“Understood,” Angor nodded.
They spent some time on the back of Demon Falcon in awkward silence.
“Did you learn alchemy from the apprentice in the market?” Sunders raised another topic.
Angor shook his head. Sunders was probably talking about Prome.
“No, I read books on my own.”
By himself?
Sunders began to admire Angor’s ability to comprehend and deduct. Knowledge in books could be disorientating. Without a proper teacher, this boy had to read a whole lot of books while drawing references from all of them to keep the knowledge together.
“Do you remember the name ‘Leona’?” The gentleman asked.
Angor nodded.
“She’s the only Apothecary in Brute Cavern. She owed you a favor last time, so you can go find her if you’ve any questions about potions or basic alchemy. Try accepting her quest from the Questing Hall, and she’ll naturally help you when you two meet.”
Leona already paid Angor for extracting the scent of Glutton Flowers. She created a brand-new pheromone spray which quickly became a treasured product among all witches in Brute Cavern, and Leona had earned hundreds of thousands of magic crystals from it.
According to Sunders, Leona had left Brute Cavern and went to Sweetmoon Federation located in Manda Plane, where a Perfume Exhibition would be held which could attract all young witches in the world. The exhibition was, in truth, an auction for selling perfumes. Leona could well earn another great sum if she took her new creation there.
Leona received the main material for her perfume from Angor at the cost of only 10 magic crystals. Sunders did not really mind it since wizards only had themselves to blame if they lose or earn money-making chances. But Angor was an apprentice alchemist now, so the boy could find a reason to receive some pointers from Leona.
At least Leona should teach Angor something about alchemy for free.
There were just too few alchemists in Brute Cavern. Sunders really hoped that one of his students could become one so that he would not have to waste a huge amount of money by finding alchemists in Floating Mech City should he ever need help with something again. For example, such as when he needed help to construct the Sorcerer’s Garden.
Several minutes later, the Demon Falcon had traveled several hundred kilos from Phantom Island.
The Tree of Eternity was already far behind their current position.
“Mister Ness doesn’t live near the tree?”
The area near the Tree of Eternity was rich with elements. The aura of life created by the tree could keep people’s spirit energized. For this reason, most wizards would choose somewhere near the tree to live.
“Not all soul wizards prefer life. Ness is an Occult Soul Manipulator, but his subject is closer to Necromancy and Death. Life is something he usually hates… such as Tree of Eternity,” Sunders explained.
When the Demon Falcon glided past the middle of stretching mountains, Sunders asked it to stop.
Angor observed the area as the avian landed down. It looked like an ordinary forest. He could not see anything particular aside from the lively bushes.
Sunders released a light spot from his finger.
The spot disappeared into the stones on a cliff wall nearby. In the next second, a slit slowly opened up on the wall, revealing a path behind it.
It reminded Angor of when he spent a night outside Twilight Town. Goode used a token to summon a road in the hills in a similar way.
“Is this an illusion?”
Sunders lead Angor into the “slit” while Angor looked around and tried to find the nodes for deploying the illusion.
But he failed. Next, he tried to stretch his spirit feelers into the cliff walls. An unknown yet gentle energy quickly pushed his spirit power back into his mind space.
“It’s an illusion array. There is no node,” Sunders spoke in a plain tone.
Angor scratched his head in embarrassment. His movements were clearly noticed by his professor.
Illusion Array was another branch subject for Illusionists. However, it required knowledge of magic array first, so it was considered a very advanced subject. Sunders’ notebook did not contain such knowledge.
“Better not touch anything when you’re inside another wizard’s territory. Careless moves can lead to hostility. If you triggered a trap, death will be the best outcome you can hope for. This is the place of a soul master, just so you know.”
What Sunders meant was clear, that Angor should refrain from doing anything stupid, so that his soul would not fall into an eternal torturing.
It reminded Angor of how apprentices described Soul Manipulators: Death is only the beginning.
After being warned by Sunders, Angor no longer dared to do anything. The boy followed Sunders’ steps closely.
After leaving the slit between cliff walls, they entered a broad valley which was as large as the central plaza of Tree Spirit Garden. The whole place was decorated by a shallow fog, strange flowers, and buildings made of bluestones. It seemed a secret paradise away from civilization.
Although Angor immediately stopped thinking that way when stepping into the valley.
The flowers still looked good, and the exquisite buildings and other sceneries were just fine.
The fog though… no. That was no fog. It was a stream made from countless souls in various shapes.
Semi-transparent souls gathered together and gave Angor a delusion that he was looking at fog.
There were souls of people, animals, magic plants… even otherworldly humanoid creatures. The souls all looked in good condition rather than the ugly beings described in ghost stories. The look on the soul was not affected by what happened to its body. This was the case even if the body was cut to pieces and ground to powder.
Although… the souls Angor was looking at now were all completely naked, and Angor felt really awkward standing here.
Men were floating in the sky with their sticks pointing everywhere while women paid no mind to their wiggling buns. Also, the souls were all avoiding Sunders for some reason, and they simply chose something else to stare at—the timid boy behind Sunders.
Angor felt his face burning with uneasiness.
“Saka might be a pervert, but at least his souls are properly dressed!” Angor complained in his mind.
They kept walking until they reached the base of a giant wizard tower.
Under the curious gazes of the souls, Angor entered the tall structure built with dark stone blocks.
They were immediately greeted by a half-naked maid, who only wore an apron around her waist. She knelt down and kissed Sunders’ boots.
“Mister Sunders, my Master cannot leave his lab room at the moment. Please go meet him there.”
Sunders frowned and cast a Dust Removal to remove the lip marks on his feet.
“This old shortie… I haven’t seen him in some years. Whatever is he up to?” Sunders grimaced and asked the maid to lead the way.
Angor followed behind with his gaze fixed on the floor. If he looked up now, his view would be welcomed by the pair of uncovered buttocks of the maid. Also, he really wished to ask a question: Don’t you feel cold like that, ma’am?
The maid opened a door located at the top of the tower and invited cold wind inside.
Angor looked through the door and saw a small bridge which stretched into the middle of a mountain in the distance, where the entrance of a cave could be seen.
“I thought his ‘lab room’ is inside the tower?” Angor thought.
The maid took the lead again. Her apron was now flipping in the mountain wind. Angor really did not wish to imagine what it would look like from her front.
The maid stopped at the end of the bridge. “The Master is inside.”
When reaching the cave, Angor heard someone else greeting them in a respectful tone. “Good day to you, Mister Sunders.”
Angor looked up and grimaced as well.
His prayer of NOT running into Saka had failed. ‘Starsoul’ Saka was standing right in front of the cave in a formal suit. A bashful woman’s soul accompanied him.
Sunders stepped through the entrance, paying no attention to Saka at all.
Saka kept his bowing, seemingly not offended in the least.
Angor followed Sunders with unchanged expression. He did not believe Saka would recognize him since he never revealed his face during the match.
As Angor finally entered the cave, Saka sensed something and looked at Angor’s back in surprise.
He frowned and said something to Silvia while releasing some mana from his hand.
A while later, Saka’s eyes widened in joy. A gentle and happy smile appeared on his handsome face.
“So… you’re Mister Sunders’ student? My… precious.”
Saka spoke in a lover’s tone, causing Silvia to envy a little.
Next, Saka calmed his expression and entered the cave as well.
Inside the cave, Angor saw the vast space occupied by various tools and equipment. Only the center of the place was vacant. A small, gray-haired old man was working on something on his working bench with a knife in his hand.
The corpse of a young girl.
“What brought you to my place, Sunders? I mean, forget it. Good timing. Check out my new invention.” Ness looked up and waved a hand in the air. The wounds on the corpse were quickly sutured up, leaving a smooth and flawless body behind.
Next, Ness stuffed the soul of a… creature, which looked like a woman, into the corpse.
The girl corpse opened her eyes. She noticed Sunders first and began to look at the gentleman with a thirsty look. On the sex level.
A strange scent came from the girl’s body.
She then approached Sunders and began posing seductively at the gentleman.
It was quite obvious that the girl was looking for love. However, Sunders completely disregarded her attempt and pushed her aside with his walking cane.
“The soul of a succubus?” Sunders did not seem affected by the woman. “You joined those people and went to Abyss Plane?”
Ness shook his head. “No, of course. Do I look like someone who would bully youngsters? Saka found the soul for me.”