They almost could not see the sky because of all the people.
When looking from the Falling Cloud Stop, they had already lost count of how many apprentices were here. Only God knew how many more were hiding out there.
Angor’s attention lied on the sky bridge. Before learning how to fly, the bridge was their only way to the Phantom Island.
“Sh*t. It’s so full,” Angor checked the situation on the sky bridge and complained.
He could not see any open space left on the bridge because of the dense crowd on it. Angor was afraid that every single apprentice in Brute Cavern was here now. How else would this place get so crowded?
“Ugh. We aren’t going any further,” said Sailum. He still looked stressed.
“Try squeezing our way maybe?” Nausica suggested.
A commotion suddenly came from not far away. People looked and saw an apprentice trying to slip through an opening on the bridge and approach the Phantom Island. Before he could do so, another apprentice kicked him aside, almost knocking him off the bridge. Now the two apprentices were yelling at each other.
However, the yelling contest ended soon when a bulky man who was carrying a pillar walked onto the sky bridge. People automatically moved aside to let him pass. When the crowd failed to find a way for him, the man simply swiped his pillar around and sent a dozen people down the bridge.
Screams came from the cloud down below.
“That looks… dangerous. Let’s not go there,” Sailum said in terror while following his gaze on the pillar guy.
Nausica nodded and agreed.
The pillar man walked down the bridge while clearing his way with his pillar. More than half of the people on the sky bridge were nowhere to be found.
A witch in shiny green robe also moved onto the sky bridge while holding a wooden cane in her hand. Compared to the pillar guy’s mighty display, this female apprentice used a more moderate approach. With each step, she tapped on the ground with her cane and a small group of people would suddenly lose consciousness and fall down. Being moderate did not mean harmless. Once she reached the bulky man, a trail of bodies was left behind her.
She did not get into trouble with the pillar man. Instead, they both occupied their own spot at the end of the sky bridge, without minding each other at all.
“The end of the sky bridge means the edge of Phantom Island. Many powerful apprentices went there instead of waiting in the sky.”
Someone on the bus stop whispered to each other. Angor and his friends heard it too and exchanged a look.
“The end of the bridge is like a battlefield for strong ones. I think we should just stay here and wait,” Sailum spoke slowly.
With Sunders’ gold coin, Angor could enter the Phantom Island at his free will. However, the area around the island was filled by people and with the sky bridge occupied by several really powerful apprentices, there was no way he could pass the bridge now.
“Sailum and I are fine. We can just stay here and watch. But Angor…” Nausica looked at him. They knew that Angor’s professor was the owner of Phantom Island, which meant Angor was allowed to enter the island.
Angor remained silent and sighed in the end. “I’ll stay here too. Let’s find somewhere safe and observe.”
It was a hard decision for Angor. He could not possibly reveal his coin and yell “Let me through! I’m Sunders’ student” to people. That would be too embarrassing.
The three of them picked a vacant spot on the bus stop to rest.
Angor sat down and took out a small, black pouch from his pocket. He hanged the pouch on Toby’s neck.
“The passport of Phantom Island. Well, I can’t go in, but you can. Go there and see if you can find your destiny,” Angor advised Toby. He did not regard the chance as important anyway. The event with the magic backfiring on him was still haunting his mind, so he only wanted to have a good rest now.
When Toby finally left, Angor leaned against a tree vine and closed his eyes to rest.
“Angor, you…” Sailum spoke but was stopped by Nausica.
She whispered, “Let him rest. He looks tired.”
“Okay.” Now Sailum also noticed Angor’s unusual fatigue.
No one spoke for the next moment. Angor was planning to rest his spirit a little, but the peaceful atmosphere and the gentle wind caused him to fall asleep for real.
The silence lasted for half an hour until Sailum suddenly asked, “Miss Nausica, so you’re really going to challenge the Sky Tower?”
Nausica nodded. “It’s a good opportunity. Yes, I will.”
“But you only broke through recently too. How will you fight those apprentices who have years of experience?”
Nausica took out her long-handled pipe, lit it up and slowly inhaled.
“I know an apprentice who’s good at drawing magic scrolls. She’s Mister Fantase’s previous student. I can buy some scrolls from her at a better price.”
“But you still need a lot of merit points, no?” Sailum wondered. He did not know why Nausica was so eager to participate in the challenges.
“I’ll just earn some. There are still several months. I’ll make it,” said Nausica. Her voice grew lower. She looked away, seemingly thinking about something else.
…
When Angor woke up, it was already noontime the next day.
Sailum quickly noticed him.
“Finally. You missed two meals. Here, I’ve got some ration,” said Sailum as he took out a small pancake from his bag and handed it to Angor.
Angor’s mind was still blurry upon waking up. He took the pancake subconsciously and asked, “What time is it?”
“What time? You slept for a whole night,” said Sailum. He cleaned his hands carefully and took out his precious book to read.
Angor managed to clear his mind after a while. Since Sailum was reading, and Nausica seemed to be meditating, Angor ate his pancake really slowly so as not to make any noises.
When he was done, Nausica finished her meditation and began having some of Sailum’s ration as well.
“Man. If I didn’t bring these, are you two going to starve yourselves out?” Sailum complained.
Nausica nodded nonchalantly. “When I was a pirate on Blackberry Waters, I often went several days and nights without eating. I’m fine with that.”
Angor, on the other hand, had Butler Goode to prepare food for him on Phantom Island. However, his plan had gone wrong.
Nausica added something again. “Being without food was a common thing to happen on the sea. The real disaster was when you don’t have water.”
Nausica recalled her glorious days and emphasized on the importance of water. Then she looked at Sailum and asked, “So, did you bring water as well?”
Sailum humphed. “I always bring some ration with me because of my childhood habit. I don’t take water with me.”
“Oh my. Without water, this thing is so hard to swallow.”
Angor spoke, “You two didn’t learn any water cantrips? Any of it will get us some water.”
Water cantrip?
Sailum shook his head. “I already read some cantrip books in Cloud Library. The weakest water spell is a level-1 cantrip. But I only know a few level-0 ones.”
Nausica also stated that she only learned level-0 cantrips. Fewer than Sailum. She spent most of her time on bodybuilding to prepare to study bloodline art.
“What about Cleanse spell? Do you have this one?” Angor asked again.
“I know it. But that won’t get water for us,” Sailum said.
Angor raised an eyebrow. “Do you have a pen and paper?”
“Yeah,” said Sailum, He took some writing instrument out.
Angor accepted the pen and skillfully jotted down lines of data on the paper before showing them to Sailum.
“Use this data on your magic formula and create the cantrip model.”
Sailum looked at the paper doubtfully. “This is… spell data?”
Angor nodded.
“But the organization forbids people from exchanging books from Cloud Library with each other in private…”
Angor smiled. “Don’t worry. The data didn’t come from any book in Cloud Library.”
Sailum accepted the paper happily. For an apprentice, getting to learn a new spell for free was always a good thing.
“Not from Cloud Library. Did you buy it from the underground market?” asked Sailum as he eagerly began to construct the cantrip model using the data provided by Angor.
“No. I worked it out myself.”
Himself?! Sailum’s pen halted in the air. Nausica also stared at Angor in surprise.
Angor frowned at their reaction. “What? You never tried to understand the structures and element combinations of spells when learning them?”
Sailum shook his head.
Nausica followed suit. Although she realized something herself. “Do you need to do that when learning spells? Can’t we just use the models concluded by other people? Wait… Mister Sunders taught you to do that?”
Angor spread his hands. “No. I want to see the root of spells myself, so I disassembled the structure of Cleanse and created another combination.”
“Now that you mentioned it, I tried to do that too. But the cantrip model I found did nothing in the end. I wasted a whole week on it,” Sailum said.
Angor shrugged and said, “The data I found don’t have much effect either. But it’s enough to quench our thirst. I named the spell as, ahem, Create Water.”
Angor explained the effect of the spell and how it worked.
They accepted Angor’s idea. Summoning some water was not something too surprising. At first, Sailum thought Angor discovered a perfect cantrip model by himself. Creating a perfect model was something worth noting down in history.
However, the wizarding world had witnessed an extremely long history. Almost all spell combinations were the works of ancestors. It was really difficult to discover new perfect models at this age.
