“It has something to do with the Supreme Cult. You only need to know that any wizard who discovers an unregistered foreign life form is obliged to recover it.”
Supreme Cult? Recover? Angor did not know anything about this Supreme Cult, but the name suggested it was something religious. Also, the word “recover” sounded terrifying.
Angor thought about Jon. If Jon was found out… would he be “recovered”?
“Professor, what do you mean by recover?” Angor forced a calm expression and pretended to be curious.
“Recover means to make it non-existent anymore.”
Non-existent… From these simple words, Angor only saw blood and terror.
“So, Balba…” Angor finally understood why Balba appeared friendly to him. The aura on him which was “being rejected by this world” was almost the same as the one on Jon.
“If things go as planned, we’ll wait until Balba grows a little stronger, fuse a powerful bloodline into him, and make him into a puppet avatar,” said Sunders. He had determined Balba’s fate with a plain tone.
Angor was terrified. So Balba’s destiny was already sealed from the start. Thinking about Jon, Angor could not help worrying for Balba as well.
Angor quickly got rid of his sad emotion. Thank goodness his teacher was at the Old Earth where there were no wizards at all. Otherwise, Jon would easily follow Balba’s example.
“Do you remember any ordinary channeling methods?” Sunders suddenly asked.
“Ordinary ones? Like, Triangle Channeling?” Angor read about a number of them in Sunders’ book room, but he never tried to learn them.
“That’s right.”
“Yes, I know some of them.”
Sunders nodded and said, “Very well. When you go back there, just pick one and give it to Balba. If he asks, tell him that Flora is away for now.”
Angor was speechless. That was some careless way of teaching.
“Yes, professor. I’ll take my leave,” said Angor as he prepared to depart.
“Wait.”
Angor halted.
Sunders considered something for a moment before speaking again, “Since you came at such a time, this might be your destiny too.”
Angor was puzzled at those words.
Sunders reached out his left hand and touched a button on his sleeve – a button with Sunders’ family emblem on it.
Next, the man pulled his hand in the air, and a crystal bottle with a metal base and multiple holes on it appeared in his palm.
Sunders tossed the bottle to Angor.
Angor looked at the item in his hand and saw pale light coming from the metal base. There was rune shining on it.
An alchemy item?
“Do you want to use a space storage?” Sunders pointed to the button on his sleeve, where he took out the crystal bottle. The button was obviously some kind of space-related alchemy item.
Angor nodded quickly. He wanted one!
The first time he witnessed such an item was when Greya gave him the space capsule. But it was only one-use, and it only contained Toby’s stuff.
The small capsule held a big pile of objects while having no weight on itself at all. Anyone would want such an amazing and convenient item.
However, Angor read in related books before that one-time space capsules were very expensive items, let alone permanent ones. Angor never expected to find such an item before becoming a wizard.
Now that Sunders mentioned it… Was Sunders be giving him a space storage item?!
“Follow me if you want one,” said Sunders. He turned and walked toward the depth of the garden. Those strange creatures also followed behind him.
…
Along their way, Sunders explained where they were going.
Sunders planned to make this garden into a Sorcerer’s Garden by using the rare materials he obtained before—Fragments of Eternity. During the process, Angor could collect some “leftovers” which could help him craft a space storage item.
A Sorcerer’s Garden was a fantastic product that combined spells and alchemy, which was then created by separating an area from reality and loading it onto a medium.
This sounded similar to space storage but it was not the case. The space created for a Sorcerer’s Garden was usually small, depending on how many fragments were used. The garden was often smaller than space storages but still bigger than capsules.
The main difference between a Sorcerer’s garden and a space storage was that a space storage could not maintain lifeforms while a Sorcerer’s Garden functioned as a smaller reality, with its own ecosystem that supported both plants and animals. This was why a Sorcerer’s Garden was more valuable than a common space storage.
This alone, however, still could not make a Sorcerer’s Garden an outstanding product. The garden was only a portable world at best, and it could not provide a good shelter because many wizards knew about spells that could destroy space. For wizards who always worked alone, a Sorcerer’s Garden acted similarly to a space storage.
However, the value of a Sorcerer’s Garden was not all about keeping life forms and being portable. The most important thing was when space was separated from reality, an unknown power would give the space a random, fundamental law.
For example, if the garden received the law of “flora”, then any magical plants growing in the garden would yield way more fruits. There were also laws such as “eternal freeze”, “retrospect”, “soul soil”, “time”, and so on.
A Sorcerer’s Garden was basically an artifact that existed under a certain law.
Ordinary wizards would never get involved in any laws for their entire lives. Only legendary wizards had a small hope of glimpsing at the laws.
Such a law was why a Sorcerer’s Garden valued beyond measure. For a wizard organization, a Sorcerer’s Garden was a strategic treasure.
The garden was portable, true. But no wizard would dare to actually bring it around. If someone else seized the garden, it would be an unacceptable loss.
Angor only realized how valuable the garden was after hearing Sunders’ explanation. There were only a handful of organizations in the south who possessed Sorcerer’s Gardens. There was only one in Brute Cavern, and it belonged to the organization. However, the garden Sunders was about to create would become his personal property.
Sunders’ image in Angor’s eyes just became mightier.
“So I can learn about laws later,” Angor muttered to himself. “This is exciting!”
“Forget it. I’m only using the fragments to determine an area, and I need a master alchemist from Floating Mech City to do the creation. The law will show itself once the master finishes his work,” said Sunders. He chuckled at the boy’s idea.
“Why find an alchemist from Floating Mech City though? There’s no master alchemist in Brute Cavern?”
Sunders shook his head as he explained, “Alchemy knowledge is extremely valuable everywhere, and many deep alchemy teachings are lost in the course of history. Brute Cavern only has several elementary alchemists.”
“Lost? But… knowledge should keep renewing itself, right? Is older knowledge better?” Angor wondered.
“We’re renewing it. That’s why you can see a giant flying alchemy fortress in the sky, alchemy airships, alchemy puppets… Those are all technologies that develop with time,” said Sunders.
He paused a little before continuing, “But that doesn’t mean ancient knowledge is bad. Many ancient techniques originated from unknown, powerful beings. New technologies based on them can never reach the level of the original one. Like the thirty-six-dimensional space coordinate system localization method that you’re about to learn. That concept is already lost, and it’s a lot better than the localization methods used today.
“Remember Initial Glory , the ancestor of all meditation methods? Something in it could never be replaced. Same for alchemy techniques. The alchemy industry today never regained its previous glory because some technologies were forgotten.” Sunders let out a sigh.
Hearing these words, Angor deepened his decision to study alchemy.
Angor was wondering about something else. Judging from Sunders’ words… the man did not find the alchemy books hidden in the secret chamber back in the Nightmare Realm?
Thinking about this, Angor decided to prove his idea.
“Professor, do you remember the blue giant I met in the Nightmare Realm?”
“I do. That’s a Blue Tri-Eye, a low-level monster. Why do you ask?”
Angor kept a calm expression. “I said that in the hall of this blue, um, Blue Tri-Eye, I saw some alchemy books. Do they contain the ancient technologies you mentioned?”
Sunders shook his head. “No. Those books were only common ones. I have them in my collection.”
“Oh! That’s why I thought I saw them somewhere. So they’re in professor’s library.”
Sunders smiled at Angor. “You can remember those books? It means your Nightmare Form is really a high-leveled one.”
“No, I don’t remember the contents. But I can tell their titles.”
Sunders shook his head again. “Let me tell you something. Suppose a book I never saw before appeared inside the Nightmare Realm, even if it’s only a simple storybook, I may forget it completely upon leaving Nightmare Realm. By completely, I mean not a single trace of memory will remain. Unless I find myself lucky enough to bring the book back to reality… which is the only way I can remember the book.
“If I ever read the book in reality and see the same book in the Nightmare Realm, I’ll not forget the book in this case. Unlike me, your memory of the Nightmare Realm is complete. Even if you never take the effort to memorize something specifically, you still remember your basic experience. This means your memory was never blocked by the Nightmare Realm, which makes your talent most valuable,” Sunders explained in a serious tone.
Angor went through his mind. Just like Sunders said, he retained most of his memory of his journey in the Nightmare Realm.
“Professor, you have those crystal balls that record images, right? Why not use them?” asked Angor as he thought about his hologram tablet. He would not have brought the alchemy books back if not for the tablet.
Sunders shook his head. “I can’t. I tried it before, the crystal balls only showed blankness.”
“Then…”
Why can I use my tablet… Does it have something to do with the difference between alchemy and science?
Angor almost asked that question. But he managed to hold it back.
“We’re here. Don’t worry about the Nightmare Realm for now. That place doesn’t follow the common senses. Thinking about it will only add to your confusion. Get yourself stronger and become a wizard as fast as you can. I’m depending on you to take us into the Nightmare Realm next time,” Sunders bantered.
Sunders pointed to the field in front of them which was full of strange flowers and grass. A number of Phantom Servants were already waiting here, each with a multi-holed crystal bottle in his or her hands.