After some weightlessness experience, Angor received a complicated feeling, which covered his entire body.
Compared with the itchiness upon entering the Nightmare Realm, this one felt more “muddy”, as if mixing fresh water with dirt. All in all, Angor felt somewhat terrible.
Angor took a guess that the itchiness was from when his soul left his body. When he was back here, his “fresh” soul was hurled back inside his “muddy” body.
When his soul and body completely joined each other, Angor slowly opened his eyes.
“Oh my, Angor sweetie, you have some pretty good tastes. You even brought two paintings back,” Flora’s clear yet seductive voice echoed in the room.
Paintings?
Angor lowered his head and found himself sitting on the floor with two paintings pinched under his arms. Two exact ones he brought from the golden hallway: Traveler Under Stars, and Milking Shepherd.
However, he did not have time to check on the paintings. His mind was filled up by the terrible hand that caught his ankle.
Angor looked at Sunders.
The man was standing beside Flora. He looked a bit tired, but he was fine except that his clothes were a little messed up.
“Professor, was that a… monster?” asked Angor. He was eager for an answer.
If so, why did that hand look more like a human hand? So was that a human? Or… another projection of some wizard, like younger Sunders?
Sunders considered, trying to think about the assault when they left the Nightmare Realm.
After a while, Sunders slowly said, “I don’t know either. I didn’t see its face. But… it must be something very strong, considering it can shatter the Stairs of Hanging Prison from so far. Might be a legendary being.”
“What?! The Stairs of Hanging Prison is shattered?” Flora yelled. She had been to Garden of Labyrinth, or, the Nether City, before, together with Sunders. She clearly knew what the Stairs of Hanging Prison meant.
“Stairs of Hanging Prison? The staircase floating in the darkness?” Angor was puzzled.
“Ooh, you don’t know about this? Wait, so you didn’t go to the Stairs of Hanging Prison with the professor?” asked Flora as she looked at Angor in disbelief. Did the boy get to the stairs on his own?
Sunders chuckled.
“In fact, Angor reached it earlier than I did. I only saw him in the last moment, before we came back,” Sunders explained to Flora. He then looked at Angor again as he said, “Yes, the Stairs of Hanging Prison were the ones you climbed in darkness. It is a vast prison. You clearly saw many rooms on your way. Those are prisoner cells. If you already read the books in the study, you should know that the owner of the study is warden of the prison.”
Flora walked around Angor doubtfully, while giving out several “tsk tsk” now and then.
“Heavenly hell… Angor sweetie made it to the Stairs of Hanging Prison all by himself? You really have some luck. I see the professor made the right choice by bringing you in. You even brought your luck to us,” said Flora. She then exaggerated, “Fine. Go become an academism wizard all you like, I won’t stop you. Behave like a lucky baby and let us take care of the hunting.”
Sunders agreed. The man was very satisfied with his new pupil. He looked at Angor – who was still wearing a terrified expression – and spoke in a plain tone, “Don’t think too much about that monster in the end. At least we escaped, and we won’t go there again anytime soon. I’ll look into the monster later.”
Flora joined him, “A monster who can destroy the Stairs of Hanging Prison isn’t something we can manage anyway. You’re away from the Nightmare Realm now. Just relax. Oh right, what about the channeling method book this time, professor?”
Flora looked at Sunders.
Sunders looked surprised. He just realized what Flora was asking about.
Flora already got her answer.
“You forgot it again!” Flora shrugged. She expected such an outcome.
“Indeed,” Sunders sat back on his chair in front of his desk and pondered over his travel in the Nightmare Realm. He remembered his adolescent memory which was hidden by the plane and everything that happened inside the hall. Everything except the book.
He could not even remember the name of the book.
Next, Sunders watched Flora looking at the two paintings happily. He believed he asked Angor to take special items from the Nightmare Realm to test out the boy’s talent. Surely the items included the book?
Sunders noticed that Angor was still in a trance, so he decided not to bother the boy for now. He simply cast a spell to check the objects on Angor’s body.
With the help of “Truesight”, everything carried by Angor was clear to see.
Angor was carrying a lot of stuff apart from his clothing. The first thing that attracted Sunders was a glass sphere hanging on Angor’s neck. It was only an ordinary glass ball, not something from the Nightmare Realm.
Then, the potion glass in Angor’s pocket.
There was dark liquid wavering in the glass. When observed carefully, Sunders saw pale blue traces flowing inside. If anyone uncapped the bottle, they would feel a cold aura as if they were staying in winter.
“So Angor’s Nightmare Form is truly special. Other than the paintings, he managed to bring back the Potion of Austere Night.”
The Potion of Austere Night reminded Sunders of the other objects.
The man saw a bronze pocket watch in the same pocket as the potion glass. He did not pay much attention to it. Sunders saw Angor using the watch before. It was not a Nightmare Realm product either.
He kept looking and saw the dagger and magic cane hanging on the boy’s waist.
Sunders waved a hand. The two weapons shook free from Angor and floated toward him.
Flora saw the objects as well.
“Why is Angor carrying The Dagger of Thorned Rose? And the cane… I think I know it. Isn’t that the issued magic cane from our organization?”
Sunders did not explain where the weapons came from. He continued checking Angor’s possessions.
The man scanned Angor from head to toe using Truesight spell again. He did not find anything else.
“So Angor failed to take the book out?” Sunders could only sigh in disappointment. It seemed he was destined to be separated from the book.
Sunders did not conceal his action, so Flora realized what he was doing and scanned Angor herself.
“Tsk-tsk. Angor have a lot of stuff on him! Potion of Austere Night? How did you get that? Oh, did Greya give it to you? And that old pocket watch, you’re still using it?” Flora commented on Angor’s items.
She ended her words with another eerie chuckle, “Heeheehee. You’re young, but you have a fine body!”
Angor’s mind was not clear enough to realize that he just had himself looked thoroughly by someone else. Otherwise, Angor would be really relieved that neither Sunders nor Flora noticed his Alien Eye or hologram tablet.
…
“He didn’t take the channeling method book here, so we need something else for Angor’s channeling training,” Flora exclaimed.
Sunders did not speak. Angor’s talent already surprised him much. The boy brought back two special objects from the Nightmare Realm, the Potion of Austere Night and the magic cane. As for ordinary items, Angor took them all. This was way better than Sunders’ previous attempts.
He probably guessed right. If Nightmare Forms were really divided by classes, Angor definitely had a higher class than him.
“It’s fine. This is our destiny too. Once we’re back at Brute Cavern, Angor can apply for using Montaus’ Octahedrite Channeling,” Sunders commented.
However, Angor interrupted them.
“Um, Montaus’ Octahedrite Channeling? I’m not going to use Singularity Dispersive Meditation?”