“Wanna join me?” Angor quietly expected Dave to agree. Having someone working together meant they could make up for each other’s shortcomings and complete tasks faster.
However, Dave shook his head. “No, I’m not interested in a music box… Come again when you plan to make something else next time.”
Dave believed that Angor could not possibly make something wonderful again like before. It was just a toy! Could Angor actually enchant a music box with Sharpen Rune of something?
“Well, alright,” said Angor. He seemed a little disappointed.
The sound of a heavy bell being struck was heard in the entire underground market.
“Ten in the night… I should go.” Angor stood up and bid farewell to Dave.
When he reached the door, Angor suddenly remembered something and turned around to ask, “Hey Dave, do you have books about Runecraft here?”
“You mean runes used in enchantment?” Dave looked puzzled. “But what for? You made Rune of Sharpen last time, don’t you have the books yourself?”
“Not for enchantment. Just ordinary runes used elsewhere,” Angor explained.
“But you can’t use those on your item, so why—wait, you’re not going to do magic arrays, right?”
Magic arrays could be used to apply active effects on alchemy items. However, they were at a completely different level compared to runes used in enchantment. Also, magic arrays had weaker effects than synthesis, so very few alchemists would actually go for magic array craft.
“Just want to check something out. I’m not going to learn magic arrays of course.” For now, Angor was interested in Runecraft only. He did not plan to pick up another subject yet. He simply wanted to see if he could create magic scrolls with the help of the hologram tablet.
Dave gave him a piece of sincere advice, “Angor, you haven’t been a supernatural for long. Attempting too many things at the same time will only hinder your progression. I mean, you’re studying alchemy AND fighting in Sky Tower, and now you’re thinking about Runecraft too! As level-1, you should get yourself stronger as fast as you can. If you don’t have enough strength, you can only make lesser items no matter what kind of alchemy talent you have.”
Dave was right, and Angor knew it. However, he still could not tell the truth about his tablet to Dave.
Seeing how his considerate words did not discourage Angor at all, Dave gave Angor a somewhat angry glare as if he was a teacher who got really disappointed at his student. “I only have enchantment books here, not Runecraft ones. And even if I do, I won’t sell them to you. For your own good.”
Dave’s “wise” display looked real enough. Anyone else would probably get convinced. Angor, however, knew Dave’s character well. Rather than trying to educate him for real, this guy was only acting like someone’s teacher to feel superior for lecturing people.
Angor watched Dave’s “kind expression” and sighed in his mind: Okay, I’ll try to play along.
He put up an enlightened expression.
“You’re so right. I get distracted too easily. From today, I’ll meditate as much as I can and leave the other matters aside.”
Dave felt good at Angor’s “realization”, but he was kind of surprised at what Angor said. “You don’t really have to work so hard. Keep up your alchemy training when you have time. You know, balanced development.”
“Nah, I’ll consider my meditation as first priority so I don’t fall behind everyone.”
With that, Angor bowed to Dave politely and walked out of the shop with firm steps.
Dave stood in the shop, not sure what Angor was really thinking about.
Angor left the underground area and stepped back into Apprentice Town Eight. Fresh air filled his lungs again.
It was too late for dinner, so Angor bought some cooked ration from the town market and ate them in a haste.
Once home, he entered the soundproofed room to meditate again. For some reason, he meditated a lot better this time.
So was his mana flow.
When done, Angor wondered what happened. Did he finally manage to “calm his spirit” instead of “calm his body” only?
To calm one’s spirit meant someone was able to enter a deep meditation while troubled by the worst noises.
Angor considered and decided to try something. In his tablet, he found a song called “Childhood Memory” which according to its tag, was composed by Bandari.
The music was peaceful and soft. Angor realized that the song he just picked was just another masterpiece like City of Sky. The different instruments in the song really created wondrous melodies that reminded him of his childhood times.
However, he did not find the song because he wanted to listen to music. Angor left the music going and closed his eyes to meditate. When bathed in the musical notes, he was glad to find out he succeeded!
Did he really achieve “spirit calm” in his meditation? Or was it because of the song’s gentle nature which did not affect his meditation?
Angor thought about another idea. He shut down his tablet and went to the attic.
He asked Toby to scream sharply into the two remaining Echo Flowers in the attic to create some serious noises.
Toby, however, believed that Angor came to enjoy his music, so the bird happily played its little “concert”.
Angor tried to endure the harsh noise and forced himself to meditate. When his consciousness entered his chaotic mindspace, he noticed the noise outside was slowly blocked from his mind.
The case was different from when he listened to “Childhood Memory”. Previously, he could always hear the wonderful song while meditating. But now, Toby’s disturbance was kept out of his mind. It was as if a mysterious organ in his head could tell noise from good music.
Yet he could still sense the terrible frequencies caused by Toby.
And he could not calm down enough to meditate at all.
This meant he did not achieve “calmness in the spirit”. According to the records he read, this was something only possible for wizards, so the result was expected.
After learning the conclusion, he returned to the soundproof room.
He was still wondering why he suddenly meditated a lot better. He had just worked about 10% faster than before.
He slowly went through what he did today and could not find anything special. The only thing that might have something to do with all this was his battle against Saka when he became the target of Silvia’s soul attacks.
But how did that affect his meditation efficiency?
He could not understand. Still, being able to meditate faster was good news, so he decided to keep the question for now and go ask Sunders next time.
…
Another week had passed. One day in the afternoon, Angor fell into a stalemate with an Elementalist apprentice who used Poison spells by combining wood and earth elements. Angor used a precious flame bolt in the end and won the fight.
The fight earned him enough match points to go to the thirteenth level.
The last three levels — 13th, 14th, and 15th level — looked very different compared to the lower ones. They were the most occupied as well as the most dangerous levels. Someone would get killed in these levels almost every day.
This was why they were also referred to as the “Three Levels of Death” by many apprentices.
Instead of joining a match right away, Angor chose an arena and observed the fighters first. As another participant in this level, he did not need to pay for a seat on the audience stand. This was another reward given to the participants by Sky Tower.
Here, the arenas were distributed in a different way.
There were only three arenas in the entire level 13. They were a bit bigger than the arenas down below, and they had three times as many spectator seats around them. Each arena could allow thousands of people to watch the match.
Currently, all three arenas had ongoing matches. Angor picked the one with the most audience and watched.
The screen above the arena showed [Fox Master VS Herald of Typhoon].
Angor knew neither of them, but the name “Fox Master” somehow reminded him of someone similar and a terrible opponent at that.
Herald of Typhoon was a big, bearded middle-aged male dressed in his uniform robe with green edges decorated by silver and white stripes. There were two shoulder straps on him showing his family emblem.
As for Fox Master… The first thing that came to Angor’s mind was that this individual’s dressing style had too many problems that he did not know where to start to complain.
Fox Master had a young and handsome look on his face. His long, silver hair covered his shoulders loosely. But his white wizard robe and the wooden walking cane with a fox head on the tip somewhat made the man look like some kind of old hermit who hid from civilization. Also, Fox Master kept his eyes shut during the match. The man moved around, cast spells, and did everything else with his eyelids closed. He acted like a young man who had seen enough of this world and did not care about anything.
Herald of Typhoon, as his name suggested, was a wizard skilled at controlling wind element, while Fox Master was a Summoner. However, the latter was not using any monsters. He only summoned the shadow of a beast to attack his opponent.
Herald of Typhoon was at an obvious disadvantage. Fox Master pinned him down easily.
The shadow of a Blood Vixen dashed around the stage like a lightning flash under the command of Fox Master. With his elegant moves, the fight was more like Fox Master’s personal show rather than an actual Sky Tower battle.
The man intentionally made bigger movements just to show his silver hair to everyone.
And he cast spells while spinning so that every audience could see his face.
At least this was what Angor believed so. Angor would admit that Fox Master’s performance did make the match more appealing and it aroused the interest of the audience.
A moment later, Fox Master defeated his opponent by leaving Herald of Typhoon in a completely hopeless state.
Fox Master was exaggerating his moves, but Angor was sure that guy was a lot stronger than the opponents he fought against before.
Even though he lost against Fox Master in a pretty pathetic way, Herald of Typhoon still looked really strong. Angor was positive that he had to use his enchanted bolts as well as a lot of time and hard effort if he hoped to defeat Herald.
He needed to change his tactic.