At this point, Angor still did not realize that getting a mere glimpse of truth and stepping onto the path of truth was completely different.
Wizards who had already found the path of truth would never tell others about it since every wizard must find his or her own path. A glimpse of truth, however, meant “the will to create”, not finding new spell combinations.
Creating something and using it, in reality, was one of the foremost qualities for finding the path of truth. Angor created a cantrip called “Dust” and utilized it at a proper point. The cantrip did not really do anything to Dripping River. However, it was how Angor created the spell in the first place, which really caught Sunders’ attention.
“Dust Removal…” Sunders tried to rearrange wind and earth elements in his mind for this particular cantrip. He did not have a cheating tool like hologram tablet, but as an experienced wizard, his great knowledge helped him work out the correct combination for Dust quickly.
“Knowing how a spell is made will help you study spells easier,” Sunders said and asked Angor to open the notebook. Next, the gentleman began to explain some basic knowledge about Illusions.
Confusing fake with real, false with true. Something that could not be touched, guessed or captured… This was the fundamental of illusions.
When speaking of illusions, ordinary people would immediately think about tricks that deceived human eyes. For Illusionist Wizards, however, such tricks were merely the basics of basics.
Real illusions had the same essentials as the other art branches—about comprehension and realization of oneself, nature, and the truth.
For example, there were Mind Manipulators who could interpret human emotions and leverage people’s desires and anxiety; Mirage Users who possessed full knowledge about natural weather change, reflections of light, and shadows, thus combining such knowledge with the environment to create mirages; Truth Manipulators who had great insight into everything and could remove the boundary between true and false.
There were also many different branches for Illusionist, such as Transformation Illusionist, Acoustic Illusionist, and Sorcery Array Illusionist…
Currently, Angor was way too inexperienced to think about something like those. What he needed was to study basic illusion spells and slowly finding out the branch that he should choose.
“The key point of using illusions is that you must see the reality very clearly. Only someone who knows reality can create illusions for other people. Otherwise, the illusions will be flawed, such as plants growing in the wrong season, or tree-born fruits in the dirt. Anyone smart enough will easily see through your illusion.
“Of course, I’m only talking about basic illusions. Once you determine your branch, you’ll be able to experience the wondrous world of illusions freely. Trees on clouds, talking ragdolls, or dogs with the heads of cats… you can create anything you wish.”
Hearing these, Angor suddenly remembered the strange creatures he saw on Phantom Island… Did Sunders create them using illusion spells? But… those beasts looked so real.
“Apart from comprehending reality, you also need to learn how to seize up the environment and choose the correct illusions for the right situation.”
What Sunders explained was all basic illusion knowledge and critical points that Angor should take care of so as to avoid useless effort.
As for how to achieve them, Angor had to figure it out on his own. Sunders already decided that he would never interfere with how Angor studied spells.
Next, Sunders answered several of Angor’s questions during the boy’s time of training.
Angor did not have any questions since he had been spending his time on alchemy instead of “legit” training, and there was no way he could ask Sunders alchemy questions.
The interaction between teacher and student ended in harmony. Just when Angor was prepared to say goodbye, Butler Goode came to the study and reported that dinner was ready.
Angor only had simple rations during all these months. When he caught the smell of food coming from the dining hall, the boy could not help gulping loudly.
Sunders chuckled in his mind and spoke to Angor in a joking tone, “Are you waiting for me to invite you to dinner?”
Angor was startled a little. He thought he did not make too much noise. Now… He felt his cheeks burning with embarrassment. For a second time today.
“No, totally not!” Angor overreacted and turned away quickly. “I really need to prepare dinner for Toby, professor, so I’ll leave now.”
“Wait. You can have something here. I’ll wait for you in the dining room.”
With that, Sunders left his study first. He knew well that his little student tended to get bashful too easily, so the gentleman decided not to tease too much.
Angor struggled for a while before finally coming to the dining hall. His “manly image” was already ruined anyway. A good meal would no longer hurt him.
For Angor, ever since he left the cloud whale, this was the first dinner he had together with Sunders.
The table was still decorated in an elegant noble family style. But this time, there was none of the ordinary food Angor was expecting.
Rather than bacon or sausage, the sandwich in the plate contained a green, transparent worm creature which was still twisting about. The soup bowls were filled with plants that looked like seaweed, but they changed colors as Angor was looking at them. The most “ordinary-looking” food on the table were several fruits. Yet… there were scale-like objects growing on them.
The bizarre appearance of the foodstuffs instantly erased Angor’s will to eat.
“That’s Warm Worm in the sandwich. It’s a special cooking material which normally lives in cloud dirt and consumes twilight. Eating it will improve your mana flow. The soup is made of a magical plant. And the fruits are called Fishscales. They’re all good for your health,” Sunders explained. “These materials lose some of their special effects when cooked by someone other than a Gourmet Wizard. But most Gourmet Wizards only dwell in Fairytown. So… we have to make do.”
Angor also knew about Warm Worm. It happened to be an alchemy material for brewing potions too.
However… he did not want any special effects! He only wished to eat something normal! Angor silently cried in his mind.
The boy proceeded with his meal in an… indescribable mindset. After eating what was placed on the table, he believed he could survive another month on raw rations without feeling any worse than this.
Thankfully, the post-meal desserts looked ordinary enough.
Whilst enjoying the desserts, Angor mentioned the new edition of Expedition into Endless Planes and asked Sunders if there was anything related to Nightmare Realm in it.
“Ohh, I see you’re well-informed. You already know that the Moonfrost Union has come?” Sunders bantered.
“Well, almost the entire population of Apprentice Town Eight had left. Of course, I know about it!” Angor thought silently.
“There is something. But not much. One piece of information might interest you though. If you want to check it out, go to my study later and take it.”
Something he was interested in? Angor did not really know much about the Nightmare Realm. Could it be something about Nether City?
Sunders did not answer him this time. The gentleman insisted that Angor should go read it for himself.
Also, Sunders did not mention anything about paying rent for the magazine, and Angor was glad NOT to remind his dear professor of it.
“This time, however, Moonfrost Union didn’t come only to publish their book,” said Sunders. He revealed a cold grin and seemed to be considering something. Angor waited for a while, but his professor did not say anything further.
“I’ll go to my laboratory. Once you’re finished here, Goode will help you get the magazine,” said Sunders. He wiped his lips clean, flipped his cape, and left in his usual gentlemanly style.
…
Angor left the Phantom Island and headed home under the moonlight.
The Falling Cloud bus stop was illuminated by faint lamplight which cast a tranquil and peaceful aura on the green leaves nearby.
While waiting for a sky bus, Angor took out the 17th volume of Expedition into Endless Planes and slowly read it under the lamp.
Similar to every periodical published by Moonfrost Union, the beginning of the magazine contained an anthem praising the explorers.
Next was the index of the magazine, which briefly introduced the newly discovered planes and major achievements in plane warfares.
The index of the thousand-page periodical did not have anything related to the Nightmare Realm.
A sky bus arrived.
Upon reaching his villa, Angor kept reading through Expedition into Endless Planes page by page. He finally found a short paragraph about Nightmare Realm when it was already late into the night.
[The Statue Plane is one of the thirteen planes used to back up our expedition teams. Thirty years ago, the plane gained a tunnel connected to the Nightmare Realm by chance, which only lasted three minutes, and brought 37 people through. Their High Commander was a level-2 wizard. This team was completely wiped out.]
Angor could learn something from this paragraph; that tunnels of Nightmare Realm could appear in other planes other than the wizarding world.
Was this the piece of information Sunders meant?
He kept reading. When the horizon grew brighter, he found something else in the last pages of the magazine.
It was not about the Nightmare Realm. But… a picture beside it showed an overweight, heavily powdered woman with violet curly hair and layered flesh on her fat face.
“Warrior Barbie” Greya.
[Half a year ago, Greya, the chef of Barbie’s Restaurant, fought with one of the five 3-star Psychics from Haunt World, Granny Shikazaru, and ran away when she lost. Three months later, she and a stationary wizard in an expedition team called “Sapling” tried to ambush Granny Shikazaru at Thousand Sea and failed. The three of them were dragged into an unknown plane passage. Preliminary estimate suggested that the passage was a tunnel to Nightmare Realm.]
When Greya asked Angor to take care of Toby, she said that in order to break through into the next class, she would leave the southern region to look for cooking materials far away. Angor never thought she would actually go to another plane. More surprisingly, she was sent into a Nightmare Realm tunnel.
He already knew how dangerous the place was. The magazine just told him that a level-2 wizard and three dozen other wizards all perished in there. Greya, as Gourmet Wizard, was not really adept at fighting. Should she get surrounded by the creatures in Nightmare Realm… her hope was slim.
Angor silently lamented Greya’s possible fate.
This further told him that the way of wizardry was full of great danger. Wizards who sought to break through or seek truths could easily end up as corpses somewhere far from home.