Phantom Island. Outside the locked-up area of Sorcerer’s Garden.
A silver-haired old man wielded an alchemy cane and placed various prepared materials inside the alchemy array drawn underground. His mana flowed in the alchemy attempt, causing changes in every element around the place. Under the old man’s work, the Sorcerer’s Garden slowly materialized and began to release an ancient aura.
Sunders stood behind the old man in a polite manner. As far as strength was considered, the old man was weaker than him. However, as a master alchemist from Floating Mech City, ‘Moon Silver’ Kusino fully deserved respect.
There were very few master alchemists in the south. Kusino had existed longer than Jellal. His title “Moon Silver” did not sound so powerful compared to Jellal “The Mythril Innovator”. However, in actual fact, Kusino was previously called the “Moon Silver Dominator” for his absolute mastery at manipulating an alchemy material called the moon silver. Later, the old man thought this title was a mouthful, so he changed it to “Moon Silver” instead.
Kusino, a master alchemist, who came to help Sunders built his Sorcerer’s Garden at the cost of a great fortune.
The garden already began to take shape after two months of effort. Something vague could now be seen in there across the occasional openings on the misty barrier.
Sunders had really high hopes toward his Sorcerer’s Garden. He wondered what kind of law would come into being. To prevent random stragglers from peeking into his secret, he had been guarding the construction point day and night.
As Sunders watched Kusino doing his job carefully, Butler Goode approached him on hurried steps and whispered something.
“Master Kusino, I need to leave for a moment to deal with something,” said Sunders. He frowned upon hearing Goode’s report.
Without lifting his concentration from the Sorcerer’s Garden, Kusino waved a hand in acknowledgment.
When they were at somewhere quiet, Sunders asked Goode in a low voice, “Someone tried to assassinate Angor?”
Goode nodded. “Yes, sir. But everything is fine for now. Someone has been protecting him. I already sent my Phantom Servants to look into the matter. It seems the culprit is Mister Ness’ apprentice.”
“Ness’ student…” Sunders remembered someone. Back on The Savage, that man did provoke Angor multiple times.
“Sir, should I tell Mister Ness about it?” Goode asked.
Sunders waved a hand and said, “No. Nothing serious. As my student, Angor should be able to deal with such things himself.”
Goode bowed and prepared to leave.
“One moment. How is Angor’s training?” Sunders called Goode back.
Goode recalled reading the report he received from his men. “It appears he has not constructed a spirit model yet.”
Sunders chuckled, “Looks like the kid is still fumbling over the thirty-six-dimensional locator.” 1
This long-lost, precise locating method could easily entice a lot of crazy scholars. Sunders himself had also been researching this method, and with his mental abilities, he only figured out the second coordinate of the third surface. To complete all seven surfaces, the man believed he needed at least another ten years.
People had different minds, and what he found out could not be used on Angor. The boy had to calculate his own coordinates to perfect Singularity Dispersive Meditation .
But considering Angor’s current situation… the boy would need way more time, which meant he would miss his best age for training.
Sunders did not wish for Angor to waste his time over this matter. However, since Sunders was the one who asked Angor to retrieve the book, he did not want to be the one to stop Angor from learning it or tell him to choose another locator method. Although in such a situation, using another method to build a flawed singularity model could prove to be a better choice.
Sunders could not tell this to Angor openly, so he only advised the boy to do so in the notes.
After some consideration, Sunders spoke to Goode again, “Go and tell Angor that the Sorcerer’s Garden in Floating Mech City will become open to the public one year later. But participants must reach the top level of any Sky Tower. The law of that garden is ‘purification’, which improves one’s chance of becoming a wizard.”
“I’ll go to Mister Padt right now,” said Goode as he nodded.
“Go then.”
Sunders knew that Angor was eager to get stronger, so he hoped he could use this piece of information to urge Angor. Hopefully, it would force the boy to choose another locator method.
…
Angor received Goode’s message in the evening of the same day.
After seeing Goode away, Angor fell into silence. A law of “purification” which increased his chance of becoming a wizard… that sounded so nice. Any apprentice would pursue such a chance like crazy.
Same for Angor.
According to Goode, the information had not been announced to the public yet. It was planned to be declared half a year later. Angor could already imagine what would happen by that time. Every Sky Tower would be filled with bloodthirsty challengers.
His best bet was to reach the top level of a Sky Tower within half a year, so he could avoid getting dragged into the madness when everyone heard about it.
Yet doing so in half a year was no easy task.
Considering the rules of Sky Tower, if Angor wanted to triumph as fast as possible, he had to defeat everyone quickly by using raw power and gained levels instead of waiting for the end of each season.
That was too difficult for Angor now. Challengers in Sky Towers were usually level-1 and level-2 apprentices, and still, they were not someone Angor could defeat.
Heck. Angor was still a mortal now. There was little hope he could grow strong enough in half a year to the extent that he could easily beat down level-2 apprentices.
Generally speaking, only the elites among level-2 apprentices could reach the top level and become qualified to challenge the Tower of Infinity. Most of the challengers who challenged Tower of Infinity were level-3 apprentices who were able to display amazing battles before becoming wizards. For example, Nausica’s mentor, Fantase Konaita, once reached the 100th level of Tower of Infinity as a level-3 apprentice.
Although that was not something Angor should think about now. His current goal was to get to the top level of a Sky Tower before the message regarding the Sorcerer’s Garden was made known to the public.
But… how could someone with zero combat experience fight with the other apprentices in half a year?
Angor could only keep the idea in his mind for now. He had to open up the third surface. Once that happened, he could use the computing capacities of the tablet to work out further results fast.
He had to use the thirty-six-dimensional locator in order to build a perfect singularity dispersive model. Angor already realized what Goode’s message meant, and of course, it was Sunders’ idea. Yet Angor did not take the message to his heart at all, for Sunders did not know the boy could “cheat” with his tablet.
The law of purification in the Sorcerer’s Garden in Floating Mech City, and a perfect singularity dispersive model… If he had to choose one, Angor preferred the latter. However, as long as he could find enough time, he would challenge both.
People should not get too greedy but they should at least had some dreams.
Angor cleared his mind and continued working on the coordinates of the third surface. He decided that if he managed to build a perfect model, he would act crazy for once and go for the Sky Tower.
…
The third slice required another three coordinates. After two months worth of effort, Angor successfully found the first one. Two remained. Two coordinates that required his full attention.
Angor was in his “mind overdrive” state again. Currents of data flow tested the limits of the boy’s mind continuously. Half an hour later, Angor fainted on the floor.
He woke up later and resumed his “mind overdrive” again. Angor did not intend to rest at all. He devoted every single waking second in his calculations. Even when he was eating or dumping, data still flowed in front of his eyes without pausing.
Time flew by rapidly.
His limit of using “mind overdrive” increased to one hour, thus doubling his efficiency.
The second coordinate was figured out by Angor after another month. The world had welcomed a new year and entered the Month of Resuscitation.
When checking his calendar unintentionally, Angor noticed he missed his birthday in Month of Freezing Earth. He had turned 15 without realizing it.
The boy did not mind much. This was not Padt Manor, where his brother and his mentor would celebrate for him. No one in this strange Fey Continent knew or cared about his birthday.
As the Month of Resuscitation approached the end, Angor finally gained the third coordinate.
He used his spirit power as a blade, and made the third slash, bringing a flash of light in his mind.
Getting a feel of the three shining surfaces in his mind space, Angor smiled in content.
He had exhausted his spirit. Instead of falling asleep, he pushed on and recorded the information of the three surfaces into his hologram tablet. Combined with everything he worked out so far, Angor ordered the system to calculate the remaining four surfaces on its own.
After typing everything he needed on the keyboard, a message popped up on the desktop: [Beginning calculation. Estimated time: 504 hours 43 minutes 51 seconds.]
Angor sighed in relief when he saw the countdown decreasing slowly but steadily.
Twenty-one days…
Even with the hologram tablet’s superior computing, he still needed 21 days. A human brain would probably need forever. No wonder the locator method was lost in history. No apprentices had so much time in their lives to waste on.
Angor stretched himself and left the hologram to its own job. He went back to his bedroom to sleep. The boy had not been using a soft bed in months, and he felt a bit uncomfortable when finally doing so. But his spirit was too fatigued to mind such a thing. Soon, the boy fell into a sweet slumber.