“Angor, let’s become neighbors,” said Sailum.
Angor smiled and agreed. Compared to Nausica, Angor preferred the companionship of Sailum since he was just a simple and innocent boy whose ideas were pretty obvious. Nausica, on the other hand, appeared to be friendly, but Angor could never make out what the woman was really thinking about.
Next, Sailum went to Nausica. He asked the same thing and got the same answer quickly. The three of them then teamed up and began to look for a suitable place in the underground caves.
There were directional signs everywhere, but it was still easy to get lost if they went too deep into the caves. After looking around for about half an hour, they decided to make a spot close to the surface with two venting pipes as their home point.
Angor went into his own room and frowned when he was immediately welcomed by a rotten smell. Like what Abelle said, there was nothing in the room beside a dirt pile. Angor could still live with this. He just needed to get his own furniture.
However, he could not accept the door.
Previously, he thought these iron doors were pretty sturdy and could at least prevent a forceful breach. However, the lock of the door was actually a simple iron chain.
He left his room and walked along the passage for a minute to reach another room right under one of the venting pipes.
The door was unlocked. Angor still knocked and waited for a “Come in” before going in.
“Cough! Ack—”
Angor was choked by the smoke inside the room.
A mature and elegant-looking lady wearing soft armor was smoking from her long smoking pipe while leaning against a wall, surrounded by smoke clouds.
Nausica gave Angor a curious look and asked, “What? Miss me already?”
Angor did not feel embarrassed by her joke at all. He just covered his nose so he could inhale less smoke as he asked, “Nausica, can I borrow your sword?”
As a former pirate captain who fought on the sea for many years, Nausica always carried her personal weapon—a thin dueling sword strapped on her waist.
The weapon looked thin, but Angor witnessed its sharpness back at Twilight Town when Nausica easily slashed a boulder in half.
Nausica flipped some hair away from her eyes, put her pipe on the dirt pile, and tossed the sword to Angor without a second thought. She did not even ask why. After that, she resumed her smoking.
Angor raised an eyebrow at her swift decision. Angor prepared an excuse, but now it seemed he did not need it.
He took the sword back to his own room and using only a small force, he tried cutting the iron chain.
The iron chain snapped and fell to the ground. The impact caused a metal clunking noise.
Angor grimaced at the result. He thought the door lock could at least withstand basic weapon attacks. Now he just proved that this place was unsafe.
Anyone could easily break into his room. The door was meaningless. Not to mention there were a lot of other apprentices living down here.
This room could not guarantee anything. No privacy, no personal safety.
Angor carried a lot of secrets on himself. What if someone barged in when he was using his hologram tablet? Or if someone came and stole his valuable potion while he was away?
Hookdick and his men all had grudge against him. If they messed with his meditation training or used some kind of small tricks to harm him, how could he protect himself?
Thinking about this, Angor made up his mind to find somewhere else to live in.
…
Angor put the sleeping Toby into his pocket and left the Cave Field.
Back in the resource distribution hall, Sunders mentioned about sending a familiar to help Angor learn his way around. Angor also planned to use this chance to ask about rental prices in the apprentice towns. He had an anonymous bone card on him which had 10,000 merit points in it. If he combined it with the 30 magic crystals Greya gave him, Angor believed he should have enough to rent a room. The underground cave was out of the question, so he could only hope to find a room in the town.
Once on the surface, he saw a small demon falcon hovering in the air. Angor saw it before on The Savage. It was Sunders’ alchemy familiar. Angor simply needed to follow behind it.
With the demon falcon taking the lead, Angor boarded a sky bus again. He looked outside the bus carefully and noticed that every corner in the entire Tree Spirit Garden was connected to the Tree of Eternity by cable vines. There were other buses moving along the vines, either with passengers in them or empty.
His bus stopped at a platform on a giant leaf. The platform was called “The Falling Cloud Stop”, which was about 300 meters above the ground. The clouds flowing beneath the leaf created a dreamy scene. Angor followed the demon falcon and walked among the misty clouds for a while. After going over several branches, he stopped on the edge of the leaf.
The demon falcon was still urging him to go ahead. But… there was no footing!
Angor hesitated. The demon falcon indicated that he was walking in the right direction. So why could he not see any way ahead? Three hundred meters in the air… If he fell from here, he would absolutely end up as a pile of mash.
He looked at the endless clouds in front of him and thought to himself.
Maybe there is a road in the sky?
He tried reaching out a foot. It landed on something steady.
So there is a way!
An invisible one, which started from the edge of the leaf and led to somewhere unknown.
Angor walked in the air with a bit of fear. There were only blue sky and snow-white clouds around him. This would be a good scenery if not for his trembling legs.
Angor walked on the twisting sky road for about ten minutes, and finally reached a small floating island made from sandstone. When he stepped on the island, his legs stopped trembling. Angor sat on the island and rested for a while before he continued to follow the demon falcon.
There were many such floating islands around the Tree of Eternity, and the one he was walking on was relatively small. Still, it looked beautiful. The island was about a dozen square kilometers large. Different plants grew everywhere. It also had some unknown animals. Angor saw several fierce-looking beasts on his way there, but they all ignored the boy’s presence.
Some of the beasts appeared as if they came out of a fairytale. For example, Angor saw a snow-white horse with a pair of wings growing on its back. If it had a horn, it would look exactly like those unicorns who only adored innocent virgins.
However, upon closer look, the horse was a little bit different from the stories. The wings were not naturally grown. Angor could see traces of suture work at the wings’ base as if someone put them on the horse.
Angor suddenly recalled that when he was reading in Sunders’ library, he had read about a spell scroll called Canine Nose Transplant. The spell was used to give someone a superior sense of smell by transplanting a canine nose on him. If the user wanted to avoid looking ugly, there was also Facial Surgery spell and similar stuff. Those who did not mind carrying a dog nose around could just live with it.
Angor felt something familiar between the horse’s wings and the Canine Nose Transplant spell.
After going around another small hill, Angor reached his destination—a delicately-built nobleman’s manor.
Angor knew that Sunders was from a noble family in a small country before he became a wizard. Angor even met “younger Sunders” in the Nightmare Realm. Both the middle-aged Sunders and the young one presented the same, unconcealed noble temperament.
Also, Sunders’ daily clothing was a gentleman costume. So Angor was not surprised when he saw this beautiful nobleman’s manor.
Once inside the manor, the demon falcon took Angor to Sunders’ study.
Angor knocked on the door.
“Professor?”
When stepping into the study, instead of looking at Sunders, Angor’s attention was first drawn to the countless bookshelves and bookcases which reached all the way to the ceiling. Angor almost felt dizzy just by looking at them.
“Do you remember the way to the Phantom Island?”
Phantom Island?
Angor froze up for a full second and realized that Sunders was titled the “Phantom Master”. So Phantom Island was probably referring to this island.
Angor quickly nodded. He was all tensed up on his way here, but he still memorized the path.
“Good. If you have questions when studying the channeling method, come here and ask me. If you can’t find me here, go to Flora,” said Sunders. He was sitting in front of his desk with Singularity Dispersive Meditation placed right there. The man was probably reading the book before Angor came.
“Understood,” replied Angor as he nodded politely.
“Off you go then,” said Sunders. He never looked up when talking to the boy.
Angor hesitated a bit. He thought Sunders called him for something else. So the man really was showing him the way?
“One more thing, no matter who you come for, don’t forget to bring the coin I gave you. Without the coin, the creatures will attack you the second you step onto Phantom Island,” Sunders added.
“Yes, professor.”
“Okay. Learn the channeling method as fast as you can or you’ll have a hard time living in this place.”
…
Angor returned to the Falling Cloud Stop by backtracking his way. He saw another two people at the stop, waiting for the sky bus.
They noticed Angor’s arrival. They were not paying much attention first, but after checking Angor’s face carefully, the shorter boy was mildly surprised. He took out a crystal ball from his robe, which shined something and displayed an image in it.
The image showed the resource distribution hall. There were many people in there with Angor being in the center.
“You’re Angor?”
The short boy looked between the image and the real Angor standing on the side.
Angor wanted to avoid trouble, so he had been standing far away. However, the short boy still moved to him and stared at him.
“I’m Angor, and you are?” Angor was unsure of how the boy knew his name.
The boy smiled back in a skilled socializer’s manner as he said, “Name’s Porry. That’s my friend, Hatter.”
He pointed to the other boy wearing a pair of rimless glasses.
“You’re really Angor?”
Angor nodded, still wondering how he was recognized.
When Angor confirmed his name, Porry and Hatter both gave him an admiring look.
“You’re pretty famous around here!” said Porry as he showed his crystal ball to Angor.
Angor checked the image of the resource hall.
“You’re here, which means you went to Mister Sunders’ Phantom Island? So you’re really Mister Sunders’ new student!” Porry exclaimed.
Angor let out a silly smile in response.
“I reckon everyone already heard about you now. I mean, Mister Sunders found a student! This is big news!”
Porry kept talking after they boarded their bus, and he never noticed that he was making Angor embarrassed. Hatter did not talk much, but he still showed jealousy in his eyes.
Angor finally escaped from the chatterbox when he got off the bus.
This incident just told him that he was now a famous figure among apprentices and it probably meant something bad. Getting attention from all kinds of people meant his every move would arouse suspicion and danger.
He had to find a place of residence quickly.
With that in mind, he changed his original destination from the Cave Field to the apprentice town.
The town already looked bustling from the distance. Now as he walked closer, it appeared even more magnificent. Angor saw several giant buildings about two dozen meters high. The buildings were all in different styles. Some were swamp structures, some were built with fantasy designs. He even saw shell houses which were similar to those used in Heylan Empire. However, he did not find anything from his home, Goldspink.
The differently-designed buildings existed in harmony. The town was probably built by a skilled designer. At least Angor would never know how to mix shell houses, tree houses, and metal skyscrapers together without creating a bizarre sight.
An hour later, Angor left the Apprentice Town Eight with a big smile on his face.
Looked like being famous was not all about bad things. When Angor went to the town manager and asked to rent a room, the manager immediately recognized him and helped him pick a room with great enthusiasm. The manager even took care of his furniture.
Angor only spent 500 merit points for permission to use a villa with a flower garden for one year. The points equaled to five magic crystals. This was big money. However, considering the villa’s decent security level as well as its place within the concentration magic array which could improve his meditation efficiency, five magic crystals were completely worth it.
His newly rented garden villa possessed three basic magic arrays: Sound Proof, Protection, and Spell Inhibition. They were low-level magic arrays but were enough for Angor. The apprentice town was mostly populated by apprentice wizards. These three basic magic arrays could prevent most apprentices from doing harm. Even if someone managed to break through, the protection could give Angor enough time to react, so no one would see his secret that easily.
Angor returned to the Cave Field. It took him some time to find his room inside the maze-like underground structure.
He saw Sailum and Nausica chatting in front of his door.
“What’s going on?” asked Angor. He was puzzled to see them here.
Nausica pointed at the broken chain on the ground and explained, “Sailum saw your door chain broken and he was worried that someone might steal your stuff. He asked me to be your gatekeeper.”
Angor looked at the chain, which was broken down by himself, then at Sailum, who was expecting a thank-you with a joyful expression. Angor felt warmth in his heart and thanked Sailum politely.
“You broke the chain yourself, right?” asked Nausica. She took out her dueling sword and said, “With this?”
Angor nodded.
“But why? Bad guys might come. You know, Hookdick, Fosah… They aren’t friendly to you,” Sailum wondered.
“The lock is useless, whether broken or not,” said Nausica. She squinted her eyes and when she realized something, she asked, “Hey, Angor… You’re not going to live somewhere else, are you?”