After leaving Sunders’ room, Angor walked down the stairs and halted at a fork. The left led to the deck of The Savage airship while the right side would take him to the cabins.
A moment later, Angor walked onto the deck. There were no people here. Angor stretched himself and approached the safety fence.
The cold breeze in the evening flipped his clothes up like blowing a broken balloon.
Angor felt really refreshed after a day and a night’s sleep. However, he also felt his mind somewhat confused, so he came here to relax in the cold air.
His travel in the Nightmare Realm appeared peaceful to onlookers, but Angor knew how tensed up he was. When he was flying in the maze, every turn made his heart heavier because he always feared some monsters were waiting for him. He managed to suppress all the pressure using his mental capabilities. Once he returned, the pressure came springing back as well.
Such kind of backfire prevented him from doing anything efficiently even if he rested his spirit. He really wanted to go back to his room and start training on the channeling method now so that he could see the world of supernaturals earlier. Yet, he controlled his urge.
The airship cruised under the starry sky and among the clouds.
Angor leaned against the fence and closed his eyes to enjoy the cold yet pleasant peace.
Suddenly, he felt someone nudging him on the back, which shocked him. There was only empty space thousands of meters above the ground behind him, so how…
He turned around immediately.
He saw a pair of bare feet in front of him. It was Flora. Also, she did not nudge him. She was giving the boy a playful kick.
Flora floated in the air and looked at Angor with a smiley face.
“You’re too young to act all pretentious. What are you thinking about anyway?” Flora squinted her eyes. “Are you in love? I saw you having a great time with that Nausica. Did you two… Heehee.”
Angor was not really in good condition to work his brain now, so he did not try to use his manners in front of Flora. He only greeted her casually. As for Flora’s joke, the boy only gave a lazy response, “I don’t even know where my life will take me to, and I really don’t have time for these matters. Miss Flora, pray stop your teasing.”
Angor was still young to know love. He was not interested in love. He would rather avoid thinking about it.
“Okay,” Flora did not insist on it. She then said, “I’m here to deliver something.”
Angor glanced at her. The woman took out a white, round object out of thin air and tossed it to Angor.
“The professor decided to take the dagger and magic cane away, as his memento. As compensation, he asked me to come.”
Using the gentle moonlight, Angor observed the thin, round item with an uneven surface. It looked like a big button. The material felt hard, but it was not cold like metal or porcelain. Was it made of bone?
The front side of the “button” had the word “Brute Cavern” printed on it, and the image of a burning flame. Angor knew that this was Brute Cavern’s emblem.
“This is an anonymous Bone Card with ten thousand merit points in it. Once you get yourself a name card, you can transfer the points under your name. Merits point act as a common currency in Brute Cavern. You need points to buy materials, learn lessons or exchange for items. These points are the compensation professor paid you.”
Flora did not tarry. She waved goodbye at Angor and floated away right away.
Bone Card? Yes, this was made of bone alright.
Angor gladly took the card. After spending so much time in Sunders’ library, Angor clearly knew what he could do with the merit points. Ten thousand was not much though. These points held value similar to a hundred magic crystals or so.
A hundred magic crystals were quite a fortune to apprentices. To wizards… negligible.
“A good amount of magic crystals before reaching Brute Cavern,” Angor put away the card and mumbled happily. Combined with the bag of crystals from Greya, Angor possessed 130 magic crystals now. He could be considered pretty rich among most apprentices.
With the help of his new income, Angor’s laziness disappeared a lot. He rubbed his sore temples, picked up the two oil painting from the floor and left the deck.
Once he was back in his room, Angor put the paintings aside. He closed the door and then lied on the bed.
His first task was the check his recordings. He even took out his blanket and covered himself up before taking out his pocket watch, just in case.
Unlike when he was in the Nightmare Realm, the hologram tablet started up just fine. Angor saw his recordings soon.
After going through the folder with his videos and images and saw all the files he saved, Angor let out a sigh in relief.
Seemed like the recordings worked as intended during his journey in the Nightmare Realm. However, Angor could not help but wonder how did he manage to take the tablet with him. According to Sunders, the clothes on his soul were not real. Anything on him would not break at all. Like how he did not bleed out under younger Sunders’ attack.
Then why didn’t the hologram tablet obey such rules? The tablet went into the Nightmare Realm as a solid object?
Angor did not know. He had to wait for another chance to prove his idea by going to that place again.
Now that he knew his recordings were not lost, all was good. Otherwise, he would be really frustrated about it.
Since the recordings were safe, Angor did not proceed to read the contents right away. He opened a video with the intention to check whether the Milking Shepherd was a false memory.
He did not see such a painting when he stepped into the hallway for the first time. During the second trip though, the painting somehow appeared in front of him.
He was unsure if he simply remembered wrongly, or if there was some other reason. He wanted to make sure now.
The video was pretty long. Angor moved the progress bar to the point when he entered the warden’s passageway.
In the video, Angor was observing the oil paintings along the walls while walking in the golden hallway.
The camera was not really stable, but Angor could still see the paintings when the camera went over them.
Angor did not stop walking in the video. Soon, he saw Traveler Under Stars.
And… there! When a black oil painting came into view, Angor pressed Pause.