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Chapter 428: Assassination (1)

Translator: _Leo_ Editor: Kurisu

Ten days later.

In the Nightmare Realm.

Angele activated his true form in a vibrant forest. He was slowly walking through the green bushes.

The man's muscular body was hard like iron. His height had increased to six meters and the ground would shake after every step he took.

*CHI*

A gray shadow charged at Angele's chest.

Angele stood still, the long red hair on his back grabbed the shadow and started tearing it apart.

*CHI*

It sounded like a piece of cloth was torn apart. The gray shadow turned into pieces of white clothes and dropped to the ground.

Blue light dots flashed in front of Angele's eyes; suddenly, he raised his right hand and grabbed a large tree on the side.

*BAM*

He pulled the whole tree up and threw it forward.

*BOOM BOOM*

It sounded like something was exploding inside and the path in front of Angele was cleared. There were humongous black insects that looked like cockroaches there; however, they were all killed by the strange shock wave created by the explosions.

There was a man with green skin lying beside a large tree trunk that sunk into the black surface of a hill. The hill was about one kilometer away from Angele.

"The fifth one…" Angele clenched his fist. "It was the fifth monster that had the power level of a rank 4 wizard I killed. I think I've cleared the area around the mansion and I only need to wait for my injury to recover. The frost damage is stopping me from refining my true form…"

Angele decided to test his true power as he finally got the chance. He wanted to know what he could do with the true form.

His normal form barely changed after absorbing the bloodline essence from that bone, but the power level of his true form was increasing at an incredible rate.

The power level of the true form increased so fast that it broke several limitations of Angele's body. He could easily eliminate the monsters that were at the same power level as the rank 4 wizards. Their mentality waves were easily canceled out by the strange force field Angele's true form was releasing. Also, the Strength of his true form had increased to 90 points. With the help of the bloodline essence and the Sound of the Knell, nothing could stop him from strengthening his true form.

Sighing slowly, Angele was a bit disappointed. "The power level is probably the same as a rank 5 wizard. If I can activate the true form in the main world… Damn…" He walked to the monster, picked up the dead body, and left.

　　*******************************

One year later…

By the Ness River.

It was afternoon. There was a twisted brown path between the river and the mansion with wooden benches built on the side.

Angele sat on a gray bench that faced the river and overlooked the clear water.

The orange light of the setting sun was reflected on the rippling surface of the river. It almost looked like there were energy particles floating on the water.

Angele was sipping slowly from a glass and there was a maid with long red hair standing beside him. The maid was wearing a white maiden suit and there was a black teapot in her hand. It seemed like she was ready to refill Angele's drink when he needed it.

The maid checked the teapot and spoke with a low voice, "Master, you almost finished the Ice Melt tea. Should we return to the mansion?"

"Almost finished?" Angele was a bit surprised. "Did I drink that much today?" Ice Melt tea was a special tea he'd developed. He collected numerous herbs that would help him fight again the frost damage and he decided to name the tea the Ice Melt.

"You can go back first. I'll sit here for a bit longer." Angele handed the glass to the maid. "Right, is the young one still reading books in my reading room?"

"Yeah." The maid grabbed the glass and she looked worried. "He's working too hard… He hasn't rested since he entered the reading room this morning."

"It's alright. I'll make sure he's strong and healthy." A gentle smile appeared on Angele's face. "Leave now."

The maid bowed to Angele and walked away.

Angele sat on the bench alone as the sunlight illuminated his body, it looked like he was coated with a golden glow. The branches of a willow on his right were dancing in the wind and the catkins were fluttering in the air.

Some of the catkins landed on Angele's body; they looked like white snow.

"It has been a year…" Angele was wearing a fur coat and his long red hair was covered by the collar of the coat. It looked like he was in a different season.

He was still having trouble with the frost damage inside his body; however, the Metal Mastery that was damaged during the competition held by Dark Wizard Tower almost recovered, and he could finally use the Legacy Magic Circle set that was designed for the Metal Giant.

The Legacy Magic Circle set was built to buff his Metal Mastery and he had no chance to test it due to the damage.

Today was the day that his Metal Mastery could finally be activated again.

'This is the last step…' Angele rubbed his cheeks and three silver scars slowly appeared on his face.

The recovery of the Metal Mastery could not be accelerated by any external force and the only thing Angele could do was wait. Angele wanted to know how strong his Metal Mastery could become with the help of the magic circle set.

Angele had nothing to worry about after Henn left and his progression of the Molten Core River was much smoother than before. However, he still needed a long time until he could become a top-level rank 3 wizard, the whole procedure might take him over 100 years.

There was still a long way to go. He noticed that the further he practiced the Molten Core River, the more his progress would be slowed down.

Angele knew that it was impossible for him to advance in the next 100 years no matter what he did.

Angele sighed and slowly stood up from the bench. The three scars on his face were eye-catching and it felt like they were coated with a silver glow under the sunlight.

Glancing around, his brow furrowed. However, nothing was detected after he checked the surroundings using the biochip, and he started heading to the mansion.

A golden eagle was rotating in the sky on the other side of the river.

The eagle had a pair of sharp eyes that looked identical to the eyes of a human being and it was checking the environment around the mansion.

"There's a problem. I found two one-time teleportation circles and a secret army in the area. I think they're guarding the one that lives in the mansion. What do you think, master?" The eagle sent the word through energy particles.

"The man is probably an important member of the Elemental Hand; otherwise, he wouldn't have the power to kill Terry." A girl's voice echoed in the air. "Also, this man's mentality wave was slightly different than the time he battled Terry. He should be a rank 4 wizard but now he's only rank 3…"

The eagle was confused as well. "Maybe he's the same as Stigma? There's someone else in his body but now he's alone?"

"That's possible," the girl's voice agreed. "I can only track his mentality wave for two more times using my sister's items. I should probably just do it now."

　"Please hurry, we can deal with the man in the mansion, but if it was done by a soul, it'll be a problem. Souls are good at hiding themselves and this will be our only chance," the eagle suggested.

"I understand." The voice echoed again and energy waves suddenly appeared in the area around the eagle.

"Who's there?!"

Suddenly, a voice that was buffed by mentality waves came from the forest.

It was not someone roaring, the voice was just coated with the mentality waves and it sounded like there were many people saying the same words.

A team of soldiers that were wearing black armor raised their heads and stared at the eagle.

The leader was a middle-aged muscular man that was wearing a horned helmet. The man had a pair of sharp eyes and he was also looking at the sky.

The man narrowed his eyes and spoke in a deep tone, "They activated a secret technique in our territory without notifying us…"

"Master, they're probably from the council. You can see the mark on the eagle's body," a woman in black armor advised.

"That's impossible! Members of the council should be familiar with the rules. They're probably the wanted criminals who stole the eagle from the council." The man sounded angry. "We need to protect our master at all cost. They must be criminals and we should kill them!"

He raised his right hand.

"Get ready!"

There were about 100 soldiers in the team, they all grabbed their bows and aimed at the sky.

*CHI*

They pulled their bowstrings to full.

There was no expression on those soldiers' faces, they were just following orders and their eyes were surrounded by red glow.

*WOO*

A large red vortex gathered above the soldiers.

"Now!" the leader shouted.

*CHI CHI CHI*

Hundreds of black arrows were released from their bows.

It almost looked like those arrows formed a cone, which was approaching the eagle at full speed. Also, those arrows followed after the eagle and the translucent shadow beside it like they were alive.

Suddenly, the translucent shadow revealed himself.

It was a woman with the head of a young girl and the body that was covered with a humongous armor suit. There was a black trident in her hand.

The woman was a bit surprised after seeing the arrows. "The Black Mamba? I didn't expect to see such a strong archer formation in a small area like this. Interesting."

Chapter 429: Assassination (2)

Translator: _Leo_ Editor: Kurisu

"Master, be careful. They are probably an elite team of the Watchers, the strongest army of the Elemental Hand." The eagle recognized the team down there right away. "The weakest soldier in the team is a rank 3 apprentice!"

"Don't worry." The woman nodded and they communicated using energy particles as the arrows approached.

*WOO*

After the noise, a translucent black energy barrier appeared under the woman and the eagle.

*BOOM*

Numerous arrows landed on the energy barrier and it sounded like something exploded. The special arrows could explode at any time in the air and deal over 30 degrees of damage per arrow. If all the arrows hit one target, the total damage would be terrifying.

However, the translucent energy barrier blocked the arrows easily.

"Die!" The woman pointed down with her trident and the energy barrier vibrated slightly.

*BAM*

A black lightning was released from the energy barrier; it was going for the leader of the team.

The lightning twisted and landed on its target.

*BOOM*

The whole forest was shaking and a large hole with a diameter of more than ten meters appeared on the original location the Watchers were standing at. Black crystals filled up the hole.

The Watchers dodged the lightning. The whole team was teleported to the left of the hole using some special technique and they were staring at the sky.

*WOO*

The high-pitched alarm noise echoed in the air and birds flew out of the forest quickly. They swung their wings and tried to leave the area as fast as possible.

"Huh? They dodged my strike." The woman in the air sounded surprised. "Whatever, the guy in the mansion is who I want. Let's go, Kin, we should retreat right away after eliminating him."

"Yes, master." The eagle nodded and leaned to the side so the woman could sit on its back.

*CHI*

The woman and the eagle disappeared from the sky.

Intense footsteps of the soldiers appeared in different areas of the forest due to the alarm.

A red energy barrier slowly surrounded the mansion by the river—the whole mansion was under the protection.

"Protect the master!"

"Stay in your formation! Don't attack our own people by accident!"

"Someone, go guard the exit!"

"Kill all the invaders!"

People were yelling around the mansion and teams of Watchers started setting up the defensive formation around the mansion.

The maids at the balcony and the garden were looking around anxiously.

Angele sat in a chair at an open balcony on the second floor quietly, looking confused.

"Seriously? Someone is trying to kill me during the negotiations? Are they trying to restart the war? Or maybe someone else is going after me?"

Suddenly, the eye-shaped ring on Angele's left hand was surrounded by a blue glow. The amethyst turned from purple to sky blue quickly and a familiar voice echoed in Angele's brain.

"A rank 4 wizard is approaching. Green, what do you want to do? Do you want to just retreat for now?"

Angele rubbed the metal scars on his face and he was about to respond.

*CHI*

A ray of black light slashed through the air and traveled toward his throat at full speed.

'How's that even possible?! The barrier around the mansion is not damaged at all! I didn't detect any enemy outside! Also, Zero didn't warn me about the incoming attack! Where is the enemy?' Angele's expression changed and he quickly stepped back to dodge the attack.

*CHI*

The wall on the right of Angele was cut open. A maid was almost hit by the attack—her face turned pale as she fell to the floor, and it seemed like she peed herself.

Angele successfully dodged the strike but he was blown away by the impact and his throat ached. He was sent flying at the wall like a bullet.

*BAM*

The wall cracked and fell to the floor. The dust that was blown to the air blurred everything in his sight.

The woman in black armor appeared on the balcony, glancing around the room with a blank expression on the face.

"You killed my sister, Terry, and I'll cut your head off so I can use your head to comfort my sister's soul…" the woman spoke in a light tone and she waved her hand again.

Her trident melted, turned into a ball of black liquid, and splashed at the dust.

Angele lowered his body in the dust with his hands on the floor and glared at the woman.

'Terry? The one I killed at the Abyss Canyon…' The high attributes from the buff of the true form had been greatly decreased by the frost damage and it almost felt like his physical body was not strengthened by the buff at all. Although Angele was a rank 3 wizard, he was slightly weaker than before.

He rubbed the injured throat and thought, 'I should activate my Legacy Magic Circle set now…' Angele pulled a large piece of silver metal from the floor, blocking the incoming black liquid.

Three metal scars appeared on Angele's body, they kept expanding and turned into a mysterious flower pattern within seconds.

Angele kept stepping back, the silver metal piece was melted by the black liquid and a large hole was created in its center.

The floor was covered with cracks and silver metal strings filled up those cracks as Angele stepped back. The metal strings were twisting and they were coated with a strange glow.

"That's all you can do?" The woman stood there and watched Angele's preparations. "That's the talent ability you used to kill Terry?"

"Who're you?" Angele questioned in a deep tone. He noticed that it seemed like the woman was stronger than an average rank 4 wizard.

"Who am I?" The woman sneered. "This will be the hardest battle you've ever fought."

*BOOM*

A silver metal flow created by the strings hit the woman from the back.

Countless metal cylinders were approaching the woman, they all had a diameter of five to six meters, and they were attacking the woman one after one.

The whole mansion was destroyed.

Angele's face was covered with the silver patterns and there were blue light dots flashing in front of his eyes.

"20%... 20% of my magic circle set's power!" he muttered. "Even if you're a rank 4 wizard…"

*BAM BAM BAM*

A black metal cylinder that was several meters wide suddenly spurted out of the ground; it was followed by countless sharp metal cylinders that were striking into the sky.

Angele opened his arms and four lava balls slowly appeared in front his body. The four lava balls gathered together and turned into a humongous fireball that was about two meters tall; there was golden lava bubbling inside the ball.

"Die!" Angele pointed at the woman.

*BOOM*

The fireball flew toward the woman that was being devoured by the metal cylinders and the ground was shaking.

Angele had no time to check the result, he turned around and disappeared into the flames.

With the Metal Mastery and the Legacy Magic Circle Set, Angele doubted if he could win a fight against the woman without the true form, so the best he could do was to retreat.

*BAM*

Suddenly, a loud noise came from the center of the metal cylinders.

All the metal cylinders were blown away and quickly disappeared into the air, revealing the woman inside. Her black armor was not damaged at all.

"Trying to run?" She raised her right hand, the air twisted and she grabbed a large ball of red flame as the black light flashed.

She destroyed the flames. The rest of the flames reformed Angele's body and he rolled several times on the ground.

Angele stood up as his face turned pale. He released several red runes using his right hand without any hesitation and took out a small bottle from the pouch with his left hand. He broke the bottle quickly.

A large black stone elemental appeared on the ground, a storm elemental that was surrounded by electric pulses appeared in the wind, and a fire elemental that was created by lava drops and flames landed in front of Angele. Several golden runes appeared in the air and started rotating. It looked like they were about to form an unknown rune circle.

Angele's situation was getting worse, countless metal flowers appeared under his feet and turned into a large silver rune circle.

Red, green, and blue energy barriers appeared in front of Angele, they were created by some one-time enchanted items. Although those items were expensive, they could be activated without the mentality.

Angele activated most of the one-time enchanted items he carried using the pouch.

The woman did not do anything, she just stood there and waited for Angele to finish his preparation.

"Done?"

Angele finally stopped. "Are you sure you want to kill me?" His voice was hoarse and he did everything he could. He used all his final resorts that could increase attack and defensive abilities, however, he was not sure if his body could handle it.

"You killed my sister. Did you ask yourself that question when you were about to do that?" the woman questioned.

Angele narrowed his eyes. He thought he left no traces behind but it seemed like this female wizard still tracked him down. It was deadly silent around the mansion. The guards all fell asleep on the ground for some reason.

It was probably the power of the liquefied black trident. That was the best chance she had.

"Farewell…" A black rune suddenly glowed between the woman's eyebrows.

*WOO*

An incredible mentality wave landed on Angele's body.

*BAM BAM BAM BAM*

The energy barriers that Angele set up started disappearing one by one.

The mentality wave reduced Angele's mentality and made him anxious. The wave destroyed everything that he prepared.

Angele's head ached, blood was spurting out of his eyes, nose, and ears.

"The pure power of a rank 4 wizard's mentality wave… That's way too strong…" Angele finally understood that a high-rank wizard could easily destroy a wizard that was one rank below.

The woman was treating Angele like a worthless rat. The only thing she needed to do was release her mentality wave.

"Sadly, my mentality wave is just pure power. Again, farewell…" The black glow between her brow shined again.

*BAM*

Angele felt like he was hit by a heavy hammer in the head.

*Crack*

The final barrier that was created by the crystal scorpion was destroyed and the twisting force field quickly approached Angele's body.

*WOO*

The red scorpion pattern glowed between his eyebrows.

"Who's trying to hurt my son?! How dare you!" A voice from an enraged mother echoed in the sky.

Countless black clouds boiled in the sky and turned into an enormous vortex.

*BOOM*

A large red palm reached out of the vortex and moved toward the woman.

Chapter 430: Arrangement (1)

Translator: _Leo_ Editor: Kurisu

"Vivian? Ah, he's your son…" The woman suddenly realized something. "Sadly, you're too far away from here…" She threw a black badge to the palm.

The badge flew to the large palm.

*DING*

The air blurred and everything disappeared.

Someone groaned in the vortex as the badge vanished into the air with the palm that was formed by pure energy.

The woman sneered, "This is a badge created by Lord himself, there's nothing you can…" Her expression changed and tried to reach Angele with her right hand before finishing the word.

*Clank*

A shadow of a red burning crow blocked the woman's hand and made some loud noise.

"Kin! Let's retreat!" The woman leaped away after her attack was blocked and turned into a floating black shadow in the air.

*BOOM*

A white blade that was more than 10 meters long came from nowhere and landed on the location the woman was at. The translucent blade slowly disappeared into the air within seconds.

The earth was shaking but the blade left no trace on the ground. It almost felt like the blade was just an illusion.

*BAM*

Angele fell to the ground with his face soaked in blood. Blue light dots flashed in front of his eyes as he rubbed his face. The silver metal pattern had broken into pieces and started disappearing.

"It's damaged again…" Angele was enraged. "The Metal Mastery just recovered and now it's destroyed again! That woman… That woman!"

He tightened his left fist, while the eye-shaped amethyst slowly started glowing. "If I can activate my true form here… the woman will stand no chance against me!"

"Turin!" He sent the message.

"Master?" Turin responded through the ring.

"Victoria! Give the job to Victoria!" Angele gritted his teeth and shouted, "Kill her! Track her down and kill her! Kill everyone that's related to her! Just kill them all!"

"Master, she's a servant of the Shadow Lord. Why don't we inform Shadow Lord and ask her to expel this woman? I think Shadow Lord won't attack us just for her." Turin stopped for a second, it seemed like he was checking the intel from Dark Wizard Toward, and he continued, "Victoria is wanted by all the organizations on this land and we'll become the target if someone recognized him."

"This woman has become a problem! We need to get rid of her as soon as possible or she might interrupt the initiation of our plan!"

"I understand. I'll do it myself if the situation gets worse." Turin chuckled.

*PA*

Angele ended the communication as his expression turned serious.

The ruins of the mansion were surrounded by a large ball of white mist.

Two columns of dark-red coffins were hidden in the mist and the strong force field they released distorted the air.

Black shadow chains connected the all the coffins.

There were about ten coffins with their lids removed.

*CHI*

The white mist gathered beside the coffins and turned into ten mummies with white bandages on their bodies. The mummies had white translucent swords in hands and there were marks of a burning crow in the center of their chests. All of the mummies had part of their limbs missing and they looked terrifying.

The black shadow chains that connected the coffins melted and turned into a two-meter-tall shadow.

Angele waved his right hand without turning his head around.

The mummies slowly returned to the coffins and the black shadow disappeared into the darkness.

"Is anyone still conscious?" Angele buffed his voice and questioned.

No one responded, everyone was sleeping and they just lay on the ground quietly.

It was late at night; the area around the mansion was deadly silent and Angele could not even hear the insects making noise.

Angele coughed several times and walked to a female wizard in a black robe. He grabbed the woman's cheek and opened her mouth.

"Tongues is black… and this smell… it must be the Red Jade Potion." Angele took out a black stone from his pouch and waved the stone slightly below the woman's nose.

The fragrance released by the stone spread to the area and it was quite refreshing.

Seconds later, the female wizard woke up.

"Master!" She quickly sat up. "Are you alright?"

"You're familiar with the Watchers, right? Wake them up with this stone. You can break it into pieces so the ones that regain their consciousness can help." Angele handed the stone to the female wizard, she was a student of a wizard that served Vivian and Angele could trust her.

Angele stood up and found the young boy that was reading in the reading room and the maid with red hair.

They survived as the reading room was protected by the strongest defensive rune circle he had; however, they had not woken up yet.

They served Angele well and he liked them. He asked the female wizard to take care of them and walked to the two columns of red coffins.

Angele clapped his hands with no hesitation.

*PA*

A dark shadow slowly surrounded the coffins after Angele clapped his hands.

The shadow floated in the air and moved to Angele.

'It's great that I had those guards from Dark Wizard Tower. They're the reason I survived the attack…' Angele calmed down and checked the surroundings. The guards and Watchers were woken up, but their heads were still dizzy.

The leader of the team also woke up and he slowly stood up.

"Tell my mother that I'm fine, but I need to find a place to hide." Angele sent the message to the leader using energy particles and disappeared into the flames.

The black shadow beside Angele also disappeared into the sky quickly.

"Yes, master." The leader bowed in the direction Angele headed to; Angele had already disappeared when the leader raised his head.

"Captain, we failed to protect master and we'll probably be punished…" The female wizard straightened her back and looked at the leader.

"Master left because he knows that the enemy will come back for him. He's the only target so he wanted to protect us by leaving this area…" There was a bitter smile on the man's face. "I never thought I'd become a burden one day…"

"What about master Lyn?" the female wizard wondered.

"She's stilling working in the Mermaid's Song, someone needs to take care of master's job…" The leader nodded and continued, "I know what you're implying. I already informed her about the situation and she'll report the incident to the organization."

"The assassination might intiate another war…" The female wizard sighed deeply.

"Yeah… Someone from the council tried to assassinate master and the elder council will be enraged…" The leader raised his head and looked at the sky, he had no idea what else he should say.

　　*****************************

In the dark forest.

A ball of fire was flashing in the forest and it was moving forward at full speed.

Angele felt like he was moving in another dimension and it almost looked like his body had disappeared from this world, but he could easily see everything around him.

It was the effect of the elemental teleportation. With the help of the Fire Eye, Angele could still check the surroundings while moving at full speed.

Angele carefully checked if there was unknown mentality wave in the area.

He created a terrifying illusion and scared the woman away with the guards that were sent to him by the Dark Wizard Tower.

The guards from the Dark Wizard Tower were created by the Department of Change and they could assist each other during the battles. The shadow and the mummies worked together perfectly at the first try.

The shadow was like a motherboard that could guide the other guards and empower them.

However, different guards came with different power. The black shadow was the brain of the guards and it could empower the upgraded guards from the Dark Wizard Tower.

Angele utilized the guards as their strongest power was the illusion ability. The white blade dealt no damage to the ground as it was just an illusion. That was the reason why Angele left right away after woke up just one wizard.

He was not sure if the woman would come back for him.

Angele changed his route multiple times and informed Vivian that he was safe. Also, he checked the information on the woman using the intel system of Dark Wizard Tower.

The information was transferred to Angele's head through the mentality wave.

'Eugene Elis, one of the nine Shadow Lord's adopted children. Her power level is between a rank 4 and a rank 5 wizard. She is cruel and arrogant. Eugene kills people for no reason and loves to torture her enemies. Also, part of her body is abnormal, and her beautiful face is an effect of a magic device.'

'Abnormal, huh?' Angele recalled the woman's appearance. 'Well, a face that looked like a young girl and the body of a muscular man. I wonder why Shadow Lord can't fix her body… Interesting.'

Angele's expression suddenly changed, he stopped moving and stood between the bushes.

He looked at the dark bush and murmured in a low voice, "Already?"

A woman with black hair in red crystal armor slowly stepped out of the bush. The woman had a balanced body and a cute face. She looked attractive in the revealing armor she was wearing.

"Do you need my help? Master Purple Eye."

Chapter 431: Arrangement (2)

Translator: _Leo_ Editor: Kurisu

"Lela, it's great that you were hunting in the forest. Do you know anything about Eugene Elis?" Angele was not surprised by the woman at all. "Can you kill her for me? Turin and Victoria will be recognized right away if they appear in the public, but not a lot of people know about you."

Lela was one of the three strongest wizards that worked for Angele.

Lela was also a wanted criminal of this land and she was the considered the strongest criminal about 500 years ago, even Victoria did not want to start an argument with her.

Angele's security clearance level in the organization was high, but he still spent days to find this woman's information. No one tracked her down in the last 500 years and people thought she disappeared or was killed just like other wanted criminals. Also, the major organizations focused more on the criminals that were still active.

"Eugene, huh? I actually know this woman…" A strange smile appeared on Lela's face. "She's a strong wizard and one of the strongest servants that served Shadow Lord. She almost caught me when I was still a wanted criminal…"

Angele nodded with a serious expression on the face. "Good then. You have the chance to settle that old grudge now."

Lela chuckled. "Master, three rank 4 wizards from the Nomia Family of the underground world were killed by Eugene. Prince Panko was sent here to eliminate Eugene and I know Panko well. We can probably work together this time."

"Huh? You know quite a lot people…" Angele stared at Lela. "Alright, then. We can work with him, however, make sure they don't expose us to the public. You, Victoria, and Turin should track down Eugene using different methods. Also, she has a badge that was created by Shadow Lord."

"That's a great item!" Lela licked her lips. "Without Shadow Lord, she'd be killed a long time ago. With you backing us up, there's nothing we should worry about. I'll start tracking her as soon as possible."

"Good then. Make sure you can complete the mission in a year. You can take whatever you want from her dead body," Angele spoke in a cold tone.

"For sure." Lela laughed and slowly disappeared into the forest.

Angele watched Lela leave and sighed slowly after several minutes. 'Lela Dior, the princess of the Magic Ant Empire. The intel from the organization is true. Only races that live in the underground world will work together. Nomia Family is a famous wizard family in the underground world with a pure bloodline.'

Although Angele was the leader of the team, Lela, Victoria, and Turin were just cooperating with him. If he did not use the plan as an excuse, they would probably ignore his order. Angele would have to threaten them in the organization's name without the excuse.

The other members of the organization all had their own plans. They would only assist Angele when necessary as all of them were strong wizards with deep backgrounds.

Angele decided to talk to Lela as he knew that Eugene tried to catch her before and Lela wanted revenge. Lela was a princess in the underground world, she had more ways to track Eugene and she had the perfect reason to do that.

Angele stood there and thought for a while. He noticed that the eye-shaped ring was glowing when he was about to leave.

"Green, are you alright?" The area messenger's voice was transferred to his ear. "Do you want me to notify the organization?"

"I'm fine. There's no point. If I can't handle such a small problem, the organization will be disappointed. I have so many elites and resources in hand," Angele responded in a calm tone.

"You're right. Take care of yourself. You're important to the organization."

"I understand. I thought I was safe in the mansion and no strong wizard would attack me. That's why I'm in a passive position. It won't happen again. I'll just summon Turin to help me," Angele replied.

"Good." The purple glow disappeared from the ring after the messenger finished this word.

Angele started returning to the mansion after he thought for a while.

　　*******************************

Vivian checked Angele's condition using the telescope after he returned to the mansion. She made sure that Angele wasn't seriously injured, but she was furious when she cut the communication. It seemed like this thing would not end peacefully.

Elemental Hand was an aggressive organization because it had a strong elder council and several important positions in the alliance.

The alliance and the elder council would not let invaders attack their members in their own territories. The situation would be the same for the Wizard Guild and the three lords of the central council.

The three lords had strong backgrounds in the center of the central continent but they never left the area, because they set up their magic circles in their territory. Elemental Hand was the strongest organization in the Tarry River area, it was slightly weaker than Wizard Guild, but with the five legacy magic circles, the lords would not be able to survive if one of them decided to attack Elemental Hand alone.

That was the reason why Elemental Hand did not fear the lords.

The first elder of the Elemental Hand was a strong wizard that was just slightly weaker than the three lords, but he had the chance to win with the help of the legacy magic circle.

He had revealed his true power several times during the wars.

According to the information Angele had in hand, Elemental Hand had combined the power of the five legacy magic circles and applied it on the first elder, and he successfully injured the Sky Lord; however, he lost about 30 years of life expectancy.

Also, the first elder was a short-tempered man that would fight against anyone who was trying to attack the organization and the three lords did not want to mess with him.

Angele was a bit speechless. He was excited to test his Legacy Magic Circle Set, however, his Metal Mastery was just too weak. It was destroyed after it recovered not so long ago and the power of the magic circle set was not utilized. Although he could not fully activate the set yet, the base power of the metal abilities were just too low, and the buff from the set was not enough.

He decided that he would no longer use the Metal Mastery for defensive purposes as he wanted to utilize the attack power of the magic circle set.

It would take the workers a while to rebuild the mansion and Angele decided to move to the volcano ruin where Vivian lived.

It was also a request from Vivian. The volcano ruin was protected by countless traps and rune circles. They could easily stop a rank 4 wizard from invading the ruin, so Angele did not have to worry about anything.

The only problem was the simple food; everything else was perfectly fine to him.

　　*****************************

Around ten days later���

In a spell lab of the volcano ruin.

Angele stood in the spell lab in a red robe; the eye-shaped ring on his left hand was surrounded by a purple glow. The purple light released by the ring created a flashing screen on the wall.

Complicated data was displayed on the screen.

"Breath of the Eye-Gouging Dragon…"

*Ka*

The screen stopped flashing.

Angele's sight fell upon the information.

"Finally, that's it. It took me so long to find this thing even though my clearance level is high. I assume not a lot of people know about this creature."

'Breath of the Eye-Gouging Dragon: Eye-gouging dragon is an underground creature; its body has the size of an average city, with more than 15 pairs of wings on its back. The creature is born without eyes and its hobby is to gouge other creatures' eyes out. That is where their name came from. The thousand-eyed monsters are their best prey. However, most of the eye-gouging dragons were eliminated during a war against the ancient wizards and they disappeared. About 1046 years ago, Scholar Kenyan discovered the last eye-gouging dragon in the underground world. This dragon passed away after 331 years and the whole race extinguished.

'The breath of the eye-gouging dragon deals strong frost damage to the target's soul and physical body. Also, it'll reduce the target's life expectancy if not treated. Antidote for the frost damage: Liquid of the Dark Mother Tree, Blood of the Bronze Giant, Urine of the Mountain Dragon, Potion of the Devil Lord…'

The materials that could heal the frost damage were impossible to find and Angele only heard of a few of them. Also, there was a technique that could verify if the frost damage in his body was from the dragon breath. The technique was developed by a professor in the Department of Change.

'Dragons, huh…' Angele deactivated the ring and started thinking. 'The dragons in this world seem different from the dragons I know. If the dragon had the size of a city, I'll not be able to recognize it. A small part of its body will look like a tall hill. The Echinate Whale was around 1000 meters long but it would look like a chicken when compared to the dragon…

'If the frost damage in my body is really caused by the dragon breath, how did the specter knight acquire it?' Angele inhaled deeply and started drawing a complicated rune circle in the air.

Glowing yellow lines appeared in the air and a three-dimensional rune circle was quickly finished.

The rune circle was formed by two rotating plates that were moving in opposite directions, releasing gentle yellow light.

The rune circle vibrated as Angele finished the last line.

*Crack*

A black fissure appeared in the center of the circle, releasing heat waves into the lab room.

"Damn it…" Angele was disappointed. He did not want to believe that he was damaged by the dragon breath. However, the experiment had validated his assumption.

'The plan will be activated in about ten years and I should go to the underground after everything settles down so I can solve the problem with Dark Wizard Tower's help. My true form is improving every day; although it's slowed down by the frost damage, it's probably not a bad thing. There'll be consequences if my power level increases too fast…'

Angele removed the ruin circle and started planning in his mind.

'Eye-gouging dragon is a legendary creature in the underground world of the wizard world and it's not from a different realm. The materials in the Nightmare Realm will not be helpful. I need to go to the underground world and try to find the solution.

'Also, the eyeball I took from the specter knight, what does it do?' Angele waved his right hand and a small white eyeball appeared. It almost looked like the eyeball was still alive and there was a red root connected to it.

Suddenly, Angele noticed that the eyeball looked identical to the eyeball he'd found in the center of a rune circle when he was exploring the Nightmare Realm.

He recalled the rune circle he found in the skeleton when exploring the tomb. The eyeball looked just like the one in his hand.

There had to be some connection between the two eyeballs.

Chapter 432: Signs (1)

Translator: _Leo_ Editor: Kurisu

Angele played with the eyeball for a while and did some simple experiments on it; however, he did not detect anything strange. It felt like an eyeball from a random creature.

The only difference was that the eyeball could not be destroyed as it would recover any damage that Angele did to it.

Also, Angele tested the parts he removed from the eyeball, but he did not find anything noticeable.

There was no bloodline essence in the eyeball, which meant that Angele could not extract the bloodline from it, so he returned it to his pouch.

'Maybe Eye Devil will be interested in this thing,' he assumed. Collecting eyeballs was one of Eye Devil's hobbies and she would pay a good price for a rare eyeball.

Angele glanced around and pressed his chest with the right hand, then disappeared into the air with a flash of red light.

　　**********************

In the Nightmare Realm.

The mansion by the Ness River.

A red shadow appeared in the reading room of the mansion.

Angele lowered his hands and glanced around.

"Huh? Nothing happened to the mansion in this realm? The mansion in the main world was destroyed but the damage was not reflected here. Maybe the connection between the Nightmare Realm and the main world is more complicated than I thought…" Angele muttered.

He walked to the window and pushed it open.

*WOO*

Chilling wind brushed over his face.

Angele's pupils retracted slightly due to the cold.

It was snowing outside, the snowflakes were dropping like light feathers and the whole world turned white. He could barely open his eyes due to the reflected light.

The forest, the land, the river, and the hills were all covered with white snow.

Strangely, words were written in the center of those large snowflakes.

Angele quickly grabbed one of the snowflakes and observed it carefully.

The words were written in the ancient language: "The Gate of the World is about to open…"

"What does it mean?" Angele grabbed another snowflake and the words were same. He grabbed dozens of the snowflakes, but the sentence never changed.

"The snowflakes penetrated my defensive barrier." Angele narrowed his eyes and looked at the translucent barrier.

The barrier was still there, but could not stop the snowflakes from entering the area and the ground already turned white.

*CHI CHI CHI*

Some static noise echoed in the reading room.

Angele turned his head around and looked at a leather scroll on the desk.

He walked to the desk and tapped on the scroll.

*CHI*

A ray of red light turned into a light screen in the air.

The static noise turned into a human voice.

"This is the Molten Palace, again, this is the Molten Palace. The gate to the Soul River Realm will open in three months. We eye devils have already confirmed the coordinates, please send your address to us if you need it."

The voice finished the sentence and started repeating the same thing.

Angele tapped on the leather scroll again with a blank expression on the face and the voice disappeared.

"The Soul River Realm… They're about to start the plan."

He walked to the bookshelf and pulled out a black box from the bottom.

*Crack*

He opened the box and took out a gray eyeball statue. Angele returned to the desk, sat down, and rubbed the surface of the statue for five times.

The gray statue vibrated slightly.

"What's the matter? Phoenix?" Eye Devil's voice came from the stone statue. "I'm busy right now."

"Have you recovered your power? Are you preparing to enter the Soul River Realm?" Angele wondered.

"Don't worry about it. Why? Do you want to enter the Soul River Realm as well?" Eye Devil questioned back. "We found the coordinates, if you want it, we can do a fair trade."

"Of course. It's a great opportunity as I need the bloodlines of other creatures so I can recover faster. However, I'm still too weak for that realm. Actually, I found something you might be interested in recently." Angele changed the topic. He wanted the bloodlines of the giants so that the power of his true form would increase greatly. The biochip could help him extract the bloodlines much faster than the sealed forms since they could not purify the bloodline essence.

He wanted to increase his power as fast as possible.

"What's the item? I thought you only collected extremely rare items." Eye Devil was interested.

"An eyeball that is related to… I mean from the Destruction Eye."

"Destruction Eye?" Eye Devil remained silent for several seconds, it seemed like she was thinking, and she finally spoke again after several minutes. "Destruction Eye is a strong creature in the Oblivion Realm and it can send its body parts to any realms it wants. I want to know how strong the body part you found is. Let's set up a meeting and discuss the price. I need to verify the item by myself so I'll know how valuable it is."

"Sure, let's find an area around the mansion. Do you have time now?" Angele responded. "You know my location, right?"

"Sure, I'll be there soon."

The stone statue stopped vibrating as the voice disappeared.

Angele was gifted the item after he helped Eye Devil after the auction and he could use it to contact the sealed forms like Eye Devil.

Vapor, Eye Devil, and Bone were all sealed forms. Angele had no idea what they were, but they all had high power levels.

With the buff from the true form, Angele had the same power level as a rank 5 wizard; however, he was still not sure how strong those sealed forms were. He assumed that they all had refined true forms.

It was mentioned in the Erin's Funeral Oration that the refined true form would make one's body grow in size as his power level increased. A refined true form and a normal true form were at completely different levels.

However, the refining of the true form required countless bloodline essences and that took time. One had to survive the challenge to his soul and the mind with a strengthened body. If one's soul was not strong enough to control his body, the refined true form will turn him into a soulless beast.

Angele returned the stone statue to the box after a while and walked out of the room.

He could see Orphie and Freia making a snowman over the arena, it seemed like they were enjoying the snow. Angele could hear them shouting and laughing.

Angele eliminated all the mutated creatures around the mansion the last time. He decided to allow Freia and Orphie to explore the area with certain restrictions.

Angele did not talk to the two girls, he turned around and disappeared into the flames.

The next moment, he already arrived at the barrier.

The flames reformed Angele's body. He landed on the ground, and walked through the barrier.

White snow filled up his sight and covered the branches of the trees. The chilling wind was blowing and the frozen river was decorated with the large snowflakes.

Some black smoke came from the sky and landed in front of Angele like a black lightning, turning into a woman wearing a black robe. There was a purple silk mask on her face, but Angele could still see her clear eyes.

"Where's the item?" the woman asked right away.

"What about the item I want?" Angele questioned back. "You know what I need."

Eye Devil's brow furrowed. "I need the essence stones from the blood pool as well, I can only give you four of them."

Angele nodded and stopped talking, he took out the eyeball.

"Huh? That's a huge eyeball! Where did you find it?" Eye Devil looked excited after she saw the eyeball.

"We've cooperated many times. I want the coordinates, essence stones, and what else can you offer?" Angele noticed that Eye Devil was interested in the eyeball and decided to ask for more.

"Sure, and yeah, we've worked together on many things, so I'll be honest. This eyeball is important to me." Eye Devil thought for a while and continued, "I'm going to send my army into the Soul River Realm and this eyeball will aid me. Let me know what you want."

Angele hesitated for a second. "Do you know anything about the eye-gouging dragon?"

"Eye-gouging dragon? A member of the rare race?" Eye Devil was searching through her memory. "I've seen one in the wizard world many years ago. The dragon was evil, selfish, and he wouldn't trust anyone. However, he was a strong dragon; the name was Mura Libra, the king of the eye-gouging dragons. Why're you asking?"

"You own the biggest trading company in the southern area, do you have anything related to the dragon?" Angele wondered. "I want to study this creature."

"Well, I did notice that you smell like that old dragon for some reason." Her brow furrowed. "I did trade with that dragon and I still have those items; however, none of them is valuable. He was trying to trick me with low-quality sacrificial items and our meeting did not end peacefully. Are you sure you want those items?"

"Sure, maybe they'll be useful to me. It's hard to find dragon's belongings these days." Angele chuckled. "Can you still contact that dragon?"

"I can't. The dragon was severely injured after taking a hit from my shadow. If I entered the wizard world with my true form, the coordinates of the universe will be messed up. I only wanted the flesh of 500 different creatures, but he couldn't even prepare that. Good thing was I got the chance to confirm the coordinates of the wizard world." Eye Devil sounded disappointed.

"Well, that dragon probably underestimated your power…" Angele was terrified in his mind. The eye-gouging dragon was severely injured by a shadow of Eye Devil. He wondered how strong those sealed forms' true forms were.

Chapter 433: Signs (2)

Translator: _Leo_ Editor: Kurisu

Eye-Gouging Dragon was a legendary dragon; according to the data, a young eye-gouging dragon could easily fight a rank 4 wizard and a dragon lord could win a battle against a rank 5, 6, or 7 wizard. However, the dragon lord was severely injured by Eye Devil in just one hit, which meant that Eye Devil at least had the same power as a rank 7 wizard.

Angele noticed that the ranking system created by the modern wizards was not good enough for him.

The lords in the northern continent, including Eye Devil, were at the top of the food chain in the Nightmare Realm. They were probably stronger rank 7 wizards.

The dragon lord probably wanted to summon a creature from other realms as food. Eye-gouging dragon enjoyed consuming eyeballs. However, he did not expect that he communicated with one of the strongest beings in Nightmare Realm…

"What do you think? You can join us. It seems like you haven't fully recovered yet, I can ask my servants to protect you." Eye Devil smiled.

"Will the other lords come as well?" Angele questioned. He did not feel safe if he entered another realm alone with just Eye Devil.

"Yeah, Bone and Spider will go with us. They have their own servants. Vapor is on his own and there'll be an old friend of mine," Eye Devil responded.

"Sure, I've never entered the Soul River Realm before and I want to see if there is a good bloodline I can collect." Angele nodded.

"No problem. Let's just wait. My shadow is bringing us the items you asked for."

"Sure."

They stopped talking and waited patiently in the snow.

Minutes later, a black shadow soared through the sky and landed in front of the two, turning into a woman in a black robe. The shadow looked identical to Eye Devil, she was wearing a black robe with a purple mask on face. The only difference was that the shadow was holding a red leather bag in hand.

"Those are the items." She dropped the bag on the ground.

"Take a look," Eye said in a light tone.

Angele nodded and walked to the bag. He pointed at the bag and unsealed it using energy particles, revealing the items inside.

There were four blood essence stones, a dead infant body with pale skin, and several pieces of broken black crystals.

"Oh, right, this infant body is a Ghost Infant that was trained using special techniques. Be careful with it so you won't be damaged when using it. Also, a small amount of the dragon lord's blood is inside this infant body, but it's too weak. You probably can't extract the blood from it as it requires extremely accurate operations," Eye Devil explained.

"Got it." Angele nodded and threw the eyeball to Eye Devil.

Eye Devil caught the eyeball and swallowed it right away.

"I'll keep it in my stomach for now and use it later. Here are the coordinates and the teleportation tool." Eye Devil handed a small black cage over to Angele. The cage had the size of a nail and it was made with some glowing green metal.

Angele grabbed the tool and packed up the items on the ground. "One more thing, what's this snow about? Did you do something?"

"Of course not… It's from the Dire Lords… It's a message related to the world gate that was sent by the lords of the abyss. They probably found a stable dimension gate as well and finished setting up the coordinates. They wanted to take resources from other realms as well."

"Alright then, didn't know that. I look forward to working with you."

"Same here." Eye Devil chuckled as the shadow slowly merged into her body. She turned around, turned into a black shadow, and flew into the sky.

Angele checked the weight of the items; he could easily carry it, so he was satisfied. He turned around and disappeared into a ball of flames.

　　*********************************

Angele stored the items from the eye-gouging dragon and started absorbing the blood essence stone.

With the help of the essence stones, the spreading frost damage slowed down, and his true form started improving again. His body was getting stronger and stronger every day.

About one month after the exchange, Angele was almost seven meters tall in his true form and was taller than the mansion itself. He noticed that his body was heavy and his movements were full of power. The improvement of the true form was slowed down again after he finished absorbing the four blood essence stones.

The strengthened true form helped him handle the frost damage when he was in the main world and his attributes stopped decreasing.

He studied the black crystal pieces and the Ghost Infant. He wanted to extract the bloodline of the dragon lord from the Ghost Infant, but he was interrupted by an unknown force field. He successfully acquired the detailed information of the black crystal. It was a crystal that was filled up with unknown energy particles. Angele had never seen such energy particles in the main world.

He absorbed some of the energy particles, but they were quickly eliminated by his immune system. Angele did some tests and noticed that those crystal pieces were perfect for the defensive matrixes. One piece of the crystal could support the matrix for over 50 years.

Angele returned to the main world after everything was finished. The date the plan would be activated was getting closer.

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

Mermaid's Song.

In a spacious white hall on a high level of a tall tower.

The sunlight of the early morning landed in the hall through the windows and illuminated the white marble floor. The whole hall was brightened up by the light.

Angele was wearing a black-and-red suit, standing in front of the window with a glass of blue wine in hand. He was looking at the street from the tower.

"I like the mornings here. It's refreshing and enjoyable. Clean air, low radiation energy, and loyal citizens." A middle-aged woman with a cold expression on the face was sitting behind Angele; there was also a glass of blue wine in her hand.

"It sounds like you love this place, Masha." Angele looked at the people who were purchasing vegetables and fruits on the street.

"Yeah… This is my hometown. I left this place years ago and advanced to rank 4, but I came back right after that." After the incident at the tomb, Masha and Angele communicated a lot due to the Half Moon Stone mine. They would have a glass of wine together from time to time.

"Green, do you know that there was a madman that came to the city not so long ago?" Masha suddenly switched the topic.

"A madman?" Angele turned around and waited for Masha to finish the story. She would not mention something like this for no reason.

"The man was spreading a rumor. He said that the Mermaid's Song would be destroyed soon, but his words were not logical at all." Masha smiled.

Before Angele could ask for the details, he heard someone shouting sadly from outside the window.

"The end is coming! Run! Run now! This city will be destroyed! The darkness is roaring! Everyone! You, me, and all those master wizards, everyone will die! No one can escape!" a man shouted like crazy and kept repeating his words as he walked around the street.

He was talking to everyone he met, tears and snot were all over his face. It sounded like he was laughing while crying and he was wearing a stinky suit that was making everyone trying to stay away from him.

"You again?! Get away from me!" A muscular man that looked like a mercenary with a large hammer on his back started cursing as he kicked the man away.

"Don't touch me! Madman!"

"Move! Don't stay here. This madman is sick, stay away from him!"

The women that were doing grocery shopping quickly moved away from the man as the man was beaten up by some random mercenaries. However, the madman was quickly taken away by the city guards.

Angele overlooked the scene from the tower.

"Why don't the city guards imprison him? Why is he still on the street?"

Masha sipped from the glass and walked to Angele. "This madman is weird. He was imprisoned numerous times, but he could still escape from the prison and no one knew how he did it. He'll start shouting at the market every morning and all he says are those strange words. Also, someone reported that he heard the man chanting some strange incantation."

Angele's brow furrowed. "What if he's actually trying to warn us?"

"He's just a madman. What're you thinking? We asked the prophets and they assured us the city was safe. Why should we trust a madman?" Masha shook her head.

Angele held the glass in hand and did not respond to her words.

"The only thing I want to know is how this guy escapes from the prison." Masha sipped from the glass again.

"What's his name?"

"I don't know. Why? Are you interested?" Masha chuckled. "Actually, these madmen are everywhere. The Troll City and the Siren City. The rumor is getting out of control. Also, the strange thing is that the organization hasn't released any information regarding the situation. Now that you say it, something might actually happen."

"Everywhere?" Angele recalled the day he saw the guardian. He had this thought that their plan would be interrupted by some unexpected incidents.

The rumors, madmen, the guardian, and the silent organization. There had to be something that could explain the situation.

He guessed that the Count might encounter an incident he could not deal with.

The coffins and the shadow were all sent back to the Sky City for repair. Turin was hiding in the Mermaid's Song and could help Angele when the latter needed it.

"I just hope everything's alright…" Angele's attitude toward the Dark Wizard Tower was unclear. The only thing he wanted to do was making sure that Vivian was safe when the chaos came. If he had more time, he would try and protect his friends, but that was all he could do.

Chapter 434: Mutation (1)

Translator: _Leo_ Editor: Kurisu

"Why? What're you worried about?" Masha glanced at Angele, looking confused. "Do you really think something like this will happen? Even if there is something going, there's nothing we can do. Don't think too much about it. There's a dinner party held by the academic tower, and the host is the vice city lord Gordon. Are you interested?"

"I'll pass. There's something I need to take care of and I'm not familiar with Gordon." Angele shook his head.

"Alright then, but many girls from the noble families will go to the party. This is a great opportunity and it doesn't happen often. Don't regret it." Masha smiled.

"I've already made my decision and I won't waste my time regretting it," Angele responded in a light tone. "Also, I'm not interested in such parties and I think you already know that."

"There are many rumors about you in the city. Some say you're living the life of an ascetic, but you have many beautiful women in your mansion. Never heard of you having sex with a mortal. Why don't you enjoy your life when you're still young. You won't have time for that when you get old," Masha suggested. "I heard there are several beautiful girls and handsome men this time. I'll definitely enjoy the party."

Angele smiled but did not respond to her words. Masha usually handled things in an aggressive way; she would ask the slave traders to imprison the mortals she liked. She only approached her prey by herself if the prey had a strong family background. The rumor said that Masha would kill several mortals or mercenaries every year during her extremely intense sexual intercourses. The citizens of Mermaid's Song would try their best to stay away from this woman.

Angele was not worried that Masha would hit on him, his background and the bodyguards were not something Masha would mess with.

Angele realized that he needed something that could save his life when necessary after he survived the assassination.

In the main world, Angele had reached his limit so he had to prepare for the worst situation, and there was a rough plan in his mind.

"Masha, is there any auction going on?"

"Auctions are held every year. The only thing you can find there are low-level magic devices, slaves, or intel. Rare items will only be sold to the people who knew the host. Why don't you talk to your mother? She has many good items." Masha smiled.

"Is that so?" Angele stopped for a second and continued, "Nevermind, I need to go back now. Message me if there's a problem."

"Sure." Masha looked at her nails. "I'll talk to you later. My friends are looking for me."

"Alright."

Angele walked to the corner and took down his long black robe, which covered most of his body when he put it on.

He walked to the door, turned into a ball of red flame, and disappeared into the air.

"Elemental Teleportation? A decent Talent Ability… So, he's already a rank 3 wizard?" Masha was a bit surprised. "He must've used some secret technique or a rare potion, but that's it for him, his talent level is way too low. There's no way he can advance to rank 4…"

　　*****************************

Angele left Masha's home, walked down the street, and got into a black carriage that was waiting for him. The carriage mixed in the crowd and headed to the city gate quickly.

Inside the carriage, Angele was sitting quietly with his eyes closed. The purple eye-shaped ring was glowing—the purple glow was climbing up Angele's arm and moving to his forehead.

The scene lasted for several minutes before Angele opened his eyes.

'I didn't expect that someone from the organization entered the ruins of an ancient wizard and found some magic devices.'

According to the message delivered by the ring, only core members of the organization could exchange their quest points for those magic devices. Angele had around 653 quest points as he barely spent them on anything over the years.

With a flick of his finger, Angele created a red barrier around his body—the area inside the barrier was deadly silent.

Angele rubbed the ring.

*CHI*

A white light screen was released by the ring and it floated in front of Angele's body.

'Available Items: Ancient Half Moon Hammer, Ancient Half Moon Scimitar, Ancient Half Moon Longbow…'

A list of half moon weapons appeared on the light screen; those weapons all had clean edges, complicated patterns, and a moonlight glow. They looked luxurious.

Angele skipped all the half moon weapons and started checking the strange ancient magic devices.

'Unknown Ancient Kettle: A strong kettle with a shadow that can ask riddles from inside. If you can answer the riddle, a random buff will be applied to you. 500 quest points.

'Flame Lion: A lion with the flame of the sun burning on its body. You need to activate the lion as it's still an embryo. Growth potential unknown. 600 quest points.

'Roman's Pocket: A secret pocket of the legendary wizard Roman. The item you put into the pocket will be transformed into a random item. 400 quest points.

'Branch of the Monster Tree: A branch that is covered with mouths that are filled up with sticky liquid. They can learn any spells below level 2 and they can protect your storage room. 320 quest points.'

The elites of the organization risked their lives when collecting those four items and it seemed like they were added to the list not so long ago.

Angele started thinking.

'The strongest Flame Lion has the same power level as a rank 4 wizard; however, it'll take me hundreds of years to train the lion since it's an embryo, and that'll cost me a lot of time and effort. Also, I'm not sure if this one can reach the power level of a rank 4 wizard. The flame of the sun will help me absorb bloodlines and no one knows the origin of the flame lion…'

Angele finally made up his mind and clicked on the picture of the flame lion.

*WOO*

An enormous lion that was covered with white flames was displayed on the image, that was an image of a mature lion. The picture glowed and disappeared from the list as Angele clicked on it. There was only one flame lion available.

'I have 53 quest points left and I should probably pick up some materials.'

Angele chanted the incantation.

The light screen flashed and a list that was full of materials appeared. Flowers, insects, branches, stones, and mud. There were so many different types of materials on the list.

'Area Leader confirmed. Special materials are now available.' A sentence appeared on the bottom of the light screen.

"Show me the special materials," Angele ordered.

The light screen blurred and the original list was replaced by a new list that looked very different.

'100 mortals: 1 quest point.'

'200 merfolk: 1 quest point.'

'300 Elves: 2 quest points.'

Columns of creatures were available on the list. There were Highland Barbarians with weak giant bloodlines, shadow creatures that were surrounded by black smoke, centaurs, half-elves, dryads, dwarfs, and many rare creatures.

There was quantity limitation on all those creatures.

Angele kept checking the list and suddenly stopped when a creature caught his attention.

'10 Golden Eagles: 20 quest points.'

'They probably caught those golden eagles not so long ago. I didn't see them on the list the last time I checked. This is the only creature with the ancient bloodline of the Lightning Bird. I wonder how the organization caught them.' Angele quickly clicked on the image after checking the information of the creature.

*WOO*

The image slowly disappeared and Angele spent 20 quest points.

Angele was one of the leaders in the area and he used his rights to collect the ancient bloodlines using rare creatures. However, most of the bloodlines he extracted were not helpful as he was a rank 3 wizard.

Most of the bloodline sigils were effective for wizards below rank 3 and they would barely do anything for rank 3 or rank 4 wizard. He had the intention to go to the Nightmare Realm and extract the bloodline from the scorpion woman again. However, the area had changed and he was too weak to enter it.

'I can't use my Metal Mastery at the moment, I should probably find a technique I can use when necessary.' Angele kept reading the list. 'The secret techniques mentioned on Erin's Funeral Oration are strong, but it'll take me about 1000 years to learn just one of them. There's no way I can do that. Also, the rank 4 ability of the Molten Core River will not do anything for me if the opponent is stronger than me.'

Angele's brow furrowed. He did not find anything helpful and decided to purchase 100 silver scorpion's eggs.

'I hope the bloodline of the flame lion will give me a nice surprise. 600 quest points, it can't be wrong…'

Angele felt a bit anxious as he spent most of his quest points.

He turned off the light screen and started meditating in the carriage.

It took him about two days to return to the ruins under the volcano.

The items he purchased from the Dark Wizard Tower were delivered to him as he reached the top of the snow mountain.

The delivery method was simple. A black teleportation gate appeared on top of the mountain and the workers would carry the items through the gate. Angele asked the workers to lay down the stuff on an empty platform.

A box of silver scorpion's eggs, ten golden eagles, and the embryo of the flame lion.

Angele returned to the ruins after he acquired the items. He started conducting research right away. He wanted to extract the bloodlines of the flame lion and the golden eagle. The silver scorpions would be used for one of his experiments.

Time flew as he continued with his experiments and research���

Chapter 435: Mutation (2)

Translator: _Leo_ Editor: Kurisu

About ten days later…

Inside the spell lab of the ruins.

The walls of the spell lab were painted in red and the smell of blood permeated the air.

Under the red light, there was a white lab table, and struggling silver scorpions covered its surface.

Each of the scorpions was about one meter in size. Fresh blood was spurting out of their bodies, which were covered with invisible wounds—it almost looked like the blood was leaking out of their silver shells.

Angele was standing on a round stone platform, there was a triangular black container that was full of glowing green liquid in front of him.

In the center of the liquid, there was a silver scorpion, struggling and groaning.

"The bloodline essence of more than 100 silver scorpions is here, if you can't absorb it all, you'll just end up like the other scorpions… Let's see if you're lucky…" Angele muttered as he stared at the scorpion in the container.

"36 scorpions… I probably should purchase some more from the headquarters." Angele's brow furrowed, the scorpion inside the container was no longer moving. The red blood slowly leaked out of the scorpion's body and it could die at any time.

He had purchased several batches of silver scorpions over the days.

The mutated creature only had the power level of a rank 3 apprentice and 100 scorpions would only cost him one quest point. Also, the scorpions would be delivered to him through portal since Angele was an area leader. It was quite convenient.

Angele tested several batches of scorpions and acquired some rare bloodline essence of silver scorpions. Those scorpions were just normal creatures that mutated after the radiation. The bloodline of the scorpion was weak and the bloodline signet was not valuable. Angele was successful in his last bio experiment and he did not have a loyal pet, so he wanted to train one by himself.

With Angele's experience and the accurate extraction ability of the biochip, the experiment had a good start. However, during the absorption procedure, the creature had no biochip helping it to absorb the bloodline essence, and the silver scorpions died as they could not handle the increased power.

"Maybe I should try something different…" Angele noticed that there was a pregnant scorpion in the cage.

He slowly walked to the cage.

Suddenly, some strange noise came from the cage. The one-meter-long scorpions started moving back like Angele was their nemesis. Those cruel hunters turned into terrified rats and their green eyes were filled up with desperation.

"Silver scorpions have the intelligence of a three-year-old. It makes sense to me now." Angele rubbed his chin, opened the cage, and stepped into it.

Locking the cage, he glanced at the remaining scorpions and charged forward like lightning. The next moment, he already grabbed the pregnant scorpion with his hands.

He stepped out of the cage with the scorpion and injected some blue potion into the scorpion's abdomen.

*Crack*

The scorpion's abdomen was ripped open. It was lying on the lab table and its tail was waving like crazy. Countless gray scorpion eggs spurted out of its opened abdomen.

The scorpion eggs had the size of chicken eggs and there were about 30 of them.

Angele collected the eggs carefully and threw the scorpion back into the cage.

He returned to the container.

"Let's see if this works." He threw all the eggs into the container.

The container was filled up with the bloodline essence of the scorpions and a special blend of different potions. The potions made sure that the power would be sent into the scorpion's body at a moderate rate.

However, this was the last method that Angele could think of; if it failed, he would have to give up.

Angele waited by the container quietly as the time passed and observed the changes happening to the scorpion eggs.

Some eggs died and turned black. Angele quickly removed those eggs from the container.

About two days later, two scorpion eggs survived the procedure. The sticky liquid in the container turned from green to translucent white. It seemed like the liquid had lost its power.

"Finally, I succeeded!" Angele took out the two scorpion eggs, looking satisfied. He opened the door and left the lab. He then entered a room on the side—it was a room that was full of glass containers with specimens inside.

This was the bio lab, it was the place where Vivian stored her collection inside. The room was full of bio lab equipment and special rune circles.

With the two scorpion eggs in hand, he walked to the corner of the room with three parallel rune circles. Red, blue, and purple, the three runes circles were surrounded by different glows.

Angele placed the first scorpion egg in the center of the circle.

It was the mind control technique that was developed for eggs, the safest technique he could find. The creature would be loyal to him as long as he treated it like a companion.

Two drops of blood spurted out of his finger and dropped on the two scorpion eggs.

Angele checked the egg he placed in the rune circle and put his hands on the edge of the circle. He closed his eyes for a while and released some mentality wave into the scorpion egg.

About ten minutes later, he repeated the procedure on the second scorpion egg and returned to the spell lab with both eggs after the whole thing was done.

He took out several small bottles and test tubes. He started brushing different potions onto the surface of the eggs.

*Crack*

Finally, one of the eggs cracked with a light noise.

A small piece of the white eggshell dropped to the ground and a black scorpion tail moved out of the hole. The scorpion cracked the eggshell and moved out of the egg.

A small black scorpion appeared on Angele's lab table. The black scorpion had eight pairs of legs unlike the silver scorpion. It almost looked like a centipede to Angele. The scorpion's shell had a smooth surface and it looked like an iron armor.

"Father…" The scorpion sent the message to Angele using its mentality wave.

"Huh, it seems like you're born with high intelligence…" Blue light dots flashed in front of Angele's eyes as he rubbed the shell of the scorpion.

He could detect a special connection between him and the small scorpion.

'The bloodline essence of more than 100 silver scorpions and one drop of my blood. Those two scorpions are definitely different from the other ones.' Angele scanned the small scorpion.

'Sadly… With so much bloodline essence, the scorpion's Stamina is still lower than 6, and the other attributes are just slightly higher than normal scorpions… Also, its gene is unstable…' The small scorpion suddenly started growing as Angele thought.

"Father… Father… I'm suffering… It's killing me!" The scorpion sent a message to Angele again.

Several seconds later.

*BOOM*

The scorpion exploded, fresh blood mixed with its black shell and splashed everywhere.

A thin layer of red barrier appeared in front of Angele and blocked all the scorpion flesh.

"A weak gene that can't handle the increased energy so it self-destructed… Anyway, my method is proven to be valid. If I can get my hands on a strong ancient creature with a strong gene…" Angele was trying to find a pet that was loyal to him, but training young creatures took a lot of time and effort.

"Cough!" Angele coughed several times involuntarily. "Alright, the first step of the bloodline extraction should be completed since I'm pretty much done here."

He did not clean up the mess. Angele turned around and entered the room on the opposite side.

He pressed on the door slightly.

*Ka*

The door opened.

Behind the door was a spacious hexagonal hall; there was a one-meter-tall white flame floating in its center. The flame was chained up by multiple black-red chains that looked like blood-sucking tentacles. White liquid from the white flame was constantly being absorbed by those chains.

The fragrance of fresh honey permeated the air.

The liquid that was absorbed by the chain gathered in a small pool on the ground.

The white liquid filled up half of the pool.

Angele stood in front of the pool, the whole hall was brightened up by the white light.

"The blood…" Angele's brow furrowed, he crouched and dipped his finger into the liquid. He tasted the liquid—it was sweet and sour. The liquid had the same texture as light yogurt.

'Unknown blood sample detected. Analyze now?' Zero's voice echoed in his ears.

'Create the file: Flame Lion. Analyze the blood and compare the data using the database. I want to find out its origin.' Angele quickly gave the order.

'Creating the file… Analyzing…'

*Twitter*

Suddenly, a golden bird appeared on Angele's left shoulder. Its long tail trailed on Angele's back, surrounded by drops of red flames.

"Phoenix?"

Angele was a bit surprised. He noticed that Phoenix had some connection with the white blood.

Suddenly, Phoenix left Angele's shoulder and its body was covered with burning flames.

*WOO*

Red light flashed and Phoenix charged into the white blood pool.

*WOO*

Bright white light coated with a hint of gold was released from the pool and illuminated Angele's face.

Chapter 436: Secret Technique and Chaos (1)

Translator: _Leo_ Editor: Kurisu

The white-goldish light lasted for about half an hour.

Angele waited by the blood pool quietly.

Finally, the light disappeared from the pool.

*Blop*

After the noise, a translucent red bird left the pool and charged to Angele. It was Phoenix, it turned into a blurry shadow.

The shadow suddenly stopped before reaching Angele.

*BAM*

The shadow of Phoenix exploded, turning into glowing light ribbons, and floated around Angele.

Angele raised his right hand and grabbed one of the ribbons.

*Ding*

After the noise, all the ribbons disappeared into the air.

A large piece of heavy armor appeared on Angele's right arm. The red armor covered his right arm completely and created a long red blade in his hand. The heavy armor piece had a mechanical look and the slim blade was surrounded by a golden metallic glow.

*ROAR*

A white-goldish lion with a pair of wings slowly moved out of Angele's armor piece. The lion was surrounded by bright white flames and had a complicated dark-red rune on its brow. The rune looked like a smaller version of Phoenix with its wings spread.

Angele just stood there and did not move an inch.

About two hours later, he slowly raised his right arm and started observing it carefully. However, he was having trouble moving freely, he looked like a robot with strange movements.

Blue light dots flashed in front of Angele's eyes. Several minutes later, a weird smile appeared on his face.

'I didn't expect the secret technique to be like this…' He rubbed the fur of the lion carefully with the left hand and started thinking.

'Phoenix… Illusion and Rebirth. I can create fire illusions of myself with the armor, the damage dealt by the illusions will be weakened by around 70%. The illusions will be eliminated after taking just one hit. The Rebirth is a legendary ability, I didn't expect to acquire the ability from Phoenix…'

Angele noticed that he could already activate those two abilities.

"Which means…" Angele muttered as he slowly raised the blade.

*CHI*

The tip of the blade pierced through his heart easily.

*BOOM*

Angele's body exploded like a bubble; the armor piece of his right arm quickly retracted and merged into the blade.

*Clank*

The red-goldish blade landed on the ground beside the pool of blood that was created by Angele's body.

A ball of red flame spurted out of the blade after several seconds, turning into a complete human being. It was Angele.

'So, this blade is formed by my own body.' Angele raised the blade. 'The illusion replaced my own body; no one will expect that my body can be transformed into a blade. My opponent will think that this blade is one of my magic devices.'

A strange expression appeared on Angele's face.

He could easily observe the situation around him using his mentality while he was in the blade form. The feeling was the same when he used the elemental teleportation. Angele felt like this body was being pulled like pasta.

'Which means, as long as no one breaks the blade, I'll never die. I can create the illusions if I have energy particles stored in my body. Also, this blade was made with some extremely hard materials, so it won't be destroyed easily.' Angele controlled his illusion and observed the blade carefully.

The white lion lay down on the ground and yawned; it felt lazy. The lion slightly shook its head and its wavy fur was waving in the air.

The change that happened to Phoenix was unexpected, but the new abilities were what Angele needed. They would increase Angele's chance of survival during intense battles greatly.

The combination of the illusion and rebirth ability was perfect. Angele could turn his real form into the blade form and replace his real form with an illusion at the same time. Angele would be safe in the blade form—his high attributes were the reason why the blade was so hard to destroy.

Also, the blade form would increase the strength of his illusion.

Angele was certain that with the blade armor, his illusion would be able to cast spells and activate magic devices as well. Also, the maximum number of illusions he could create might increase to six. Furthermore, with the help of the blade form, Angele's illusions would have similar mentality level as his true form.

This was a perfect combination for battles. Also, with the flame lion, the buffed illusion might be slightly stronger than Angele's real form.

It seemed like the flame lion was refined by the flame of Phoenix. As long as the blade form was active, the flame lion would have enough energy to consume. Based on the damage the lion could deal and its attributes, the lion's power level was probably the same as a rank 3 wizard. Also, the flame lion had a strong talent ability, Self-Destruction.

The damage that the destruction could deal was close to the spell damage level of a rank 3 wizard. However, the explosion would create a light elemental field that would last around 30 seconds. The radius of the explosion would be around 50 meters, and in the field, Angele's illusions would be able to cast spells without chanting the incantation.

'I was wondering why I didn't acquire any strong ability from the Molten Core River after I advanced to rank 3. Also, the solidified mentality crystal did not come with clear rune engravings. It seems like the abilities will appear after Phoenix merges into my body, which means, one of the abilities I acquired from Phoenix is my Talent Ability,' Angele thought as he checked his blade form by controlling his illusion.

The blade was around 1.7 meters long, which was similar to the height of an adult. The flashing golden runes on the blade gave it a luxurious look.

Unexpectedly, Angele noticed something familiar from the armor and the blade.

'It feels like… I'm looking at a concept gear.' Angele was a bit surprised when the thought appeared in his mind.

Molten Core River was an advanced meditation technique and he did not expect something like this to happen after he advanced to stage 5.

He was not sure if he was just lucky or all who practiced the technique had similar experiences.

Angele realized that the information provided by the history books he read might be misleading. Wizards were victorious in the war against the ancient empire. The empire was backed with multiple concept gears and the books said that it was the reason why wizards decided to completely eliminate it.

'It doesn't really make sense, but maybe there were also wizards helping the ancient empire… Whatever.'

Angele threw the blade into the air. His body and the flame lion turned into a ray of white light, merging into the blade. Red light flashed in the air and the blade dropped into the flames.

Angele's real form appeared on the ground slowly after the flame disappeared.

'It's an… interesting experience.' Angele tightened his fist.

Angele looked at the blood pool, but there was no blood left inside. The white glow had disappeared from the embryo of the flame lion, what was left was a burnt body that was chained up in the air.

He waved his hand and the embryo of the flame lion exploded, turning into black dust, and flew into the bottle on Angele's palm.

'I can probably use it for my experiments.' Sealing the bottle, Angele carefully put it into his pouch. He purchased the embryo with 600 quest points and did not want to waste it. It was nearly impossible for him to find another flame lion by himself.

Also, he needed to do something with the golden eagles.

Angele looked at the corner—there were golden eagles staring at him with fear in their eyes.

Each of the eagles was about two meters tall and there were more than ten of them. They looked like chickens that were about to be slaughtered. Those aggressive birds could survive for several months without having any food and Angele did not need to worry about their health.

Angele thought for a while and decided not to do anything with the eagles at the moment. He returned to the spell lab and cleaned up the mess using wind category spells.

He then returned to his bedroom and started resting. The experiments and the secret technique cost Angele a lot of mentality, so he was tired.

Especially the blade form, he tested the blade form twice and half of his mentality was consumed. The technique should only be activated as a final resort.

Angele was certain that if he used up his mentality after turning into the blade form, he would not be able to transform back into the human form until his mentality recovered.

He rested for around eight hours and his mentality finally recovered after some meditation.

　　************************

Angele slowly got off the bed.

The bedroom was deadly silent. The wall was painted in red and he could hear the noise made by the lava.

Angele checked the time using the biochip—it was six in the evening. It was probably getting dark outside.

He walked to the cabinet and took out a crystal orb that was used as a communication tool.

It was translucent and had the size of a human head. The only thing he needed to do was enter the communication rune and the orb would buff it so that he could get in touch with the owner of the rune. The crystal orb was a rare magic device—it was a standard gear that was given to the elders of the organization. Vivian lent the orb to Angele after he was ambushed.

Angele sat down by the table with a crystal orb and put it down. Raising his left hand, a green rune flashed on his finger and sank into the center of the crystal orb.

*CHI CHI*

The crystal orb revealed an image after releasing some energy waves.

In a vibrant forest, a slim man in a long red robe was moving forward slowly. It almost looked like he was walking in an indigenous forest.

The image from the crystal orb was the area beside the man.