565 - 573
Chapter 565: Ambush (2)
Translator: _Leo_ Editor: Kurisu
The royal knights finally arrived, they searched the house and took away all the valuables. It took them less than 30 minutes to finish the job.
They packed up the valuables and put them on the horses. The loyal knights left the area quickly.
Fra waited for a while and slowly climbed down a rope by the edge of the roof. She sneaked into the house and rushed out of it several minutes later. There were tears on her face and blood on her outfit.
There were several old books and a damaged crossguard sword in her arms. Those were the treasures she collected over the years.
There was a white circle around the house; she also saw a white flag waving on the grassy ground.
Fra tried her best not to cry out loud. She looked around with a confused look on her face; she had no idea what she should do.
*************************
Angele won two games in a row; Vivian was upset about it. She finally let Angele leave after Angele lost two games to her intentionally.
He walked down the street and headed to his shop. The people on the street were all chatting with fear on their faces.
Angele heard words like "church", "white flag", and "knights".
"Hey, Andre!" a man with a hoe in the hand greeted Angele. "Do you know that the knights went to the Mayor's house?"
"Hey, Misho. What did he do?" Angele was a bit surprised.
"I heard that they were assisting wizards. I already saw the white circle and the white flag around his house"—Misho lowered his voice—"the white circle and the flag mean that the Mayor is considered as a traitor, his whole family will be wiped out!"
"You heard it too?" a young girl that was just passing by interrupted.
"I heard that the white flag appeared at noon. I think they were already executed."
"That's sad… Loria was a good mayor. I didn't expect him to be with the wizards, maybe they were the ones who built the house on the hill…" Misho made his voice even lower.
"Also, the people who got lost over the years were probably captured by the wizards. The wizards can turn them into frogs and insects!" A middle-aged woman also joined the conversation.
They walked as they chatted. The Mayor treated the local people well but he was then turned into an evil being that helped the wizards.
Angele sighed as he listened to the conversation; he thought of Fra right away—they just met in the morning.
He knew what the royal knights and holy knights were up to. The wizards already told him what they learned by letters, the people with power were just trying to maximize their profit by conducting the wizard hunt.
"No one has found Tom yet, the kid is now wanted. You can get 20 gold coins if you can capture him alive… That's about 2000 silver coins… I don't know why they are going so hard on a child…" Misho shook his head.
"If the Loria Family is helping the wizards, the kid must be evil too, he must know that his father was dealing with the wizards," the middle-aged woman interrupted. "That's a lot of money you know, 20 gold coins will keep my family fed for over 30 years…"
Angele was not interested in the conversation, he turned left and entered a quiet alley when they were still talking.
There were two garbage bins in the alley and the fermented fruits around the bins made the air stink.
He heard footsteps as he started heading to his shop again.
*Ka-ta Ka-ta Ka-ta*
Angele turned his head around and saw a team of guards patrolling the area. The guards were all drunk heads that barely worked before the knights came. They were all going after the Mayor's girl.
"You'll get 10 gold coins if you can tell us where Tom is!" the guards shouted as they ran.
The sentence was repeated numerous times and finally stopped after the guards moved to the next area. Angele started walking again, he suddenly stopped when he passed the two garbage bins. He opened the garbage bin on his left quickly.
There was a young girl inside, the girl had a pair of clear blue eyes on her dirty face. She was staring at Angele in fear and there was an egg-shaped birthmark on his forehead.
Angele looked at the girl's eyes, they were filled up with desperation, fear, and pain.
"Tom?" He opened his mouth. "No, I mean, Fra, right? You were in my shop this morning."
Fra heard the familiar and gentle voice, she could no longer hold it and the tears started running down her cheeks again. The tears left two lines on her face due to the dirt.
Angele did not know how he could make Fra feel better.
He patted Fra's head and removed a piece of garbage from her hair.
"You can go with me if you have nowhere else to go."
Fra moved out of the garbage bin carefully and stood in front of Angele. Her body stank and the flies were flying around her.
"Let's go, you're now a worker in my shop and your name is Fra. I assume only your parents and I know this name." Angele looked at Fra and Fra nodded.
He did not care that she was in a garbage bin, Angele quickly took off his coat and gave it to Fra.
"You were from a different town, right? I think you'll need this since this area is cold." Angele covered the girl's body with the coat, he grabbed her hand and they walked to the other side of the alley.
The church and the knights were going after Angele but the Mayor's family was caught in the middle of it. Angele was a selfish wizard but he still decided to take care of Fra.
Angele watched Fra grew up and liked the girl. Fra was one of the few customers that would actually buy his items.
They returned to Angele's shop without being noticed.
Angele asked her to take a shower in the backyard before the night fell.
The energy wave from the center of the town was getting stronger and stronger. It was strengthened after the black robes from the church entered the town.
Angele was not worried that they could find him and Vivian. They were high-rank wizards and they could easily hide their energy waves.
What he needed to do was to eliminate all those who disturbed his peaceful life this night.
*CHI*
The silver blade sparked on the whetstone.
Angele sat in the backyard with a silver crossguard sword in his hand. He was slowly sharpening the blade using a rectangular whetstone.
He lifted the crossguard sword after sharpening it for a while and put it into a bucket of clean water.
Angele washed the blade and carefully returned the sword into the sheath on his belt.
He stood up and looked at Fra, who was sleeping in the room. Angele released some dark-red light using his finger. The light quickly entered Fra's nose.
It helped the girl sleep better.
"I shall teach those bastards some manners…" Angele put his hand on the handle of his sword.
"It has been a while since the last time I showed my sword skills." He decided to handle them using the sword skill set he perfected.
*CHI*
Angele disappeared into the darkness.
*******************************
Angele's house on the hill.
The old house was almost shaking in the chilling wind.
It was dark inside the house and the walls of the house were covered with green vines.
Two groups of people walked out of the forest. The people in the front were wearing black robes and black cloaks. The other group of people was knights that were fully equipped.
The leader of the black robes looked at the wooden house.
"That's the ghost house you talked about?" There was a serious expression on his face.
"Yeah," a black robe behind the leader responded.
The leader looked at the knights.
"Alice, surround the house. You're the leader of the royal knights and you're a holy knight. You have the right to give orders."
"As you wish." Alice nodded.
"Are you going to enter the house? I don't think it's necessary. We can just burn the house down and the thing inside will come out."
"Good idea. Let's do it."
The black robes and the knights separated. They quickly surrounded the small house.
The leader of the black robe grabbed a torch and waved it around.
The flame quickly lighted the wooden house up.
"The God is watching us…" The leader prayed and threw the torch to the house.
****************************
In the forest on the hill, Angele was running to his house at full speed, he was wearing a tight leather suit.
He walked around the town but did not find any enemy. He then realized that they were heading to his house so he quickly rushed to the hill.
Suddenly, he stopped as he saw the bright light from the flames on the hill.
"They already arrived…"
He drew the crossguard sword slowly and drew a cross in the air.
*BAM*
He stabbed the crossguard sword into the ground like lightning.
*BOOM*
The land started vibrating and it felt like that the whole hill was shaking.
A large black fissure was created by the sword and quickly moved to the people who were around the house. The black fissure looked like a humongous snake.
*Crack*
The land under Angele's feet cracked, he jumped into the air and turned into a black string, charging to the leader of the black robes.
The leader turned around as the orange light from the flames illuminated his wrinkled face.
Chapter 566: Untitled (1)
Translator: _Leo_ Editor: Kurisu
"Lie down!" An armored knight jumped at Angele and hit him hard.
*BAM*
They passed by the leader of the black robes and started fighting in the sky. Silver flames sparked as their swords contacted.
"For the church!"
"God bless us!"
The black robes from the church shouted and drew their maces. They raised the maces and they were about to charge at Angele, however, they were stopped by the fissure on the ground.
Angele held the sword tight and slashed forward.
*Clank*
The blade blew the armored knight away; the knight rolled several times on the ground and hit the tree. It was the knight with an eye patch. Blood leaked out of his armor, and no one knew if he was still alive. He just lay by the tree without moving an inch.
Angele checked the surroundings and noticed that most of the knights were stopped by the fissure. They were trying to find a safe place to stand, however, the leader of the black robes was walking to him with a calm expression on the face.
He swung the sword and drew a cross in the air.
"You never learn…"
"God is watching us!" the leader roared and threw the mace at Angele; his body was coated by a thin white glow.
*BAM*
The mace landed where Angele was standing at and left a one-meter-wide hole on the ground.
Angele's expression changed after he dodged the attack.
"Interesting…" He leaped to the side and dodged another attack. The leader picked the mace up; the spikes on the mace were illuminated by the white glow.
Angele kicked the leader hard when he missed the attack.
*BAM*
The leader almost fell to the ground, Angele's Strength was over 30, however, it seemed like the leader was not severely injured. Although the white glow on his body was weakened, he roared and his muscles suddenly started growing. He looked much taller and stronger than before.
The leader charged to Angele like an angry bear.
The attack still missed and Angele kicked the leader in the waist again. The leader fell to the ground but he quickly stood up and it felt like he was not feeling any pain.
Angele's expression turned serious as blue light dots flashed in front of his eyes.
Rows of data were being refreshed by the leader's body, he could even see the electrocardiography and the electroencephalography in his sight. The man's heart rate was over five times per second.
'Target is recovering… He'll fully recover in five seconds,' Zero reported back quickly.
Angele looked at the leader who just stood up and scanned his body.
'I already used all my force when kicking him, although I'm not in my true form, the attack can easily knock a mammoth out. The white glow is the problem—80 percent of the damage was blocked by the white glow and he recovered from the injury within seconds. He's just a group leader in the church but he's so strong…' He finally knew why they could eliminate the wizards. The energy density in this area was low and the servants of the church buffed their bodies using a certain technique. It was nearly impossible for an average wizard to win a fight like this.
'My Strength is 33 and an average mortal's Strength is 1 but this guy is not even hurt… He can probably handle an average wizard easily…' Angele stopped thinking and slashed backward.
*CHI*
A black robe behind Angele was hit by the tip of the blade, his forehead was pierced and he fell to the ground while the mace was still in his hand.
Angele quickly pulled the blade out of the black robe's forehead and blocked the mace from the leader.
He stabbed the leader using the tip of the sword but it was stopped by the white glow around the man's body.
*WOO*
It sounded like the blade was vibrating, Angele could feel the strong force coming from the handle of the sword and could barely hold it steadily.
"Die!" he shouted and moved the sword away from the leader. Angele's body started spinning like a gyroscope.
The silver blade drew numerous silver lines in the air and the slashes all landed in the center of the leader's chest.
*CHI CHI CHI*
Two more armored knights charged toward Angele while he was spinning but they were blown away right away. The two knights landed in the forest and fainted.
*Crack*
A black crack appeared in the center of the leader's chest and Angele's sword finally went through the man's body. The bloody tip of the sword appeared on the other side of the leader's body.
Angele held the sword using both hands and kicked the leader in the waist while pulling his sword out of the man's body.
'It's over. I just need to focus all force at one point and repeat the process multiple times.' Angele inhaled deeply. He did not use any wizard power or bloodline power this time. He felt tired because his opponent had a strange shield and a strong body.
*PA*
The leader of the black robes fell to the grass floor and looked at the night sky with a pair of soulless eyes. The sapphire ring on his right hand was still releasing some white light.
Angele walked to him and removed the ring from his hand. The remaining white glow quickly disappeared from the man's body.
"God will… punish you…" he spoke when the blood was still coming out of his mouth and stopped breathing a couple seconds later.
Angele looked at the ring in his hand, it was a silver ring with a sapphire on it. The sapphire was clean and attractive.
He glanced around and noticed that most of the black robes were caught in his blade dance. There were also black robes who died in the fissure, however, some of the knights escaped. He knew that he knocked some of the knights out during the battle, but he was not sure if they were still alive or not.
Angele's wooden house was still burning, he stood in front of the dancing flames and wiped the blood off his blade.
"I should leave now… I've already collected the painting and the things that are important to me. I didn't kill all the knights because I need them to send the message back. The church will go after us and Vivian will have more time to escape," he muttered as he played with the sapphire ring. He walked to the forest and finished off the fainted knights.
"If I used any of the three battle styles, a fight like this'd be finished in seconds…" Angele lowered the crossguard sword as a bitter smile appeared on his face. He was fighting enemies with strange powers as a swordsman with a strong body. Also, the crossguard sword he was using had average quality.
Angele glanced at the fissure on the ground as he stopped thinking. He created the fissure using the sword skill he developed, he did not use any of the wizard power or bloodline power.
He decided not to waste any more time and started heading to the town.
He increased his speed and rushed to the town. Angele arrived at an arched bridge a couple minutes later, the bridge was the only exit of the town.
Teams of guards in white armor were patrolling around the bridge. Two leader-looking guards with helmets were having a conversation while looking at the burning fire on the hill.
On the other side of the bridge, people from the town were also looking at the fire by the bridge. Angele noticed that Vivian was also in the crowd.
He hid in the shadow and moved to the left side of the river. He jumped over the river and entered the town with no problem after he made sure that no one else was around.
Angele thought for a while and threw the crossguard sword into the river. He wiped the dust off his body and retrieved a damaged black coat from the mirror. He put on the coat and headed to his shop.
He could see the patrolling guards on the street; the guards were checking the surroundings constantly with torches in their hands.
Angele increased his speed and returned to his shop within half a minute.
He jumped over a wall and entered the quiet backyard; he could hear Fra breathing in the room.
"Fra? Wake up, there's a problem, we need to leave," Angele spoke in a low voice. He pushed the door open and entered the room.
There was a small storage room behind the shop. It was used just for storage but Angele put a wooden bed in it so Fra could use it as a bedroom.
Fra was sitting on the bed quietly, she leaned against the wall and remained silent.
"Get ready, Fra, we need to leave tonight. Something happened to the people from the church," Angele walked to Fra and looked at her.
Fra raised her head and spoke in a hoarse voice, "I thought you were going to hand me in and claim the reward…"
"Why? Because you didn't see me after you wake up?" Angele patted the girl's head. "Well, I'm going to sell you to someone else for even more money after you grow up." He pulled Fra's cheeks. "Alright, go get ready now."
Fra looked frightened and confused. She lost her entire family and Angele was her last hope. She was wanted by the church—although the reward might not be attractive to everyone, she still doubted if Angele was really trying to help her. Also, Fra knew that her relatives that did not live in this town would be executed sooner or later.
They quickly packed everything into two large cases and put all the silver coins they had into a large leather pouch.
Angele took out some black mud and applied it on Fra's birthmark. The black birthmark quickly turned into the color of her skin.
"A little trick but it will return to normal after the mud is dry. We need to hurry." Angele poured the rest of the mud on Fra's hair and turned her hair white.
They dragged the two cases out of the shop carefully.
It was late in the night and most of the local people already returned to their houses.
It was quiet on the street but there were still guards patrolling the area.
Angele grabbed Fra's hand and headed to the exit of the town.
Chapter 567: Untitled (2)
Translator: _Leo_ Editor: Kurisu
"Hey, Andre! Where are you going?" A guard stopped them when they were heading to the exit. "It's late at night, go back and sleep!" He waved his hands, asking Angele and Fra to leave.
"Wed, you're in the patrolling team too?" Angele smiled. "This is a relative of mine, she came here to visit and I want to send her back. You know that the masters and knights from the church are here. I can't believe that there are wizards in my town... I decided to find a safer place to stay for now."
"Yeah, you made a wise decision, I'd leave the town with my family too if I had a choice." Wed nodded and rubbed his nose.
"You'll be examined at the bridge, we want to make sure that the wizards are still in the town. Alright, you can leave now. Just be careful, it's late."
"Sure, thank you." Red light flashed in front of Angele's eyes, he activated his illusion ability for a second.
Fra remained silent. They started heading to the bridge again.
They reached the bridge and saw what the examination was. It was a silver cup with clean water inside.
A red glow appeared on the surface of the water, however, he already activated his illusion ability, and no one saw the changes, including Fra. The guards did not say anything when they passed.
Angele grabbed Fra's hand after the walked over the bridge and sent a message to Vivian using the communication rune.
"I'm leaving."
"Take care of yourself. You should've left 100 years ago." Vivian's voice echoed in Angele's ears.
"Mother—"
"Don't," Vivian interrupted before Angele was going to send anything else. "You have a bright future. I don't have enough energy particles to keep my appearance young; I don't want you to witness me getting old."
Angele remained silent and sent one last message.
"I'll come back for you."
He collected a lot of daily supplies for Vivian over the years, including the special grass that could block one fatal attack. The grass was gifted to him by Vivian but Angele did not need it anymore.
Vivian's life was ending—that was why she decided to stay in the town. The First Elder and the Second Elder were in a similar situation, they all wanted to pass away somewhere peaceful.
"Let's go." Angele and Fra turned around. They stepped on the only path that could lead them to other areas of this world.
He knew that Vivian would feel better if he was not around when she got old; also, Vivian did not want to become Angele's burden.
Fra looked at the town for one final time and started walking while dragging the case forward.
**************************
In a small house with a garden in the front.
Vivian packed up her belongs and outfits, standing by the entrance of the garden. She put a lot of efforts into the garden.
"Green wasted too much time on me… I should go and fulfill my last wish now…" she muttered.
The man with a handsome face and long hair never left her heart.
"Teacher, I'll find you…"
She picked up the brown travel case, opened the gate, and disappeared into the darkness.
**************************
Seven days later…
The red leaves on the trees formed a large red carpet on the ground.
Under the bright sunlight, there was a caravan traveling down a path in the forest slowly. The caravan looked like a long white caterpillar.
The wheels of the carriages were rolling on the grounds, horses were neighing. The coachmen were whipping the horses from time to time.
On the last carriage of the caravan, there were two outsiders lying in it. The outfits they were wearing differed from the uniforms of the merchants. It was Angele and Fra. They paid to join the caravan and brought two brown cases with them.
The caravan was advancing slowly. A large lake appeared on their right after they traveled for a while; the water looked golden due to the reflected sunlight.
The red trees around the lake looked like a circle of red flowers; there were swans moving on the surface of the water slowly. There were also small birds following after the swans, the place was quite noisy.
The wind was nice and warm. Angele inhaled deeply, he could smell the fragrance of baked goods in the air.
"Fra, how many silver coins do we have?" he asked.
"We have 32 silver coins and four bronze coins," Fra, who was lying in the carriage, responded quickly. "We spent most of our money to get on the carriage. If we don't have a source of income, we'll starve for over three months; there's still a long way to go." It seemed like she was still recovering from the death of her family but she felt better. She was now acting like a servant of Angele.
"Don't worry…" Angele smiled. The sapphire ring in his pouch was vibrating slightly.
He knew that the ring was sending signals to the church; that was what he needed—he wanted to drive the people from the church away. However, it seemed like the signals were unstable, the ring would only release some signals sometime during the afternoon every day.
"It's about time." Angele took out the ring and threw it out of the window without being noticed by Fra.
The sapphire ring drew a line in the sky and dropped into the lake.
"Did you throw something outside?" Fra looked at the lake with confusion on her face.
"Nothing." Angele shook his head. "What are you planning recently? You always go to the forest after finishing the food. Aren't afraid of the wolves?"
Fra's expression changed after hearing the word. "Nothing… I just want some private time." She recalled the day she found the secret of the red book. Fra noticed that there was a hidden slot in the cover of the book and there was some old paper in the slot.
Fra realized that she finally encountered a situation like the knights in the novel would after she read the things recorded in the old paper.
A special training technique that she had never seen before was written on the old paper. Also, the name of the secret technique was "The Avatar of Love and Justice".
*PA*
Angele suddenly spat out the water in his mouth when he heard the response. He realized that he gave the technique a strange name for fun when writing it.
He quickly lowered the water bottle.
"Sorry, I wanted to laugh when I saw the anxious look on your face," he apologized.
"Why would you find it funny?" Fra glanced at Angele and stopped talking to him.
Angele stopped making fun of Fra as well. The month of the tide would start tomorrow, he needed to find a chance to activate the dimension locator. If he could open the portal to finish the trade, the iron ingots in the mirror would be exchanged for the barrier he needed. Also, he found out the secret of the painting but he was not sure how he could enter the portal.
These two things had been bothering him for a while.
The black robes from the church were much stronger than he'd expected. He had to give up his house so he could no longer summon the creatures from other realms using the rune circle and rune walls he built in the basement. The only thing he could do was try to contact the six-armed snake race using the dimension locator.
Angele sighed as he reached into the pocket. He pressed on the silver tooth necklace, which was the dimension locator.
"Let's start."
*DI*
'Communication mission started…'
'Calculating the coordinates…'
'Range exceeded… Trying to establish a connection…'
Angele closed his eyes and a black vortex that was spinning at full speed appeared in his sight. The vortex was formed by water but it was muddy and Angele could not see what was inside it.
Suddenly, the black vortex changed after a while.
*WOO*
The water in the vortex started boiling and there was some water splashing around.
*PA*
A large book with a gray cover appeared in the center of the vortex.
The book floated on the water and opened by itself slowly.
A swordsman in red armor appeared on the left side of the page, he was holding a wide blade and a shield in hands. There was a glowing red rune on the center of the shield.
A strange blue bird then appeared on the right side of the page; the bird was surrounded by blue ice waves and had a strange voice.
They stood on the page quietly but would move their bodies from time to time.
'What's this?' Angele had no idea what the dimension locator brought him.
He tried to communicate with the two creatures using the mentality wave.
The mentality wave did not find any physical form, however, a strange message was sent to his brain.
"World Book."
This was the only thing he received.
Angele knew what he just summoned after hearing the name.
World Book had endless information recorded in it; it was from a realm of books and knowledge. He just needed to pay for information and knowledge he needed.
However, how much he needed to pay would be decided by World Book.
"What do you want to know? I'm a book that can summon the fire swordsman and ice bird." The book sent a message to Angele using the mentality wave.
Angele hesitated, he did not expect to communicate with a book from a realm that was full of books.
"I want to know how to establish a permanent connection with the realm of books."
"You're strong but you can't afford the cost. Also, I don't have the right to do that," the book declined. "Do you have anything else to ask?"
"Do you know that I'm weakened by the realm power?" Angele questioned in a deep tone.
"Yes, you're one step away from a new level. Also, you're carrying the entrance to a labyrinth."
"How do I reach the next level?"
"I can't answer you because I don't have enough information. You can try and enter the Realm of Lost, the eternal well there might be able to answer your question. However, don't go near it if you can't dance." The book closed, the swordsman and the bird disappeared as well.
The book slowly sank into the vortex and disappeared.
Angele felt that his head was dizzy.
'Warning! Warning! 75.3 percent of your mentality is consumed! Reason: Unknown. Please check your condition," Zero's warning echoed in his ears.
Chapter 568: Untitled (3)
Translator: _Leo_ Editor: Kurisu
'Seriously?' Angele quickly stopped sending out mentality waves. The black vortex slowly disappeared and there was nothing left in his sight.
"Ugh…" He groaned and shook his head.
"I think I caught a cold. Fra, can you go buy me some herbs from the merchants?"
Fra was lying beside him but it seemed like she was thinking of something.
"Fra?" Angele repeated, he just wanted to use an excuse to get some private space.
"Oh, sure. I'll go now." Fra finally heard the word. She sat up and jumped off the carriages. The merchants were in the front so she had to run past several carriages.
Fra quickly disappeared from Angele's sight. Angele slowly took out the silver tooth necklace from a pouch.
'Only certain creatures can be summoned during the month of the tide. They must have high mentality or strange mentality wave frequency so I can find them.'
He returned the necklace to the pocket carefully and started meditating so that his mentality could recover.
Black smoke came out of his mouth and entered his nose. Several seconds later, the black smoke slowly faded away.
Fra returned to the carriage with a gray leather pouch in hand; she saw that Angele was sleeping so she tried to be as quiet as she could. She slowly put the pouch down on the wooden case beside Angele.
Time passed and the sky turned around orange to dark.
The caravan slowly stopped by a forest. The carriages in the front formed several circles and set up the campfires.
The merchants were eating freshly baked brown bread with barbequed meat and mushroom soup around the campfire. They were drinking and chatting. There were also people watching the guards of the caravan wrestle.
Angele applied some special herb mixture he created on Fra's face after they left the town. No one would know that she was the wanted "boy". She was watching two female guards wrestling with a female guard she became friend with recently.
The people around the wrestling guards were all cheering.
Angele leaned against the wall and watched the two strong female guards fighting against each other.
"Ha!"
The one on the left had short brown hair, she roared and used her strong arms to throw her opponent to the ground.
"Next!" She spat some saliva on her hands and rubbed her palms against each other while glancing around.
"I'll be the next!" A strong man stood up and took off his black vest, revealing his muscular body. He straightened his back and stepped forward.
The orange light from the campfire illuminated the two guards' muscles as the match started.
Angele shook his head; he was not interested. Suddenly, blue light dots flashed in front of his eyes. He quickly turned his head around and looked at the other side of the lake. There were some people wearing silver that were hiding in the darkness. The one in the front had faster movements than others and was holding two swords that had different length in hands.
"They are here," Angele muttered and glanced at the people around the campfire. Fra was still focusing on the wrestling.
Angele stood up and jumped off the carriage, he walked straight to the lake.
He walked through the small forest and reached the lake. The noise from the camp faded and the area was dark.
The sun was still setting so he could still see some color on the clouds.
Angele looked at the other side of the lake and the people wearing silver also noticed his presence.
"I can use my wizard power now…" Angele smiled and stepped on the surface of the water.
*PA*
Waves appeared when he stepped on the water but he was not sinking at all.
The expressions on the silver swordsmen's faces changed.
*CLANK*
The leader signaled using his swords.
"It's a strong one! Everyone, use the hunting formation!" he shouted as some gentle white light was released from his sapphire ring.
The swordsmen in silver armor formed a shell-shaped formation by the lake and waited as Angele charged to them.
The leader's whole body was covered in the silver armor, only some of his brown hair could be seen below his helmet. The man lowered his body and stared at the approaching wizard.
"He can walk on water, which means he's at least a rank 2 wizard. That's a problem…" he muttered as the white glow from the ring turned into a white barrier which coated his body.
"Leader, should we retreat for now and wait for the others?" a team captain behind him questioned in a low voice.
"It's not like he'll let us leave if we decide to retreat…" the leader responded.
He noticed that the man in black disappeared after he finished the sentence; he could feel the chill climbing up his spine.
*Clank*
*CHI*
"Ah!"
"Shields! Get your shields ready!"
"On your left!"
The swordsmen shouted and screamed.
The leader had no time to think, he quickly turned around and started slashing.
*CLANK CLANK*
He heard a loud noise coming from behind.
"That's incredible, I didn't expect you to block that!" Angele revealed himself from the darkness. His red eyes were glowing and there was a long silver sword with an engraved blade in his hand. It seemed like Angele took it from one of the swordsmen.
"Damn it! He got Jason!"
"He's moving way too fast!"
"Stay in your position and stay focus!"
There were six swordsmen left and their faces were all covered with cold sweat. The swordsmen were staring at Angele anxiously.
It took Angele only several seconds to eliminate eight swordsmen by cutting their throats open; there was still blood spurting out of their wounds, splashing everywhere.
The leader tightened his muscles as the white light around became intense; he was staring at Angele without moving an inch.
"How dare you…" His eyes turned red. The leader grabbed the handle of the sword so tight that his fingers turned white.
Angele swung his sword and removed some of the blood. The red glow appeared around his eyes again and he quickly released an invisible wave that was spreading in all angles.
"Watch out!"
"He's going to disappear again!"
"We need to stay close to each other!"
The rest of the swordsmen stayed close to each other, checking the surroundings constantly.
Angele was moving around them but he was moving so fast that no one could see him. He walked to swordsmen and slashed forward.
*CHI*
Angele cut the throats of two swordsmen open. The blood spurted out of their wounds right away.
He moved to the left slightly and dodged three swords that were going after his head. He quickly slashed forward again, leaving a silver line in the air.
Angele cut some of the swordsmen's bodies in half. The blood already turned into small pools on the ground.
Only the leader was still alive after the two attacks; the others died before they could make any noise or say anything.
The leader tried to fight back by slashing forward but missed. He could not even see Angele's body while his team members were falling to the ground.
"Henry…" He hesitated as he saw one of the swordsman's body was cut in half.
*BAM*
The leader was kicked in the back. He was blown away by the impact and rolled several times in the blood pools.
Angele deactivated his illusion ability, walked to the leader and slashed down.
*Clank*
The leader dodged the attack by rolling to the left and hit Angele's blade using his swords.
"God is watching us!" the leader roared and stood up. He started attacking Angele with his swords like crazy. His swords were coated with white glow, his attacks were fast and powerful. The two swords were moving so fast that almost looked like two silver shadows around Angele's body.
*BAM*
Golden sparks appeared between the two and the only noise here was made by the swords.
'Such power…' Angele was slightly surprised. 'He's just a team leader from the church but he's almost as fast as me.'
Angele leaped away to dodge the swords that were going for his legs and landed in front of a tall tree.
"Let's end this now!" Angele charged forward and hit the sword in the leader's right hand. He then quickly turned around and used the remaining force to slash forward.
*CHI*
The white light around the leader's left arm started fading away. Although they had similar speed, his sword skills were weaker than Angele's and it was nearly impossible for him to fight back.
The white light around his body was weakened, the leader felt like that the wizard was dancing with the blade. The wizard kept hitting his swords and his arms were having trouble handling the force.
*Dang*
With a noise, the leader's swords were blown away from his hands, but Angele was still spinning like crazy and kept hitting the same point on the leader's neck.
*CHI CHI CHI CHI*
The white light finally faded away and bloody wounds appeared on the leader's neck. The leader's body trembled and he could no longer block Angele's attacks.
Angele did a simple forward slash again and leaped away without looking. He landed on the grass that was soaked in fresh blood, his eyes still glowing in the dark.
The leader took several steps back and stopped after hitting the tree behind him.
He opened his mouth but could not even say a word.
A large hand tapped on the man's shoulder from behind the tree.
"Have some rest, I'll take care of the rest." A deep voice came from the shadow.
A tall man stepped out of the shadow, staring at Angele with a calm expression on the face. It was a farmer wearing a brown linen outfit. He was about 40 years old and had a pair of emotionless eyes. The man did not look like a strong being at all, he just like a normal farmer.
The man's short black hair was messy and his outfit was covered with patches. Also, the man had a pair of calloused hands.
Angele looked at the man that just stepped out of the shadow, he noticed that the white light around the man's body was much stronger than the light around the leader's body. He sensed danger from the man; the feeling was making his body trembling.
'It has been a while since the last I had a feeling like this…'
The red glow around Angele's eyes got intense. It was not fear what made him tremble, it was excitement.
He had not felt something like this ever since he had the refined true form.
The middle-aged farmer looked at Angele and glanced at the bodies on the ground.
"The name is Victor. I didn't expect to meet a strong being like you, the report I read was wrong… I thought this was going to be an easy mission…"
Chapter 569: Untitled (4)
Translator: _Leo_ Editor: Kurisu
"Victor… the legendary knight… You're Victor, the legendary knight?!" the leader, who was still alive, shouted in a hoarse voice after hearing the name.
Victor remained calm, it felt like he did not even hear the leader's words.
Angele was interested. He repeated the term and asked, "A legendary knight? What kind of rank is that?"
"Rank?" Victor chuckled.
"It doesn't really matter." He charged forward and tried to hit Angele's chest with his fist.
It was just a simple punch, it was slow and it was not buffed by the white light.
It felt like he was a fighting like a person that was never trained and there was still a smile on Victor's face.
Angele leaped away without any problem and was about to say something.
*BAM*
The mud, stones, grass, and all the objects in front of Victor were blown away. Broken pieces of stones were splashing everywhere.
Angele's body numbed, it felt like he was hit by a train. His body was blown into the air and he knocked down many trees with his back while he was flying.
"Damn it!" Blue light dots flashed in front of his eyes while he was still flying. The silver sword quickly turned into an enormous mud sword that had a width and a length of around ten meters.
The mud sword started falling toward Victor.
*BAM*
With a loud noise, Victor was also blown away by the impact. He flew into the forest on the right and slowly stopped after breaking down more than ten trees.
All they could hear was trees falling after they attacked each other.
However, neither was hurt. They slowly stood up and not even their outfits were damaged.
The smile disappeared from Victor's face and bright white light appeared in his right eye.
Angele gathered the mud from the ground and turned it into black mud armor.
They could both feel the incredible power inside each other's bodies.
Angele licked his lips, he was trying to maximize his power. In this area, he only had the power level of a rank 3 wizard.
'Battle style one, Earth. Activating…' Zero's voice echoed in his ears.
"Nevermind, I give up." Victor suddenly waved his hand as the white light disappeared from his eyes.
"I can feel that I'll lose the battle if you use all your power. Let's just call it a day."
Angele's brow furrowed. "Your strength and speed are at a similar level as mine. Why are you trying to run?"
"I can't win so I give up." Victor shrugged. "I have the holy teleport so you can't kill me. I can't win but I won't lose."
"You mean a draw?" Angele laughed as he swang the mud sword. The sword cut down several trees around easily.
"I don't think you can just leave like this."
He slashed forward.
*BAM*
The mud sword hit Victor's body but it felt like he was hitting an iron bar. Countless white light dots appeared around Victor and formed a light pillar around his body. The pillar quickly struck into the sky.
"What's this?"
Angele did not give up, he hit the light pillar hard using the sword.
*BAM BAM BAM*
The mud blade was breaking but it did not damage the light pillar at all.
"Don't waste your time. This is a portal from the God. I'm protected by its holy power. No one can stop the process." Victor was not nervous at all, he was speaking in a relaxed tone.
Angele stopped moving and watched the light pillar growing, he had no idea how tall the light pillar was.
He noticed that the light pillar gave him a similar feeling as the realm power of Nightmare Realm.
The mud armor on his body slowly broke into pieces, dropping on the ground. He decided not to waste his energy.
"Church… White light… They hate wizards… Maybe…"
Narrowing his eyes, Angele had a general idea in his mind.
"If I'm not mistaken, I need to reach the Siva State to find more clues..."
The light pillar suddenly disappeared, it teleported Victor and the leader away when Angele was still thinking.
Angele lowered his head and looked at the trees on the ground. He turned around and started walking back to the camp. His eyes were surrounded by a red glow again and he activated his illusion ability.
'I hope I can summon the six-arm race as soon as possible… This area is much more complicated than I thought.' He looked at the people who were still watching the wrestling and slowly disappeared into the darkness.
*******************************
Angele revealed his wizard power and used the illusion ability to remove the traces. He also took all the money on the soldiers from the church before returning to the caravan.
Fra asked him where the money came from but did not say too much after hearing Angele's excuse. In the next ten days, Fra trained as the technique from the book said in her free time. The caravan was still advancing slowly and Angele would correct her using the illusion ability when she made any mistake.
The church did not send more people after him since that day. It seemed like they knew how strong Angele was and decided not to send low-rank soldiers here. It was just what Angele wanted.
He tried to use the dimension locator to communicate with the creatures during the month of the tide, however, the only creatures he found were strong creatures with chaotic minds or weak beings like Xinrui.
The difference between the dimension location and the summoning spell was that he could not summon the creature physically, he could only communicate with them. Also, sometimes, he would not find anyone when the signal was weak.
He managed to use the dimension locator to cast his summon spell but it did not work the same way.
Angele knew that summoning random creatures would not help him reach his goal so he told the six-arm snake that he would fulfill the order in 1000 years. He just needed to find the right creature once in 1000 years so that he could complete the trade.
Angele and Fra joined another merchant caravan several days later, they started heading in a different direction. They repeated the process several times and they met many merchants.
They almost used up the money they collected from the swordsmen so they decided to save the money for food and stay in the current caravan.
About eight days later, Angele finally felt relaxed after he made sure that the church was no longer tracking him.
**********************
Angele was sitting in the last carriage as usual and the carriage was moving forward slowly. It seemed like he was having a nap. Fra was sitting opposite to Angele, patching Angele's damaged shirt.
The golden sunlight of the early morning shined upon the two's bodies but it barely brought any warmth to them.
Angele was watching a black vortex spinning in his sight. There was a pale face of a woman in the center of the vortex.
The woman had no hair or eyebrows, her lips and eyes were both purple.
Angele saw that the woman was wearing a silver tooth necklace when he was about to disconnect.
"Who are you?" he questioned using the mentality wave.
"I'm a dark snake. I heard that you've completed the order placed by the six-arm snake race. The sage ordered us to search through the dimension tide and we finally found you." The woman's body appeared in the vortex as well, her skin was covered with black scales and she had a tail of a snake but she only had one pair of arms.
"Are you sure that you can get in touch with the six-arm race?" Angele was excited.
"Yes, please give me a second, I'll contact the sage." The snake woman disappeared into the vortex.
The center of the vortex started bubbling.
A beautiful woman with six arms appeared in the vortex, she was also wearing a silver tooth necklace and her long black hair trailed over her shoulders. The woman's naked upper body had a silver color.
"I'm Amhara the Sage, summoner, I'll take care of the trade. Your metal collection is…"
"Huh?" She suddenly stopped and sniffed.
"The smell… We hate this smell… The smell of the pure light…"
"Pure light?" Angele narrowed his eyes. "What do you mean?"
"The realm you're in is full of this smell. I think there's an ancestor in your realm if I'm not mistaken, an ancestor that's an inheritor of the Light Ancestor…" the snake sage responded in a cold tone.
'So, I was correct…' Angele confirmed his assumption. 'A strong being that hated the wizards… It must be Light Ancestor…
'Everything can be explained if that's the case. Low density energy particles, wizards are being hunted down, and the strong white light… The possibility is high…' Angele thought.
"Alright, let's complete the trade. We've prepared the barrier and you'll be satisfied," the snake sage spoke in a light tone.
"How do we do that? This is just a dimension communication, we can't transfer items through it." Angele's brow furrowed.
"We can open the gate of trading but you need to destroy the dimension locator. The dimension channel will be opened temporarily and we'll handle the energy cost," the snake sage replied. "Alright, let's start."
"Sure."
Angele opened his eyes and noticed that the silver tooth necklace in his pocket slowly disappeared.
He then quickly took out a glass bottle from the mirror quickly but carefully; it was half-filled with some sticky silver liquid.
Angele noticed that the silver bottle was dragged away by a strong force when he took it out and a cold ball appeared above his palm at the same time.
The ball was white and had two symmetrical holes in it. He could feel something soft inside the ball after shaking it slightly.
"The trade is now completed. It was a pleasant experience." The snake sage's voice echoed in his ears.
"Thank you." Angele felt relieved. He could feel that the realm power was weakening when he was holding the ball in the hand. Also, his energy waves and mentality waves were barely noticeable.
He observed the ball for a while but he had no idea how it worked.
There was no rune, character, or pattern on the surface of the ball, it was smooth like an egg.
'Which means, I'll be able to utilize the power of my refined true form with this thing in my hand.' Angele was satisfied with the result. He quickly pressed ball on his arm.
A crack appeared on his arm, revealing the muscles and bloodline veins inside.
However, it felt like that the ball was blocked by an invisible barrier and could not be hidden inside his arm.
Angele tried to throw it into the mirror, put it into his mouth, and store it in his pouch, but nothing worked. He had to touch the ball with his skin.
Chapter 570: First Glance (1)
Translator: _Leo_ Editor: Kurisu
'This thing…' Angele's brow furrowed as he held the ball in hand. 'I can't even put it into my mouth. That's a problem…'
Gentle blue light was released from his eyes as he scanned the ball on his palm. The ball had the size of an egg and its surface was illuminated by the light.
Several seconds later, Angele stopped scanning and tapped on the ball for three times.
*KA*
The ball suddenly started shrinking, it turned to the size of a nail, and then transformed into a white ring.
Angele tapped the ring again and it quickly returned to its original size.
He repeated the process several times.
'It only has two forms?' He carefully put the ring on the middle finger of his left hand.
Suddenly, an arm appeared in front of him, holding a large black coat.
"Here you go, your outfit." Fra's young voice came from behind.
Angele turned around and grabbed the patched coat. He saw that Fra was about to fall asleep.
"You can go sleep first if you want."
Angele was testing the barrier so he was not facing Fra, however, Fra saw the white ring on his finger right after he turned to her.
"Where did you get that from?" Fra yawned. "Anyway, I need to have some rest. I already bought the breakfast and you know where to find it." She moved to the wall and closed her eyes.
Angele jumped off the carriage and ran to one of the carriages in the front. He opened the door and entered that carriage.
The carriage was relatively small. There were two middle-aged men inside, eating pine nut cakes and purple mangos.
Angele could hear them chewing the fruits; the purple juice from the blue mangos was dripping down their hands. The dried juice stained the wooden table under their hands.
He could smell the sour fragrance from the fermented fruits as he entered the carriage. There was a white pine nut cake on the table, the brown pine nuts were mixed in the cake. It smelled like baked eggs.
Angele sat down with his legs crossed. He grabbed the cake and took a bite.
"That's way too dry…"
"Come on, don't complain." One of the middle-aged men chuckled.
"Take this, it'll make everything better." He threw a fist-sized purple mango to Angele.
Angele caught the mango and wiped it using a piece of white cloth.
"It's the first time that I see a mango like this. Where did you get this?"
The middle-aged man licked his lips and responded, "From a mango farm in Sella. They also have black and red mangos but the purple mangos are the cheapest."
The other middle-aged man's brow furrowed after hearing these words.
"Talking about the mango farm in Sella, I heard that there was an incident. Do you know what happened?" The man's dialect was a bit strange and it was hard to understand.
"I guess you don't travel often. You need to explore the world so you'll learn more and know more information. I do know of the incident about the mango farm. It's related to the country's recent decisions." The man lowered his voice.
"A relative of mine is a royal guard and knows the background information. They are gathering the army, I think something big is going to happen."
"What do you mean? Are they going after the wanted criminal?"
"You mean the cold-blooded killer that's wanted by the church? No, I don't think that guy will be caught easily. It's a different situation. A Count in Sella passed away and the inheritors are fighting; also, the lords around the area were also eyeing that position." It seemed like the man knew a lot of information.
"A coldblooded killer? The church is strong, right? I don't think they can't catch a killer." When Angele heard those words, he was interested.
The middle-aged man chuckled. "The church is the strongest here but there are still people who are not afraid of them, including the cold-blooded killer. The wizard alliance was eliminated years ago. An organization called Shadow Tower brought a lot of trouble to the church but it was eliminated too. The cold-blooded killer was a member of Shadow Tower."
The other man joined the conversation. "Well, I've heard of those when I visited the large cities. The cold-blooded killer became a wanted criminal about 30 years ago but the church hasn't caught him yet. He's one of the church's strongest enemies."
"I never knew that. It's great that I met you guys and I learned a lot today…" Angele smiled and took a bite of the mango. The mango was juicy, sour, and sweet. It had the texture of a banana. "Are there other people who are fighting the church?"
The man glanced at Angele and noticed that Angele gave him a different feeling. He felt good that he knew something that Angele did not know.
"There are many people who dislike the church, like the remaining members of the Shadow Tower, the wizards, some underground races, and the Siren Empire from the north. That's all I know. If you go to the city that's owned by the church, you'll see the holy knights running around all day. They probably have many things to deal with every day. I don't know what exactly they are doing, I only know the situation of the areas around here."
Angele spent the morning in the carriage, chatting with the two middle-aged men. He heard a lot of local news.
The church controlled the countries in this area. It was like the strongest organization of this word—even the Kings needed to invite the church to attend their coronation ceremonies.
However, the church was extremely hard on the people and those who hated the church would be eliminated.
The main enemy of the church was a group of people with special powers—those people were called wizards.
The sunlight was burning hot during the noon. Angele left the carriage and returned to his own carriage.
The caravan also stopped for lunch.
Fra climbed into the carriage with a large wooden basin in her arms. Fra's and Angele's clothes were inside the basin. It seemed like she just washed them.
"It's lunchtime." Fra put down the wooden basin and walked to Angele.
Angele knew what she was asking for. He took out two silver coins.
"Lunch and dinner."
Fra stared at the two silver coins she got.
"Seriously? That's not enough… Two silver coins… You can only get…" They heard people shouting before Fra finished her word.
Angele and Fra leaned to the window, they tried to see what was happening.
A team of mercenaries was standing on the grass. They approached the caravan.
The mercenaries were wearing damaged outfits, however, the shields and swords in their hands looked nice. Some of them were wearing horned helmets.
Some mercenaries were talking to the guards of the caravan. The guards were fully equipped with high-quality gear. They looked much more reliable than the mercenaries.
"Those mercenaries joined the caravan several days ago," Fra spoke in a low voice; she seemed curious. "They are arguing about the pay."
Angele nodded.
"They are asking for more money when we are still far from the destination. It's the perfect time to raise the price," he said as his sight fell upon a man behind the mercenaries.
The man's face was covered with red cysts; some of the cysts were broken and there was sticky red pus leaking out of them. The man was holding a leather water pouch in hand and sipping wine from it. The man looked lazy and it felt like that he did not care about the things that were happening around him.
'That man…' Blue light dots flashed in front of Angele's eyes. He noticed that the man was releasing some weak energy waves with ancient bloodline power.
The bloodline power gave felt similar to the bloodline power the sealed forms had.
'He's weak but I'm not mistaken. Also, there's…' Angele glanced at the shadow that was hiding behind a tree in the forest on the right.
"Alright, it's none of our business." Angele tapped on Fra's shoulder. "Go buy the lunch first."
Fra looked at Angele, jumped off the carriage, and walked to the vendor.
Angele stayed in the carriage and covered himself with a gray blanket. Closing his eyes, he made it look like that he was having a nap.
He started checking the dust from the painting he stored in the pouch using his mentality wave again. He wanted to find a way to enter the portal. It was something he did every day.
*************************
It was night. The crescent moon was blocked by the clouds but the moonlight still shined upon the land.
In the dark forest, there were three campfires that were just extinguished, they were still producing some smoke.
The carriages around the campfires looked like three gray circles.
People were sleeping inside the carriages. The guards and the mercenaries were holding iron bars or wide blades in hands. Some of them were having a nap with their backs leaning against the carriages.
In one of the carriages, an adult and a young girl were sleeping under the window. There was barely any light in the carriage.
"Mother…" The girl suddenly started crying and rolled to the adult. She moved closer to the adult unconsciously and grabbed the adult's waist.
*CHI*
Suddenly, something soared through the air outside the carriage.
The adult turned around and escaped from the girls' arms. He quickly opened the window and checked the surroundings. Some gentle moonlight shined upon his face, it was Angele.
He covered Fra's body with the blanket and rubbed her cheeks. He then carefully jumped off the carriage.
Chapter 571: First Glance (2)
Translator: _Leo_ Editor: Kurisu
The window of the carriage was opened; it was quiet and cold outside.
The forest was deadly silent in the night, the only thing that brightened up the area was the gentle moonlight.
Angele left the carriage quietly. There were blue light dots flashing in front of his eyes.
A dark-red string appeared in the forest. The string came from the carriage and quickly expanded deep into the forest.
Angele started following the direction pointed by the string.
He left the camp and the carriages quickly. About ten minutes later, he heard people talking ahead but the wind blurred their voices.
"If it wasn't for you, things would never end up like this!" It sounded like a middle-aged man.
"I told you that I don't know…" The other voice sounded speechless.
"We should've… You promised… Are you trying to…?" The man sounded a bit anxious but the important words were drowned out by the wind.
Angele activated his stealth technique and lightened his footsteps while moving forward. He could finally hear the voice clearly.
He looked at the two people who were talking through the gaps between the bushes but their faces were hard to see under the moonlight. One of them was a mercenary he saw earlier, the other one was a girl in a white outfit. Her skin was clean and her hair was smooth.
'Wait…'
Angele was a bit surprised, he moved closer to the two people and observed the girl carefully. The girl had no breasts and had Adam's apple on her neck. He checked the girl using the mentality wave and realized that it was a man that looked like a girl.
Under the moonlight, the man's cheeks looked pink. He was staring at the middle-aged mercenary with anger in his eyes.
"Do you really think I'll forgive you? No way! If you didn't let that guy leave, we would've succeeded. I'll get everything sorted out tonight."
He took out a pair of black daggers with spikes on the blades. The spikes looked purple under the moonlight.
"Silence!" the man shouted and the two daggers released intense purple light.
All the sounds in the area suddenly disappeared, the effective area of that ability was quite large.
The middle-aged man was surprised, he wanted to say something else but nothing was coming out of his mouth. The man approached the mercenary with the daggers in hand; the mercenary was anxious, he tried to communicate with the man using hand gestures.
The man's expression changed.
"Cut his throat!" The man's voice echoed and an invisible blade appeared at the mercenary's throat.
*DING*
The middle-aged mercenary fell to the ground and a masked woman in black appeared in front of him. The woman had a sharp claw on her hand which blocked the invisible blade.
The mask covered the woman's face, Angele assumed her gender because of her breasts; also, she did not have Adam's apple.
With a flick of her finger, the invisible blade was pushed away, and the blade quickly disappeared into the forest.
"Who are you?" The man looked at the woman in black. "You're strong since you handled my talent ability like it was nothing."
He swang his black daggers and the purple light quickly disappeared.
"I'll just eliminate you if you don't want to talk! Darkness!" the man shouted.
Thick black fog appeared in the forest and covered all the objects in the area.
Angele was almost caught in the smoke, he quickly took more than 30 steps back but he could no longer figure out what was going on in the smoke.
His brow furrowed as red glow surrounded his eyes. He partially activated his true form so that he could see through the smoke.
There were countless tiny insects in the dark smoke; strange substances released by the insects reflected the light in the area—that was why the smoke looked so thick.
Angele's partially activated true form did not help him see through the smoke.
'Such power… It's not a spell. It's more like the power of a bloodline…' Angele compared the energy movements and concluded thus.
Around two minutes later, the thick smoke finally disappeared into the air.
Angele watched the smoke disappear; suddenly, his sight blurred as a black shadow charged toward him.
He quickly raised his hand to block the attack.
*BAM*
The center of Angele's palm was pierced; the wound looked like a large bloody hole. All the flesh was gone and it almost looked that something took a bite off his hand.
The woman in black appeared in front of Angele and started attacking him like crazy.
*BAM BAM BAM*
Angele blocked the attacks and hit her back using his hands and legs. Some translucent energy waves would appear in the air every time they exchanged attacks.
Angele was caught off guard, he hit a tree when he was stepping back and the tree was knocked down.
"Die!"
Stones and mud gathered on his right feet. He looked like a heavy robot that was trying to kick the woman.
*BOOM*
It sounded like something exploded between the two. The white energy waves expanded in all angles.
The energy waves disappeared after traveling for about five meters in the air. The trees in the effective range were all cut down.
Angele's arms were covered with the wounds and the flesh in the wounds was removed. However, his wounds were recovering at full speed and the flesh quickly grew back.
"Why are you going so hard on me?" He chuckled. "I was just curious. I won't do any harm."
The masked woman was kicked in the waist. She put her left hand on a tree and her right hand on her stomach. The woman was breathing heavily while staring at Angele with tears in her eyes.
"I won't let you… touch… him…" She was trying her best to speak but her voice was hoarse and her dialect sounded a bit strange. It felt like that she did not like talking too much. Also, there was blood spurting out of her mouth.
Angele straightened his back and looked at the woman. "Are you here to protect that man? What's your relationship with him? "There was still a smile on his face. "Also, don't lie, I hate it when people lie. I'll kill them all if you don't tell me the truth."
The woman coughed several times.
"He's… my… young brother…" she slowly responded.
Angele did not respond to her words. A red glow appeared around his eyes and reached to the woman in black with his right hand.
He released an invisible energy wave.
However, the energy wave was blocked by an invisible barrier when it reached the woman.
"Huh?" Angele strengthened the energy wave and released more energy waves.
However, all the energy waves were blocked by the barrier.
'It means that her bloodline is stronger than my scorpion woman's bloodline…' Angele checked the information related to the bloodline.
'Don't tell me the level of your bloodline is higher than my ancient bloodline.'
He could not believe the result. The son of the sun, the single-eyed giant, and the scorpion woman, they all had strong ancient bloodlines. The bloodline of scorpion woman could help him check his target's memory and travel through the realms. It was one of the rarest bloodlines one could find.
If the level of a bloodline was higher than another, its bloodline power would also be stronger, and it would not be impacted by the bloodline powers of the bloodlines at lower levels.
"Woman, what kind of bloodline do you have? You're weak but your bloodline is strong." The red light around Angele's eyes got intense.
The masked woman stared at him calmly.
"Your bloodline… is not… from the ancestor…" she responded slowly.
"Ancestor? You mean your bloodline is from one of the ancestors?" Angele's expression turned serious. People with bloodline power feared the ones with bloodlines at higher levels.
Their talent ability would be useless when the opponent had the stronger ability.
Angele looked at the woman, he suddenly had the urge to kill her.
'If I wasn't close to Siva State, I could've gone for bloodlines at higher levels… Sadly, it's too late for me to do that…'
The woman was weak and it would not help even if he extracted the bloodline from her body.
With the help of the Nightmare Realm's realm power, the bloodline level problem was not critical for him. The woman had a strong bloodline but she needed a lot more time to improve and it should not be a problem. The only way for her to improve at a faster rate was to get the help from the realm power of her own realm but she needed to be extremely lucky to do that. Angele wanted to know if the ancestor of her bloodline was still alive, that was his only concern.
Angele thought for a while and decided not to kill the woman.
"My bloodline is one level below yours, however, you're too weak. You need to reach my power level to defeat a legendary knight from the church," Angele responded in a low voice. "To be honest, I'm interested in you and your brother's bloodline. If you need help with a serious injury, you can talk to me, I'll cure you for a price." Angele's smile looked kind and attractive.
He approached the woman and released some green light, the light quickly surrounded the woman's waist.
Several seconds later, the woman stood up and checked her waist. She could not believe what just happened, she did not even feel a thing when the green light was absorbed by her body.
"This one is free, I only fixed your bones and muscles so you still need to rest. Also, take some herbal medicine, I'm sure you can find that." Angele thought for a second and continued, "You have the bloodline power so it means that you're an enemy of the church, right? Anyway, go back and have some rest. No one knows what happened here, I handled it using my illusions."
Angele waved his right hand, turned around, and headed to the camp. The woman hesitated for a second and walked to the two people that fainted on the ground.
Angele turned his head around and glanced at them.
'An ancestor's bloodline… Maybe it'll lead me to Siva State…'
Chapter 572: First Glance (3)
Translator: _Leo_ Editor: Kurisu
Angele returned to the caravan quickly. The camp was quiet; he saw several mercenaries sleeping by the carriages with swords in their arms. Also, there was not much smoke rising from the extinguished campfires.
Angele softened his footsteps and walked to his carriage. He opened the door and lay down next to Fra. He listened to the movements around in the darkness carefully.
He could hear someone walking by but the footsteps faded quickly.
Angele moved to the wall and started thinking about the information he'd collected today.
'I shall be careful if Light Ancestor is behind the church. Although Light Ancestor was defeated, weakened, and sealed, Light Ancestor still has the power to eliminate me easily. I should probably lie low."
Angele recalled the day he met the old eye-gouging dragon. The dragon was probably in a similar situation like him, it was like Lord of Terror without Nightmare Realm's realm power. The old dragon was probably much stronger than the King of eye-gouging dragons and that was the reason why it survived for so long.
In the ancient times, there were three races that had a lot of strong wizards. Chaos Dragons were just one of them. Eye-gouging dragons were part of Chaos Dragons but they already had strong beings like the old dragon. Human beings produced the strongest wizards of the time—they probably had wizards whose power level was higher than the old dragon's.
Light Ancestor destroyed the ancient wizards but the ancient wizards successfully sealed him.
Angele narrowed his eyes.
'Which means… Light Ancestor is at least at Siva State and probably has some terrifying talent abilities.'
Siva State was a power level that was defined by Angele. He considered the individuals that had higher power level than him as individuals who were at Siva State. Siva State could probably be used to describe the ancestors' power level.
However, Angele had no idea what would happen after he reached that level. Individuals at Siva State still had different power levels.
Angele checked the surroundings in the darkness.
*TOOT TOOT*
Owls were making noises outside.
The sky turned from black to gray and some other birds started twittering. The sun was about to rise and the forest got noisy.
Angele suddenly looked at Fra and closed his eyes. He made it look like that he was sleeping.
Fra slowly opened her eyes, she realized that her body was right next to Angele's body and blushed. Fra slowly moved away from Angele and put on her outfit. She then quickly organized her blonde hair and moved to the door of the carriage.
When she was about to reach the door, she suddenly remembered something and returned to Angele. She picked up a damaged crossguard sword beside a wooden case carefully and stared at Angele. For some reason, she did not want Angele to figure out what she was doing.
The crossguard sword had a decent size and was a bit hard to move in the carriage. The wooden case and the sword were right beside Angele. Fra tried her best not to wake Angele up and slowly moved the sword away from Angele.
She moved as slowly as she could.
About ten seconds later, Fra finally held the crossguard sword in her hands. She was tired and her face was red. The crossguard sword weighed around one kilogram. Fra picked it up using one hand; there was cold sweat on her forehead.
Fra took out a red notebook from her own case after acquiring the sword. She put the red notebook into her pocket and started moving to the door again.
*PA*
Suddenly, her butt was slapped.
Fra was surprised, she slowly turned her head around while her body was trembling. It was Angele who just slapped her butt. However, it seemed like Angele was sleeping and what he did was unintentional.
"Damn it, old man! I'll make you pay back during lunchtime! I'll mix some diced flies into your meat, it'll taste good!" Fra cursed in a low voice. Angele's hand was still on her waist and she was still in shock.
The hand slowly slid down her body as she moved forward. It landed on her legs and then fell to the floor.
Fra felt relieved, she quickly crawled out of the carriage and closed the door.
She sat on the driving seat and took out a pair of red leather boots from a wooden box and put them on quickly.
Fra jumped off the carriage with the crossguard sword in hand and walked to the forest.
"Damn it! I hate you, even insects are better than you! I'll beat you up after I master those sword techniques! I should work harder!" Fra felt angry after she recalled what'd just happened in the carriage.
She slashed down the bushes as she walked into the forest. Broken pieces of wood and leaves were everywhere.
"My legendary crossguard sword… Andre is forcing me to work for him to pay back the daily expenses… He also took all my treasures away!" She was still cursing and she was trying to find the best word to describe Angele. Several minutes later, she failed to find the word she wanted.
"Andre, you pig!"
"You pig!" She nodded and repeated the word. That was the best curse she knew.
In the carriage, Angele could no longer hold it—he sat up and started laughing. He looked out of the window and saw Fra cursing while slashing down the bushes.
'Interesting kid… She never did something like this in front of me…'
Shaking his head, Angele crossed his legs and started testing the painting's portal.
He heard that the guards were walking around, it seemed like they finally woke up.
He kept doing simulations until Fra came back. They had breakfast together and the caravan started moving again. The carriage was almost jumping when the wheels ran over large pieces of stones.
Angele got bored; he leaned against the wall and started reading an old novel. Fra was swinging a small branch in her hand, it seemed like she was still practicing.
"Fra, did you wash the clothes?"
"Yeah."
"Did you feed the oxen?"
"Yeah, I bought some long grass from Wade. It's about one bronze coin per meal."
Angele raised his head and glanced at Fra.
"You haven't cleaned the carriage, right? Also, you need to wash my boots."
Fra pursed her lips after hearing the word.
"I'm the one that's paying for everything, you know that, right?" Angele's expression turned serious.
"Go now, use wooden brushes and clean them carefully."
Fra inhaled deeply and glanced at Angele. It seemed like she was cursing at Angele in her mind again.
'I'll definitely make your lunch taste better!' she shouted in mind.
"Alright, just go, thanks." Angele smiled and patted the girl's shoulders. "Work hard. I need to leave the carriage for a minute."
He jumped off the carriage and started walking. Angele turned his head around and made sure that Fra already started working.
'If she only practices the sword techniques, she won't have enough strength to maximize the power. She needs those work,' Angele thought. He ran to one of the carriages in the front.
There were two mercenaries around the carriage, walking while chewing something. It seemed like they were still sleepy.
Angele approached them.
"Hey, do you know where Heli is?"
One of the mercenaries glanced at Angele.
"Heli? He's sick. Why?"
Angele threw a silver coin to the man's hand accurately.
A smile appeared on the man's face right away.
"Well, I can take you to him, but he's really sick. He's resting in one of the carriages behind."
The man started walking after finishing these words. Angele followed after him and went past his own carriage. They reached the end of the caravan—a bunch of oxcarts.
There were several sick men and women lying on the carts. Their faces were pale and they looked tired.
The man stopped after seeing the situation.
"You can find him here, I don't want to be infected. You should stay away from them too." He pursed his lips and left.
The people in the carts were groaning. Angele found the man he saw last night in one of the carts on the left.
The man's face was pale but it seemed like his situation was a bit different from the others'. His body would only move when the cart was shaking.
Angele jumped into the cart and sat by the man.
"Young man, you're dying… I have some drug that'll cure you. What do you think?" He smiled and looked at the middle-aged man. "I think something that happened last night was the problem."
The man named Heli was surprised after hearing these words.
"How do you know that?" He was hunted down by a woman with strange power. The woman accused him of breaking a promise, but he did not remember what he did. His head was still dizzy.
If the masked woman had not helped him, he would already have been dead.
Heli thought for a while and observed the man talking to him.
It was a young man with a pair of dark-red eyes. However, it seemed like the young man thought he was older than Heli. The young man had smooth skin and some mustache, he looked like a man from a noble family. Also, the smile on his face was making Heli feel uncomfortable for some reason.
The young man was wearing a linen outfit but still looked like he was from a rich family. His long red hair was nice and clean.
Angele chuckled.
"Of course I know." He lay down by Heli and lowered his voice as he spoke, "I also know that you were saved by a masked woman. If the masked woman hadn't appeared, you would already have been dead, right?"
Heli was even more surprised after hearing these words; he tried to sit up.
"Who are you?! Wait, do you know who I am?" Heli lost part of his memory. He met several people that claimed they knew him. They either hated him or felt sorry for him. There were also people who tried to kill him.
Heli only knew that he woke up in a random valley but he was not sure why there were so many people going after him, including the feminine man he encountered last night. Those people all had special powers.
"I know you've lost your memory…" Angele smiled and looked at the sky.
The clean blue sky looked like a large piece of sapphire, while the clouds in the sky looked like smoke balls. The sun was warm and nice, its golden light illuminated the ground gently.
Angele could smell the refreshing fragrance of random flowers and grass in the wind.
"I also know that you're different. You have something that others don't have," he continued before Heli could say anything. "However, I don't know who you are. I'm just curious."
Angele turned his head to the right and found a thin man in gray lying in the cart.
The man's face was pale and he looked like he might die at any time. There was a short wooden bar in his right hand; he held the bar so tight that it felt like the wooden bar was a treasure to him.
The man noticed that Angele was looking at him, he turned to Angele and narrowed his eyes.
"Do you know me?" The man had a pair of green eyes and a hoarse voice, it sounded like he had not drunk water for days.
Angele and Heli looked at the man after hearing the voice.
Heli looked at the man and found the man familiar. However, he could not remember who the man was; he rubbed his temples and tried his best to think.
Angele looked at the man because he noticed something different. Also, the man's sight was piercing through his body when he stared at Angele. It was something that did not happen to Angele often.
Chapter 573: First Glance (4)
Translator: _Leo_ Editor: Kurisu
"Young man…" The man had a hoarse voice; he was staring at Angele.
"I can see you in my eyes, however, you didn't change…"
Angele had no idea what the man was talking about. He could feel that the man's eyes had strong power, however, it seemed like the power was not about dealing damage—it was something else. He thought that he was being stared at by something unknown.
He glanced at Heli; the man that lost part of his memory was still confused but Heli was paying attention to the situation.
Angele lowered his head. He noticed that the short bar in the man's hand only had the length of an arm and the width of two fingers. The black surface of the bar was covered with many scratches.
For some reason, Angele thought that the short bar was dangerous. Although the man was weak like an infant that could die at any time, the bar had a strange power in it. Angele felt like the whole situation was hard to explain; usually, weak individuals did not get to keep strong items.
"You're… different." Angele smiled as blue light dots flashed in front of his eyes. He scanned the man's body and noticed that the man was about to die. "You give me a feeling that you're going to die soon but… It also feels like that you'll never die…"
"Don't worry about him, young man, he's crazy. He would dance while screaming when he's having problems," an old woman on the side advised.
A young man from another cart added, "Yeah, he was crazy last night. He kept hitting a piece of wood using his head and almost died. We tried our best to stop him... actually, we saved his life."
Angele smiled but he did not respond. He stood up and jumped off the carriage.
"Alright, I need to leave now. You can find me in the third carriage on the right."
Heli heard the word and watched Angele leave. He wanted to stop Angele and talk to him but did not do so.
The man with green eyes lay back down with the short bar still in his hand.
"You can't defeat me…" he muttered as some cracks appeared on the surface of his bar.
There were green vortexes that were spinning slowly in the man's eyes. The green vortexes were hard to notice unless they were observed closely.
Cold sweat appeared on his face and his face turned pale.
"No one can defeat me! No one!" The man was groaning but he sounded confident; he held the short bar even tighter.
Angele suddenly turned his head around and looked at the man with a serious expression on his face.
*********************
Angele returned to his carriage and traveled with the caravan. He encountered another private caravan three days later. Heli decided to leave the caravan after the feminine man approached him again. Strangely, the man with green eyes also left the caravan; for some reason, the leader of the private caravan just let them join without asking any questions.
He realized that the man with green eyes and the feminine man were all going after Heli.
Heli might be the key character in this event; also, the ancestor's bloodline in Heli's body attracted Angele for certain reasons. Angele decided to join that private caravan with Fra.
They purchased an oxcart and followed after the private caravan. He did not care where the caravan was heading to.
Five days later…
Fra, who sat in front of the oxcart, asked, "Why are we following them?"
She sounded a bit disappointed.
She'd put some green flies into Angele's potato soup several days ago. However, Angele said he wanted Fra's soup and switched the two bowls.
Fra was upset after Angele switched the bowl. She decided not to drink the potato soup with green flies inside and had to finish the dry pancakes without the soup.
Fra felt angry every time she thought about her failed prank and kept glancing at Angele.
Angele, who was sitting beside her with a whip in hand, leaned against the seat as he heard Fra's question.
"It's the first time I saw a man that's prettier than a woman, so I decided to observe him." Angele sighed. He sounded lazy.
"I thought we were heading to the Snow Tree City…" Fra's eyes were wide open.
"I changed my mind, I want to visit Truffle City now," Angele responded calmly.
"You…" Fra was speechless. Raising her head, she looked forward.
There was a large white carriage in front of them. She could see what was happening inside through the window.
The middle-aged man named Heli was sitting with the feminine man. Different dishes, fruits, and desserts lined up on the table in front of them; there was also a whole roasted goose.
A noble woman with long black hair in a black outfit was sitting opposite them. The woman, who was wearing a silver headband, had an attractive smile on her face.
The woman was talking to Heli and the feminine man while eating the desserts. Her movements were polite and gentle. It almost felt like talking while eating was a common thing for her.
Fra looked at the food on the table and swallowed.
"I want some of that…"
"Work hard and save money then. You'll be able to enjoy a lunch like that one day," Angele said and smiled. He did not care that Fra was glaring at him again. His sight fell upon a weak horse on the right side of the caravan; the horse was walking slowly along the forest.
It was a brown horse that looked weak and tired. The man with green eyes was riding the horse—he was wearing the same outfit and his face still looked pale. His body was shaking as the horse moved, it felt like that he could fell off the horse at any time.
'The man is hiding his true power…' Angele guessed. 'Wait, it might be a different situation.' He looked at the short bar in the man's hand.
'That's the problem…' Angele could feel the terrifying power in the short bar—it felt like he was looking at an endless abyss. The dark power inside the bar was infinite. Although Angele recovered his power, he still felt like it was looking like a dark sea.
'The man is weak but his soul is strong. He's fighting against the dark power inside the bar,' Angele assumed, 'which means he's a mortal with a powerful artifact…'
It seemed like the man with green eyes was familiar with the short bar; however, his soul was too weak for the artifact and he was still trying to control its power.
Also, the man's soul was not blue like normal souls, it looked gray and was getting darker slowly.
Several minutes later, Angele suddenly looked to the right and found something strange in the forest.
Under the golden sunlight, there was a group of people wearing red leather pants and black cloaks approaching the caravan from the side. There were around ten people in the group, all holding silver scimitars in hands.
They were all looking at the man with green eyes who was riding the horse.
"Amber, we finally found you," the leader of the group spoke. The voice sounded like it was from a young girl. "You shall not escape this time!"
After the leader finished these words, silver crescent moons appeared in the black cloaks' eyes. They increased their speed and charged toward the man with green eyes.
The man raised his bar and was about to fight back, however, he suddenly coughed and spat out some blood. He fell off the horse and hit the ground. The man was suffering after the impact.
The horse was surprised and neighed loudly.
"Who's there?!"
"Bandits! Eliminate them!"
The guards of the caravan noticed the invaders and drew their blades. There were around ten guards—they separated into two groups, with one half protecting the caravan while the rest charged at the black cloaks.
The fight was intense. Angele could hear the noise made by metal objects hitting each other. The guards were well-trained, however, it seemed like the black cloaks were stronger than them.
The guards were wearing leather armor, but it was like paper to the silver scimitars. They quickly retreated to the caravan.
"I'll take care of them!" The mercenary named Heli jumped off the carriage and charged at the black cloaks with a silver blade in hand.
He looked like a fish that was swimming in a pool. He quickly dodged the attacks and cut two black cloaks' throats open; however, he was stopped by a black scimitar when he was about to go for the next target.
It was the leader—they traded hits around the trees. The guards and other black cloaks did not want to get caught in the fight so they stayed away from the two. One of the black cloaks still stood too close to them and his head was sliced off.
Angele made it look like he was scared but he was observing the situation. Angele wondered why the feminine man did not join the battle—he should have the power to eliminate all of the black cloaks but he just stood there and watched the fight.
The good thing was that the man did not see Angele's face that night.
"Ah!"
One of the black cloaks screamed as he was kicked away. He rolled several times and hit Angele's cart hard. The black cloak stood up with a pair of red eyes, his face covered with bloody wounds.
"Damn it!" he cursed in a low voice. Suddenly, he turned to Fra and Angele.
"Die!" He aimed at Fra and slashed forward.
"Don't worry, Andre! I'll protect you!" Fra was holding the damaged sword in hand and her face was pale. Although she was trembling due to fear, she still stood in front of Angele.
*BAM*
The bandit missed the strike, his scimitar hit the edge of the cart and he was having trouble pulling it out.
Fra was not prepared for a real battle; she was scared, however, the attack from the bandit made her move. She held the sword tight and slashed forward.
"Ah!" she screamed and closed her eyes while hitting the bandit.
*PA*
The sword hit the bandit's chest, however, it was blocked by the man's leather armor.
Fra finally opened her eyes. The bandit pulled the scimitar out of the cart and slashed forward—this time, the scimitar hit the blade of Fra's sword.
Fra's sword moved upward due to the impact and its handle hit the forehead of the bandit by accident.
The bandit's eyes rolled up and he fell to the ground.
Fra was surprised, she had no idea what'd just happened.
"Thank you!" Angele put his hands on the girl's shoulders and looked at her. "You're a hero, Fra! Without you, I would already be dead! Thank you so much!"
Fra could not believe that she defeated the bandit as she looked at the sword in her hand.
"Maybe the soul of the hero protected me?" she muttered.
Although she practiced the sword techniques for so long, she did not use any of them during the battle. The bandit made a mistake and Fra won the battle accidentally.