM*
The gray shadow was pinned on the tree trunk.
"MOO!" A strange voice echoed in the air.
The black shadow turned around by the gray shadow, it was Angele with the black cloak.
His cold stare fell upon the gray shadow that was pinned on the tree trunk by a silver dagger.
It was a small man that was only about one meter tall. The man looked like a young child, and he was wearing a broken linen outfit. His skin had the color of an old candle and his body was unbalanced.
The small man was facing the tree trunk; he was struggling and trying to get rid of the dagger, but nothing worked.
Strangely, the dagger penetrated the man's chest but there was no blood leaking out of the wound, and it almost looked like the man was a puppet.
Angele's brow furrowed and he approached the tree carefully. The man suddenly turned his head around and shouted again.
Angele blinked his eyes and he finally had a clear view of the man's face.
The man looked almost identical to a human being but only had one eye.
There was only one eye on the bridge of his nose. It was a white eye with two black pupils, one on the right and one on the left. It looked like a normal pair of eyes but on the same eyeball.
The man stared at Angele and Angele could see the fear in the man's eye. The man was pushing the tree trunk with all the strength he had, but it was not working.
"Can you understand my words?" Angele questioned in a low voice.
"MOO!" the man screamed again in fear.
Angele pursed his lips and raised the dagger in his right hand into the air.
*CHI*
A blood hole was left on the small man's forehead as the tip of the dagger extended.
The small man stopped struggling and lost all his strength. He looked like a dead beast that was hanging on the tree trunk.
Angele pulled the dagger out of dead man's body and carefully gouged his large eyeball out.
Angele held the fist-sized eyeball in hand carefully.
He took out a test tube from the pouch which was filled up with translucent slimy liquid.
He removed the wooden stopper and applied the sticky liquid on the surface of the eyeball, preventing the eyeball from drying out.
The fist-sized eyeball had the texture of soft rubber ball and it had a hint of charming fragrance.
Angele carefully covered the eyeball with a thin layer of metal after applying the sticky liquid. He put the metal ball on his waist and used the force field to prevent it from falling.
*PA*
The dead body of the small man dropped to the ground.
Angele was not interested in the dead body, he was looking at the trees in the front.
There were about ten more gray shadows moving in the front.
"Ha." Angele pursed his lips again, his body turned into a black shadow and charged forward.
"MOO! MOO!" The deep voice was familiar, a large group of gray shadows was trying to escape.
Angele was running to the northeast of the mansion; it took him about half an hour to kill some more single-eyed men and he collected sixteen fist-sized eyeballs. They looked like a bunch of white grapes.
The night was about to fall. Angele stood between the trees with a bunch of eyeballs in hand, and he decided to return to the mansion.
"You're just going to leave?" A high-pitched voice came from behind but Angele was not sure if it was a man or a woman.
Angele turned around and saw someone stepping out of the thin mist between the trees.
"Huh? You know how to communicate with me?" Angele narrowed his eyes, he looked excited. "You're the second one that knows how to speak I meet here."
"Interesting." The mysterious man revealed himself as he left the mist.
The man was wearing a black outfit with a black mask and a black hat. The only thing Angele could see was a pair of blue eyes.
"You killed my single-eyed gnomes and you're just going to leave?"
"Single-eyed gnomes?" Angele looked at the eyeball. "You mean the owners of those things?"
"What else can it be?" the man responded in a cold tone.
"Well, so, we'll have to fight?" Angele's expression turned serious.
"The single-eyed gnomes are not impacted by the mutation, they're the best servants you can find now, but you killed them all. You must pay for what you have done," the man said. "I don't like facing the strange creatures in the night but it doesn't mean I fear them. The night is about to fall, make the right choice."
"Are you threating me?" Angele looked like at the man in black curiously. "What a joke." He raised his right hand.
*CHI*
A ray of silver light flew toward the man in black.
*Clank*
The man used a white dagger to block the silver ray.
However, his pupils constricted as the two metal objects contacted.
The silver ray exploded after being blocked, turning into countless silver strings, flying toward the man.
"Halo!" the man shouted and created a black string. A large black bird spurted out of the string, it was a bird formed by the shadows.
The bird swung its wings several times and jumped to the glowing silver strings.
The silver strings sank into the bird's body and disappeared.
*Twitter*
The black bird shouted and flew toward Angele.
Angele raised his left hand and a ball of golden light spurted out of the white ring on his middle finger.
"The Light of the Thorn!"
*CHI CHI CHI*
Countless rays of eye-blinding golden light blocked the black bird; although the bird handled the metal force field like it was nothing, it started melting quickly in the golden rays like ice that met fire.
The golden rays were flying everywhere and the temperature in the area started rising.
The light illuminated Angele and the mysterious man's bodies.
"Rossie!" the man screamed in a high-pitched tone, his voice turned into the voice of a woman, and black mist appeared behind him.
The black mist was moving toward Angele quickly, it almost looked like the mist was a living being.
The mist slowly disappeared before it reached Angele—inside it was a skeleton in a broken black outfit. The skeleton floated in the air and jumped to Angele.
There was still some white hair on the skeleton's skull and it was surrounded by a black glow.
For some reason, Angele could feel that his movement was impaired. His body was still strong, but he felt weak and he was slowed down.
'Warning! Warning! You are under the effect of an unknown force field. Debuff: Slow, Senility.' The chip's warning echoed in Angele's ears.
'The effect ignored my defensive force field and impacted me directly.' Angele's expression changed and two lava balls appeared in front of his body.
Chapter 371: Eye Devil (2)
Translator: Leo Editor: Kurisu
The cracks on the surface of two lava balls flying toward the skeleton were filled up with golden liquid.
There was a short distance between the two lava balls.
The skeleton leaned to the left and dodged the first lava ball.
*BOOM*
The first lava ball exploded after passing the skeleton, turning into a golden light ball; most of the lava drops splashed on the bones of the skeleton.
"AH!" the Skeleton screamed in a high-pitched tone. Half of its body was burnt to ashes and it lost its original form.
It almost looked like a beast took a large bite of the skeleton and crushed it.
*HUA*
The skeleton broke into pieces and dropped to the ground.
The second lava ball was flying at the mysterious man.
Angele took out a lot of glass bottles and tubes from the pouch carefully; he did not even check the result of the lava balls' attack.
He used the force field to remove all the lids and stoppers from the containers.
Angele raised his hands, then poured all the colorful pills and liquids into his mouth. He quickly swallowed them all.
Seconds later, the effect of the potions and pills helped him remove the debuff—he was no longer slowed and weakened.
Angele raised his right hand and reached forward.
*BOOM*
Countless silver strings formed a silver flood, moving toward the man in black that was still standing on the other side.
The trees and grass between them were destroyed by the flood.
"Basilicata!" the man in black shouted again in the high-pitched tone. The sound wave materialized in the air—it looked like the wave on the surface of the water, spreading to all angles.
"Final Judgement!" A light voice came from nowhere, mixing with the one from the man in black.
*CHI*
Suddenly, four black wings appeared on the back of the mysterious man.
The wings were growing rapidly; reminiscent of those bats boasted, they covered the whole area within seconds, yet still kept expanding.
The black shadow under the wings covered the grass, tree trunks, dry leaves, and the sky; everything was turned into black.
Each of the wings was more than ten meters long.
Manifested in the form of three slowly spinning black diamond-like crystals, a cold and terrifying energy wave was moving toward Angele. The dark energy coming from the surface of the crystal penetrated Angele's defensive force field and sank into his body.
The silver flood approached the mysterious man at the same time.
*BOOM*
The silver flood was stopped by an invisible energy barrier when it was about one meter away from the man. The silver needles were trying to attack the man, but they could not proceed any further.
Black light flashed in his eyes as Angele's face turned pale.
"Die!" he shouted, raised his left hand, and created a long silver sword.
*Chi*
The sword disappeared from his hand, turned into a silver string, then started extending. The sword used the silver flood as a bridge and it was going for the man's head.
The mysterious man removed his mask—it was a woman with an attractive face.
A ray of black light was released from her mouth and it contacted the tip of the slim silver sword.
*Clank*
The black ray hit the sword and they both disappeared into the air.
The woman swung the enormous wings slightly and jumped into the air. She almost looked like a dark angel.
"Dark Night!" she shouted furiously.
*BOOM*
The four black wings' size increased again; they painted the sky in black like spilled ink.
The setting sun disappeared and the area beneath the wings almost looked like the night sky with blinking stars as decoration.
The whole forest was covered by the shadow.
Angele's movement was slowed down again; he had no idea what effect the woman's skill had. He released two more lava balls and the three silver scars appeared on his cheeks.
*BOOM*
The strength of the silver flood doubled and it was going for the woman that was flying in the sky.
"Phoenix!" a red bird appeared on Angele's right shoulder.
He decided to let the silver flood do its thing. Angele raised his hands and created a long metal bow, then quickly drawn the bowstring fully.
*CHI*
A long silver arrow appeared on the bowstring and he stared at the target.
*WOO*
Angele's eyes became surrounded by a red glow after a crisp noise. His eyes were clear like a pair of rubies.
'Modifying the angle…' Zero's voice echoed in his ears.
"Iamususi, heed my call!" Angele chanted a short incantation with a low voice.
Countless small red beads appeared around the arrow—they looked like a bunch of spinning glass beads.
Then, dark-red flame appeared on the tip of the arrow.
Red light dots and blue light dots were moving in front of Angele's eyes. His left eye turned red and his right eye turned blue several seconds later. The blue light came from the chip and the red glow came from the Molten Core River.
"Pyroblast!"
*CHI*
The arrow turned into a red string and flew toward the woman.
Angele had no time to check the result. He stopped the silver flood and started backing off.
He finally stepped out of the darkness after moving back for more than ten meters.
The red string mixed with the retreating silver flood and the two lava balls as they hit the woman in the sky together.
A ball of red exploded in the air and it almost looked like a small sun appeared in the night sky.
Angele covered his eyes with a right hand to block some of the eye-blinding light.
The heat wave warmed up the wind, spreading to all angles. The smell of the burnt wood permeated the air as a streak of black smoke rose into the sky.
The light faded away quickly.
The woman's black outfit was damaged, but it seemed like wings on her back changed again.
Angele saw that there was an hourglass pattern in her right eye. The hourglass was made from redwood and glass; there was not much sand left in the upper part of the hourglass.
*CHI*
A long black spear appeared in her right hand, coated with dancing dark shadows.
The dark energy was the source of the black spear's power, and its size and length were increasing quickly. Also, the shadow flame around the spear was getting more and more intense.
Angele could feel the pressure coming from the sky. He raised his head and put his right hand on the chest. Then, a red glow appeared in front of his chest, and a singing female voice resounded in the sky.
The red glow illuminated his chest and a strange energy wave was released from the bloodline signet. His long red hair started growing rapidly.
Angele and the woman both knew that they were more or less evenly matched.
Angele could feel that the woman was slightly stronger than him, but it seemed like she was scared by the bloodline signet from the scorpion woman.
Also, he knew that the three diamond-shaped crystals around his body were damaging him using the dark energy waves.
Those materialized energy waves looked like black smoke, and they were invading his force field and his body. The defensive barrier from the crystal scorpion, the metal force field, and the high-temperature force field all failed to stop the dark energy. It was probably the reason why Angele was slowed and weakened again.
Without the help of the potions and pills, he would stand no chance against the woman.
The two looked at each other, but neither was trying to attack first.
They both knew that they were about to use their strongest skills. They traded several attacks, but none of them dealt any actual damage; however, the next exchange would probably decide the outcome of the battle.
The woman hesitated for a second and suddenly started laughing.
"Well, is it really worth it? I mean, we are fighting because you killed my single-eyed gnomes, but I'm not sure we have to go as far as trying to kill each other." The woman's voice returned to normal, but it still sounded a bit strange.
"You're right. I'm just using them for my experiment. I knew something would happen, but I didn't expect to meet a strong opponent." Angele's expression relaxed.
"An experiment?" The woman was a bit confused. "They're just materials for you?"
"Of course." Angele nodded. "I've been collecting materials my whole life and I'll go after anything that I've never seen before. To be honest, I didn't want to start the battle."
"Well, we should probably stop here, then." The woman nodded. "Let me introduce myself. You can call me Eye Devil and my territory is the Lion Tree City."
Angele decided to tell the woman a fake name. "You can call me Phoenix, my territory is the forest and that river."
"You should make things easier for us. The lords have never heard of you. You know this world is a mess now." Eye Devil chuckled. "I was here to expand my territory but I meant no offense."
"It's my fault. I lived in the forest for too long and I have no idea about the current situation. Do you have a map of this area? We can do a trade, what do you think? Tell me what you need." Angele shrugged.
"There's no need to trade for it." Eye Devil dropped a leather scroll to the ground.
*PA*
Angele caught the scroll and scanned it with the biochip. He made sure that it was not a trap and slowly opened the scroll.
It was a very detailed, large map.
A city in the center of the map was marked with a white block and it said: "Lion Tree City". Angele also found the Dark Cloud City, Dawn City, and several lakes around the Lion Tree City.
Angele had visited the Dark Cloud City before—it was to the northeast of Ness River—so he recognized it quickly.
All three cities were on the top-right of Ness River and they formed a triangle.
Chapter 372: Invitation (1)
Translator: Leo Editor: Kurisu
The Eye Devil slowly landed on the ground and black wings slowly disappeared from her back. The sand had completely disappeared from the hourglass in her eye and the light from the setting sun returned to the forest.
The red light slowly disappeared from Angele's chest but the three black crystals were still spinning around him, so he glared at Eye Devil.
With a flick of her finger, the three crystals cracked into pieces at the same time and slowly dropped to the ground.
Angele could feel that his body was lightened up and the debuffs were removed.
"Such mysterious power, it ignored my defensive barriers. I've never seen something like that before," Angele praised.
He was certain that Eye Devil was not using all her power; he used the data collected by Zero to compare their power levels and it turned out Angele was slightly weaker—that was the reason why he was talking to her politely.
Although Angele had the bloodline signet, it did not mean that he could win the battle.
Angele thought that he would die after severely injuring Eye Devil even with the help of Henn. He did not know why, but he knew he would lose.
The power of Eye Devil was terrifying.
However, Eye Devil thought similarly—they were not familiar with each other's skills.
"It's not the first time I've heard someone saying that." There was a gentle smile on Eye Devil's face. She surmised that the guy named Phoenix had a strong background as she could feel the pressure coming from multiple angles during the battle. It felt like the skills the man used were similar to the abilities she knew.
Her expression loosened again after thinking for several seconds. Eye Devil threw the black spear into the air.
*CHI*
The spear turned into a ball of black smoke and returned to Eye Devil's body.
"I want to invite you to my party if you don't mind. The strongest lords in the area will be attending the party and I can introduce you to them." Eye Devil smiled.
"A party?" Angele hesitated. "In the Lion Tree City?"
"Of course. I invited all the lords in the area. You're interested in the special experiment materials, right? I'm sure you'll find the things you need there."
Angele was not sure if he should accept the invitation.
He stood there and hesitated for a while, but still decided to attend the party.
"Alright, I've been living in the woods for too long and I think I should learn more about the society. Thanks for the invitation, I'll attend the party. When does it start?"
Eye Devil raised her right index finger and pointed at Angele's map.
*CHI*
Black light flashed on the map and disappeared within seconds.
Angele opened the scroll again and found a black arrow mark on the map.
"What's this?"
Devil Eye lowered her finger. "It's just a small trick. The direction of the arrow will keep changing until you find the location of the party."
Blue light dots flashed in front of Angele's eyes, he scanned the map into the database and nodded slightly.
"Interesting trick. Alright, I'll go prepare for the party then. When will it be held?"
"The day after tomorrow."
Angele folded the scroll and put it in his pouch.
"I'll see you soon."
Eye Devil smiled again. "I'll be waiting."
Angele nodded again and picked up the metal-coated eyeballs. He turned around and started heading back to the mansion.
He was checking the surroundings constantly using the biochip and the mentality wave. His right hand was in the pouch, holding an energy potion—he was ready to fight again.
Angele could feel the cold sight of the Eye Devil; the mysterious woman was glaring at him, and he was not sure if the words she said weren't just trying to earn his trust.
Angele stopped, turned around, and looked at the forest after he made sure that he was no longer in Eye Devil's sight.
The sight of Eye Devil's body had been completely blocked by the vibrant trees and bushes.
"Alright…" Angele sighed, turned around, and started walking to the mansion again.
He returned to the mansion about half an hour later.
There were countless black vines surrounding the mansion. They moved to the side and created a path to the gate for Angele.
Angele walked on the path and disappeared into the bell-shaped barrier. The vines returned to their original position quickly.
Eye Devil appeared on a tall tree in the small forest beside the mansion as Angele entered the mansion.
She crouched on the branch and looked at the luxurious mansion, licking her lips.
"So, he wasn't lying…" she muttered and tapped on her forehead slightly. A blood hole appeared between her eyebrows; her red veins and white skull were visible through the blood hole.
Several seconds later, a tiny brown octopus climbed out of the blood hole. The octopus was swinging its sticky brown tentacles as it jumped on Eye Devil's hand quickly.
A hint of a smile on Eye Devil's face as she looked at the octopus.
She threw the octopus to the ground and it rolled several times before disappearing into the mud.
'This guy's skill impacted my bloodline, he probably already has the true form… However, he did not even use the true form to fight my sealed form, I could've won that fight…" Eye Devil looked at the defensive barrier and she looked surprised. "The defensive system is incredible, without the true form, it's nearly impossible for someone to build such a fortress. He wouldn't be able to support the system without the power of the true form. I made a wise decision. I'm not sure what's going to happen if…'
Eye Devil thought she was lucky. She did not want to get injured as she had a big plan in mind. She was certain that the man named Phoenix had a similar power level to her.
��Wait… I should probably try to convince him to work with me if he has a similar personality as Carl…'
Eye Devil sighed with mixed emotions. She gave the mansion one final glance, then disappeared into the forest.
*************************
Inside the mansion.
Angele watched the dark shadow disappearing into the forest through the window on the second floor.
He suddenly covered his mouth as his face turned pale.
Blood was about to spurt out of his throat but Angele forced it down.
He took a deep breath after Eye Devil completely disappeared.
'She probably misunderstood something. Eye Devil was not serious during the battle and I'm sure she hasn't revealed her true power yet. However, she almost forced me to use my final plan…' The pressure Eye Devil gave him was almost as strong as Vivian.
Angele calmed down and started checking his body.
Angele drank a lot of high-quality potions and swallowed many pills at the same time to cleanse the debuffs, but there would be consequences.
Blue light dots flashed in front of Angele's eyes for several minutes. He took out a small blue tube from the pouch. The tube was filled up with black pills; he took one of the pills quickly.
Blood returned to his pale face again, it seemed like the pill helped him recover.
'The special alloys for my metal force field were all used up during the battle, I need to craft some more.' Angele's brow furrowed. He did improve the metal skills by a lot, but the fast consumption of the special alloy was a big problem. The metal he had was usually enough for quick fights, but a battle like the one he just experienced was way too intense.
A lot of the special alloys was gasified before reaching Eye Devil and it was impossible to collect them from the air. It was a big loss for Angele.
'All for those damn eyeballs…' Angele sighed softly.
He turned around and looked at the white platform in the center of the room. There were more than ten eyeballs piled on the surface of the platform—they looked like some terrifying fruits.
With a flick of his finger, a ball of yellow flame appeared around his body.
The clean yellow light illuminated the platform, it was perfect for the experiment.
Angele grabbed one of the fist-sized eyeballs carefully. The two black pupils looked like a pair of normal eyes.
'The texture…' Angele scrunched his eyebrows. 'Let me see what I can get from it. I need to test its resistance, cell activity, and pH value. Everything needs to start from scratch.'
He walked to a sink on the other side with the eyeball in hand. There was a test tube shelf over the sink and it was full of colorful test tubes. The colorful liquids inside the tubes was moving like they were alive. Some were bubbling and some were changing their forms every other second.
About half an hour later, Angele took out the eyeball from a test tank carefully and checked it using the biochip.
'That's all the basic information I need.' He returned to the platform with the eyeball and a magic circle was already prepared on the surface of the platform.
The magic circle was large enough for all the eyeballs. There was a moon rune in the center of the circle, and a beetle pattern was engraved in the middle of the moon.
Angele put the eyeball on the moon rune carefully.
He then put his hands on both sides of the circle.
*WOO*
The magic circle was surrounded by a red glow, the runes and strings all looked like that they were infused with fresh blood.
The eyeball pile started melting at a visibly fast rate—Angele could see the changes with his eyes.