Angor decided to let Chloe Brothers go in the end.
Before doing so, Angor warned them as well as asking them about what exactly happened on the day of the assault. Also, he asked White Chloe to give him some blood.
The blood of a wizard basically held everything about the wizard himself. A wizard who learned blood-related art could use someone’s blood to curse or even kill people. Angor would not do anything like that, but he could still track down the current whereabouts of White Chloe by using the blood as a tool.
The blood was his final warning for the twins.
After the brothers left, Angor went toward Dave’s shop instead of heading home.
When he reached the shop, he saw Dave crafting some kind of machine part on his working table.
Dave asked Angor to wait a bit. He was melting down a piece of metal using Thaw spell and carefully shaping it with his Hands of Spell.
In order not to disturb Dave, Angor quietly sat down and watched.
Dave already knew that Angor had more alchemy skills than him now, so he did not hide his work and kept going.
Angor looked at Dave’s crafting and quickly learned something new.
He had to admit that Dave gained some serious experience during his five years of studying alchemy. The way Dave used Thaw looked very similar to him, yet there were many simple details that helped Dave to conserve mana.
Angor did not show it. However, deep inside, he diligently tried to “steal” the tricks displayed by Dave.
A quarter of an hour later, Dave completed creating the part—a strange-shaped gear used in some kind of alchemy machine.
“Expecting something better, huh? Well sorry, I can only make these little trinkets,” Dave mocked himself.
Angor shook his head. “Actually, it looks nice. I learned a lot from you.”
Believing that Angor was simply comforting him, Dave let out a hollow chuckle, “So what do you need? More materials? It’s only several days, and you already made something else?”
Angor waved his hands in denial. “Nah, haven’t been doing alchemy for days. I’ve been checking the participant data you gave me, and I got some questions.”
Dave removed his goggles and wiped some sweat off his face. He looked at Angor in a doubtful manner. “Don’t tell me you’re going to the Sky Tower for real?”
Angor only smiled.
“You can try. That Trigger Crossbow of yours should have no problem getting you through the first few levels.”
Dave began to analyze Angor’s chances in all seriousness, about which level he could reach, or how many merit points he could earn.
When Dave thought he reached a reliable conclusion, he stared at Angor with an innocent look. “So, what did you want to ask exactly?”
“Do you know anything about ‘Starsoul’ Saka?” Angor cut to the point quickly, so Dave would not think about random things again.
“Him?” Dave took some time to think about how to describe Saka. “Not much, but I’d say that when fighting on the arena, Saka is a mad… and also a good guy.”
By “mad”, Dave was referring to Saka’s terrible character. He said Saka was actually good because this individual almost never killed anyone in Sky Tower, which was pretty “good”, considering how the tower was home to a good number of bloodthirsty murderers.
However, Angor had a different opinion. He did not think that Saka was trying to avoid killing people. That lunatic just did not run into anyone he wanted to kill. For example… Baron Milk.
“Your data said so too. Can you tell me something about the ‘three stars’ he uses?”
Again, Dave only explained something already recorded in his data. According to Saka himself, the man had three stars on him. But in reality, people only saw ‘Virgo’ Silvia and ‘Venus’ Herrington before. As for the third star… no one ever witnessed it.
“Do you know how Silvia’s Soul Howling and Soul Absorption worked?” Angor asked.
Dave looked surprised at this question. “Why? Are you planning to fight Saka?”
Angor looked away and muttered. “Who knows? Maybe.”
Dave grew doubtful again. “Angor… you’re not serious, right? Saka became a supernatural ten years ago and always grew in strength smoothly. He’s now at his bottleneck as a Level-2 apprentice. It’s only a matter of time for him to become a Level-3.”
So what? I knocked him out for good. Angor thought in his mind.
“Well, I just wanted to know about Silvia’s skills, just in case, really.”
Dave was unconvinced, but he proceeded to answer Angor’s question anyway.
Angor remained silent after hearing Dave. What Dave said about Silvia’s skills was exactly what he saw during his battle against Saka.
The problem was, anyone who was affected by Soul Howling looked miserable in the end. Even if they managed to survive, Silvia’s Soul Absorption would definitely go for the win, unlike Angor’s case in which Angor was not affected in the slightest.
This meant that Silvia did not have any problem. He was safe because of something on him.
Angor had a feeling that he was losing control of his own body. Whatever happened inside him?
Instead of feeling lucky about how he resisted Silvia’s soul attacks, Angor was more afraid of something unknown lurking in him.
“I think I need to ask Sunders about this,” he mumbled. He would never sleep well again if he did not get a clear answer.
Outside the market, gentle moonlight had illuminated the sky, decorating the apprentice town like a calm, deep ocean. Angor stayed at Dave’s shop late into the night to exchange some alchemy experience with him.
For many times, Dave tried to ask why Angor wanted to know about Saka, but Angor only diverted the topic every time. Dave gave up in the end and asked about something else instead.
“You sure you don’t want me to sell your weapons right now? There are many quests in the questing hall that ask to buy alchemy weapons. They would pay double price than average. A tiered long-range weapon may probably sell for twenty thousand merit points or more.”
“Not now, I can wait.”
The message about the garden of purification had not been announced yet. Angor already decided to wait until then. To him, whether the information could raise his profit was unimportant—he was going to earn anyway.
“Why would the questing hall buy weapons though? There are alchemists in the organization, right?” Angor asked.
Dave glared at him. “You’ve been in here for half a year now. How could you not know something so basic?”
“Um, so… why?” Angor blinked innocently and acted as if he was only an eager student.
Dave answered in a somewhat impatient tone, “Who told you the quests are all from the organization?”
“They’re not?”
“No, duh! Brute Cavern only put up a really small number of quests for people. Most of them are published by other wizards or apprentices. The quests looking for alchemy weapons are initiated by Level-3 apprentices. I think they learned some kind of secret, so they are all preparing for something to come. There are many teams looking for new members.”
“I see…” Angor was not interested in their secret. He was still thinking about how the quests were published. “So, I can put a quest there too, right? Say, if I need someone to help me find a potion or an alchemy material?”
Dave nodded. “Of course you can. Although finding a potion might be a little…” He glanced at Angor and continued, “You can’t find alchemy potions in the underground market or from quests. We’ve too few alchemists in Brute Cavern.
“But, you can try accepting quests which ask for custom weapons. There are always such quests with great payment, and sometimes they give you rare materials in return. Keep in mind though, you should avoid quests which don’t provide blueprints. No alchemist will ever accept them because creating a correct blueprint takes too much time. You also have to find proper materials for the new blueprint on yourself. If I had that kind of time, I’d rather spend it on improving my skills.”
Dave’s suggestion provided Angor with a new idea. Angor did not really want the extra merit points because he could always earn points by making more weapons. He was, however, interested in the rare materials.
However, he was busy with his tower challenge now. Any new idea would have to wait until he reached the top level.
“Are you going to make something new recently? You know, I can always help you with your plan,” said Dave as he revealed an intrigued look.
Apart from being a bit jealous about Angor’s skills, Dave also developed respect toward Angor. He believed that he could learn something really good if he followed Angor’s steps.
Even if there was no alchemy knowledge to learn, he could still gain innovations from Angor’s creations. Those alchemy weapons he saw last time all had wild, yet great designs, especially the Tang… Tang Dao? And Emei Piercers. Their names sounded weird, yet the simple shapes held great potential, which meant Angor possessed some unique and viable alchemy ideas.
For alchemists, having their own inspirations was always more important than having great alchemy skills.
“Plans?” Angor considered. “There’s one. But it’s not a weapon.”
“Oh! Can you tell me?” Dave really wanted to know. It was not polite to ask for someone’s alchemy plans so boldly, but Dave could not really hold back his urge to learn.
Angor did not seem offended in the least. “It’s a music box.”
“Music box?” Dave rolled his eyes. He knew what that was. Some kind of plaything in noble families, completely useless.
“Why music box? Try something else maybe? Another weapon will do. You just began to study alchemy, there’s no need to go for different stuff so early.”
Angor shook his head and insisted. “I’m not really overdoing myself. It’s just a simple toy for Toby. Toby loves music, so I want to make something using Echo Flowers.”
This was what Dave thought:
To make a toy for a familiar pet… how much time and money does he have?!