“Stay here. When we begin to build the Sorcerer’s Garden, there will be greyspace microbes coming off. Use your magic container bottle to collect them. They are essential materials to craft stable alchemy storage, so try to get as much as can,” said Sunders. Then, he ordered the strange creatures beside him to go into the designated area before leaping into the air.
Sunders took out a pipette from his button and began releasing mana from his body. In his view, an octahedral shape slowly came into being and covered the area.
Next, Sunders removed a single drop of the mysterious liquid from the pipette—a fragment of eternity—and used a strange alchemy technique, combined with some spells, to pour the liquid into the indistinct octahedral model.
“I’m starting. Gather greyspace microbes,” Sunders ordered the Phantom Servants around the area. Following the lead of Butler Goode, the servants quickly took positions around the designated location.
In the air, Sunders watched with a smile as Angor held his container bottle in a serious manner. He then sent the boy a message.
“You’re in luck, choosing such a time to visit. Considering the rule of wizards, I wouldn’t have allowed you here without receiving something from you. But I’ll make an exception this time. Or, let’s consider this a payment for your Section Ephemera. However, you’re on your own when collecting the microbes.”
In the alchemy books he briefly read before, Angor knew that as they were the main material in the crafting process of space storage items, greyspace microbes were always an expensive resource. Plus, Sunders told him that he could collect as much as possible without worrying about payback, so Angor decided to give it his all. It was a free resource, so why not?
As Sunders injected the fragment of eternity, a visible frame slowly showed up in the area in front of Angor.
“It has begun. Mister Padt, take care, and do not enter the caged area when collecting the microbes,” said Butler Goode as he approached and warned the boy.
Angor quickly nodded.
“Cubic Lock!” Sunders threw a magic scroll into the air. The scroll exploded and created a giant spell array, covering an area several kilometers wide.
“It’s an anti-detection spell. Master used it to prevent being scouted by other wizards,” Goode explained.
This was a private Sorcerer’s Garden. Sunders already reported his work to Rein Mute and asked the tree spirit to help conceal this place. But what happened on Devil’s Water was already known to the public, so who knew whether some wizards would butt in at such a moment? However, Sunders was not really afraid of getting challenged.
Several minutes later, Angor realized that the locked-up area ahead seemed to be slowly separated from reality.
Small, shining scarps came off the “edges” of the broken space.
“Here it comes!” Goode said. Under the boy’s gaze, Goode dashed into the air and pointed his container bottle at a shining spot which then slowly flew into the bottle.
After seizing the light spot, Goode nodded to Angor and began collecting the other scattering scraps.
Angor knew that Butler Goode was showing him how to do it. The boy thanked the butler in his mind and started gathering the “leftovers” on his own.
He could not fly, so Angor had to run around on the ground and catch those light spots which slipped past the Phantom Servants.
These spots would vanish upon reaching the ground, which meant that he must catch them before that happened.
Angor rushed about for a while and gathered a good number of light spots. He realized that the Phantom Servants in the air were intentionally staying away from him, allowing the boy to collect more microbes.
He kept up his work for a good moment. When the locked-up area was shrouded by white mist, the light spots stopped appearing.
The magic container bottle in Angor’s hand was shining its own light now what with all the greyspace microbes taking up more than half of the space within it.
Compared to the Phantom Servants, Angor did not collect much. But he already possessed enough to make a small yet stable space storage.
Angor looked at his gain and smiled widely until his eyes curled into the shapes of a crescent moon.
This bottle would cost at least five or six thousand magic crystals if sold at an auction. Angor came seeking for Sunders’ compliment at the excuse of reporting his training progress. The boy did not expect to earn such a big gift.
The embarrassment that he felt when Sunders revealed his little intention was gone. Angor was thinking about visiting the Phantom Island more in the future. Maybe he would run into something else!
Once Sunders landed on the ground, he told Angor, “Go figure out how to craft a storage item on your own. I’ll not help you with that.”
Angor nodded. According to Encyclopaedia: Basic Alchemy , it was not hard to make such an item, only that the materials were too rare. With the right materials, an apprentice alchemist would be good enough to do the job. Angor decided to try it on his own after learning alchemy, and if he could not do it, he would pay someone for it instead.
Before leaving, Angor asked a question out of curiosity, “Why did you ask all the beasts to go inside the Sorcerer’s Garden?”
“Fertilizers,” Sunders answered in a plain tone.
The word “fertilizer” gave Angor a lot to think about on his way back.
When Angor came here, the boy saw Sunders caring for the beasts gently, so he thought Sunders really loved them. But…
Oh, god. Fertilizers?
Angor then thought about his own situation. Sunders appeared pretty friendly to him in these days. Yet nobody knew if Angor would suddenly offend Sunders because of something and thus ended up with the same fate as those beasts.
Angor knew he was worrying too much. However, this world was cruel, and he had to stay extra cautious so that he would not be devoured by a bottomless abyss before he could have time to regret.
All in all, he had to grow stronger.
…
It was still raining by the time Angor reached his villa.
He heard a lot of bird chirping noise coming from the attic. Upon arriving, Angor saw Toby “chatting” with the Echo Flower.
Angor shook his head. For some unknown reason, Toby loved hanging around the flower.
He did not tell Toby to stop. The bird sounded a bit noisy, but there were soundproof spell arrays on the buildings here, so people would not hear it at all.
Angor entered the soundproof room and began meditating and sensing his spirit power flowing in his mind.
He kept up his effort until he could manage to calm his mind. Next, Angor carefully placed the magic container bottle into a secret slot in the soundproof room. The slot held some other valuable materials too, such as Morning Dew, Section Ephemera, and the Potion of Austere Night.
With his new gift stored away, Angor was going to begin training on the third step.
Before doing so though, he recalled Sunders’ order that he should copy a channeling method book and give it to Balba.
Angor felt sad about how Balba was fated to be made into a puppet. However, he could not go against Sunders’ decision.
Thinking about Balba who was still eager for training, Angor sighed and proceeded to copy the book. He would begin his own training once Balba’s request was done.
Angor chose to copy a channeling method called Circular Cut Channeling.
This was an extremely plain method, but it held a better reputation among all the ordinary channeling methods. At the very least, it was better than Triangle Channeling which was the one Alan and Aleen were studying.
It only took Angor half an hour to finish a copy.
He looked at the book and decided to add some extra lines to it. The lines were about some of the training tricks he concluded during his own training. They were really superficial advice, but still, Angor realized them on his own. As for the special techniques left on Singularity Dispersive Meditation by Sunders, Angor would never dare to tell others about them.
With that finished, Angor acted fast and left his house with an umbrella to shield himself from the rain.
When inside the caves, Angor suddenly realized that he did not know where Balba’s room was. When talking to him, Angor was on his way to visit Sailum, and he forgot to ask Balba where he lived.
The underground paths were chaotic, connecting more than ten thousand rooms, so there was no way Angor could look through them one by one. Besides, there were other apprentice wizards down here. Who knew what would happen if he barged in an apprentice’s room when the apprentice was meditating?
Angor had no choice but to go to Sailum. He could ask the boy to see if he had any idea.
If Sailum did not know… then it could not be helped. Balba had to wait longer.
Sailum was meditating when Angor came. Angor felt a bit embarrassed for interrupting Sailum’s training, but the boy did not mind. Sailum carefully placed his book back into his pouch and greeted Angor with a bright smile.
Upon hearing Angor’s reason for coming here, Sailum shook his head and said, “I don’t know where Balba is.”
After pausing a little, Sailum spoke again, “But I know where Orlando is. After we settled in, that guy came to bother every single talent living here, so he should know where most talents are.”
“Orlando?” Angor recalled the image of a young man with a self-centered character who was always wearing a black and white striped cotton hat.
“Yeah, he was separated from his friend, Roffig. At first, he cried every day and came to the rooms of every talent at the excuse of letting people hear his trouble. But we all know he was only harassing people,” said Sailum. He remembered his own encounter with Orlando and revealed a frustrated look as he said, “The guy wanted to find you as well. But we didn’t tell him where your room is.
“But it’s better now. After everyone began their own training, he tried to bother people again and received a good beating from it. Now he didn’t do it as much.”
“He’s separated from Roffig?” Angor also recalled Orlando’s close friend. Did they argue or fight among themselves?
“He is. No one knows what happened. Roffig never came down here, he was arranged to stay outside the mirror world. So, are you going to ask Orlando? I’m not sure if he knows Balba’s room since Balba’s a little… I doubt Orlando is bold enough to harass someone like that.”
Angor nodded. He then said, “I’ll check him out since I’m already here. Can you show me the way, please?”