Instead of reading the message, Angor found the head of the broken corpse and removed the hood covering it, while bearing the stink of blood.
Just as he thought, it was not Saka’s corpse. He killed a total stranger.
He checked through the other corpses without finding anything useful. He only took several random objects, including some money pouches, from Naru and his partners.
He put the money away and proceeded to burn the bodies up.
Several apprentices walking past by saw his action, but no one spared the effort to care. Those who were going through this path all tried to avoid the “crime scene” by taking a small detour.
Just like how it was within Tree Spirit Garden. Every apprentice had learned to avoid “unnecessary trouble”.
Angor waited until the bodies turned into bone chips before leaving. The moon was already high in the air.
He had a complex mood. Too many incidents happened today. Cold, merciless incidents in which he even had to kill a total stranger who was used as a pawn. Angor began to feel more determined about the way he would live in the wizarding world.
When he was leaving Grue Town and Old Earth behind, he only told himself to stay cautious. After reading all kinds of sad stories from books, he thought he was prepared enough to face the world.
Now he realized that he had to personally go through certain matters to learn the way of people.
Books or stories only provided experience from someone else. He had to walk his own path. Orally commenting on matters as a bystander was always easy, but people all had to experience their lives on their own sooner or later.
Angor walked through the quiet town and wavering lamplights while he dragged his fatigued body back to his villa.
He saw someone leaning against the entrance door and fiddling around a metal object under the faint light.
The sight gave him a smile. The cold truth in the wizarding world could not stop eager learners. Light and shadow were always two sides that existed on the same coin. Darkness could help people see light better.
“Angor!” The figure noticed Angor and looked his way. “Just in time. I’ve got a genius idea! Listen, I call it the ‘Mechanical Wizard Eye’! It uses machinery to imitate the function of a Wizard Eye. Check this out…”
Dave showed the metal object to Angor and began to rattle endlessly.
Angor listened to Dave’s ideas and nodded along while providing his own opinions every now and then.
Once they finished discussing, Dave noticed Angor’s unusual pale face as well as the smell of sweat and blood.
“What happened… to you?” Under the lamp, Dave found several blood stains on Angor’s robe.
“Nothing serious. Some unreasonable assholes found me, and I did a little revenge for you,” Angor unlocked his door and invited Dave inside. “I’ll go get washed. Man, this stinks…”
Dave realized that Angor’s spirit was fine and quickly grew relieved. “Revenge? What revenge?”
Angor shut himself in the bathroom, removed his clothing, and poured a bucket of warm water onto his head.
“That Naru guy. He took his two lackeys, Tesla and Queena, and tried to pin me down. I got rid of them along my way.”
“‘Raging Blade’ Naru? You got rid-you mean you killed them?!” Dave yelled.
“Yeah, kinda,” Angor mumbled while washing his greasy hair.
“But I told you I wanna deal with them with my own alchemy weapon!” Dave exclaimed in sadness.
Dave clearly knew that Angor was strong enough to fight those three. Angor had reached the highest level in Sky Tower after all. He just felt it a pity that he could not face Naru personally.
“I didn’t mean to. But they meant it.”
Angor left his bathroom as a “fresh and handsome young man”. His hair was still dripping with water. “I accepted some alchemy quests today. Shall we start with them?”
He tossed his bone card to Dave. The quests were shown on it.
“You decide. I’ll work as your assistant anyway. I’ve never created any weapon before as the materials are too expensive,” Dave replied.
“Don’t worry about the price, just do as you like,” said Angor. He showed Dave several quests which asked for blades and swords that did not have specific requirements on materials. “You’ll make these models while I’ll do the enchantment in the end, so we can get them done quicker. And don’t worry about breaking the models. The mats are cheap.”
Dave perked up when he heard about Angor’s “wealth”. Dave had good knowledge of alchemy theories, but he was too poor to try them out and gain practical experience. Now Angor was doing him a giant favor! He would learn something good from the quests even if Angor did not show him any new ideas this time.
They entered the underground lab and each took an alchemy stand to work on.
Angor kept his attention on Dave during their work and saw Dave handling the materials with extreme care. Even occasional mistakes only cost a small part of the materials. Angor was unable to exert such caution and any mistake he made was too fatal which only caused him to give up the entire process.
Angor tried his best to learn about Dave’s preciseness. He successfully made less mistake this time and finished something overnight when it would usually take him two days.
The horizon began to glow, announcing a brand new day.
Angor had finished crafting two alchemy weapons—a broad sword and a fencing sword, both of which shined with runes. From a quick look, people could easily tell that these two weapons were way better than the scythe Angor sold yesterday.
In the meantime, after several failures and listening to Angor’s advice, Dave successfully made the billet of a kris blade. Inside the area of Thaw, the billet already displayed the shining sharpness of a fine weapon.
“I did it, Angor! I did it!” Dave could not contain his excitement now. Making an alchemy weapon, even an untiered one, could help him solve his money issue. Angor’s Tang Dao was not enchanted with anything, and it sold for 20 magic crystals. The materials for making it only took something like one or two crystals. Eighteen magic crystals meant Dave’s monthly salary!
“Calm down. Keep your spell up, I’ll do the enchant,” Angor comforted Dave. Unstable mana flow could easily disrupt Thaw, which was very likely to happen when Dave did not have the Axes of the Universe to help.
Dave nodded quickly and used Hand of Spell to move the weapon closer to Angor.
Angor draw his rune. The kris blade needed Rune of Frost on it. He was familiar enough with these basic runes to draw them quickly without relying on his hologram tablet.
A moment later, a freshly-made tiered weapon came into existence in front of Dave’s eyes.
Angor was extremely satisfied. He created THREE alchemy weapons in one night. If this kept up, he could finish the seven quests he accepted in two or three days. Those quests worthed almost 3,000 magic crystals!
As he enjoyed the happiness brought by the future income, he heard someone snoring loudly. After a night’s labor, Dave fell asleep on the working bench while still smiling in his dream.
Angor decided to get some snack and rest as well. Before doing so, he saw Dave walking out from the underground lab while rubbing his eyes.
“I need to get back to the shop…”
“You can catch some shut-eye here if you want. I have some ration here, need them?”
“No,” said Dave as he waved his hands. “I still need to go back even if I’m to sleep. It’ll be big trouble if I miss any important orders. Thank you, really. I gained a lot of experience last night.”
Dave bowed to Angor sincerely.
“Likewise. The quests are too hard for me to do all by myself. I’ll give you half of the reward of any quest that involves your effort.”
Dave tried to refuse, but Angor stopped him. “You see how I need little time enchanting the weapons? Making the billets was a harder job. I should give you more.”
Dave was too tired to think over Angor’s words. Before he could register what happened, he was already leaving Angor’s garden.
Dave decided to remember the debt for now and headed back to the underground market.
Angor, on the other hand, went back to his bedroom and slept to his heart’s content.
It was two in the afternoon when he woke up. Toby was doing his little music concert in the attic again.
Angor took some time in his soundproofed room to meditate. When finished, he remembered that he still had Saka’s transmitter on him.
And Saka mentioned something about sending a message yesterday.
He injected mana into the crystal ball and more texts appeared on the object.
[To My Precious Star:]
Angor sneered at how Saka addressed him.
[You must have already killed my body by the time you read this message. Such a pity. I went through a lot of trouble finding a container most suitable for my soul. But well, it’s still an honor to witness you killing it.]
[I really did plan to give you a message: Beware~ Hookdick has returned from Soul Soil. I know you hate each other. So how about it, am I being helpful?]
“Heh. I hate Hookdick as much as I hate YOU.”
[There’s something else. My mentor had given the blood of succubus to Hookdick. It went smoothly. I hereby attach a picture of Hookdick’s current condition to you. Enjoy!]
Angor scrolled the message down and revealed a pink-themed picture.
He looked at the man inside the picture, widened his eyes, then rubbed his eyes, and looked again, more carefully this time.
“This is Hookdick?!”