According to Angor’s memory, the man called “Hookdick” was a big, rough character with a spiky hairstyle and clothes which looked like tribal rags.
However, the individual shown up in the crystal ball was a slim lady with a finely-curved body, abundant breast, and round buttocks who only had semi-transparent silk covering his (her?) body.
As for her face…
“She” still had unshaved remains of beard around the cheeks, which kind of gave out the unspoken truth behind that pretty face.
This person looked completely transgender now. However, one thing was for sure; none of Angor’s peers would easily recognize Hookdick again.
Angor pressed a hand on his chest to calm his breath. He was really glad that he rejected Ness’ offer back there. Rather than becoming the effeminate monster he was looking at now, Angor would rather do something to completely shift his gender, if he must.
He put the transmitter away. Hookdick’s current image troubled his mind, but he still found the information useful since he could now avoid getting caught off guard by Hookdick. At the same time, this could be an interesting joke during a social conversation. Who knew, maybe it could come in handy someday…
Angor rested a little and proceeded to do his remaining quests.
When the clock on the basement wall announced 8 o’clock in the evening, Angor had just finished making another weapon when Dave came to visit again. Like last night, Angor asked Dave to make a simple weapon billet on another working bench.
Dave was smoother at doing his job now. He only managed to make the billet for one weapon overnight, but he had already learned how to perfect the shape of the weapon.
Dave read the illustrations of a monster in his crystal ball. He then tried to carve the weapon model by following the picture.
In the end, Dave made a dagger which had its handle sculpted with a flame raven. He also embedded several gems on the handle. They were only decorative gems, but they did give the dagger a better look.
Angor found Dave’s extra work to be relatively simple, yet it was better than nothing.
Angor finished making two alchemy weapons on his end. He did not have any time to decorate them, so his weapons looked a lot more inferior on the outside.
“I thought I need a week or so to finish all these quests. It only took two days! And all thanks to you,” Angor commented happily.
Next, they discussed whether they should go accept more quests.
Dave quite enjoyed being able to “waste materials” to his heart’s content, so he immediately agreed. Meanwhile, Angor simply wanted to make more money. With this decided, they planned to go to the questing hall again.
Dave offered to go find quests this time. Many people were familiar with this assistant from Prome’s shop. For this reason, Dave would not have to worry about being caught by someone looking for Angor. As for the finished weapons… Angor planned to keep them for now and hand in everything altogether in the end.
Due to Dave’s work, he had to wait until evening to go to the questing hall. With nothing else to do, Angor decided to learn some new cantrips.
He was aiming for level-1 cantrips which were something of a totally different difficulty compared to level-0 ones.
For example, Crescent Barrage was one of the easiest level-1 cantrips, which only required a perfect spell model to function.
Still, a good number of people would find this cantrip challenging because they could not construct decent models to maximize the outcome of the cantrip. A moderate Crescent Barrage was only as powerful as several level-0 cantrips added together, which was weaker than an actual level-1 one.
Angor, however, could easily master Crescent Barrage with the help of Axes of the Universe, and this was why he chose this one as his first level-1 cantrip.
But not all level-1 cantrips had such a simple requirement to fully display their potential. Level-1 cantrips were difficult to learn because many of them asked their users to possess certain knowledge.
For instance, there was a commonly-known level-1 cantrip called ‘Detect Disease’. As its name suggested, the cantrip could be used to tell if something was infected with a disease. The outcome sounded simple enough, yet actually using the cantrip was not.
The prerequisite of learning this cantrip was expertise in human bodies. One without such knowledge would not be able to leverage this cantrip no matter how well he constructed its model.
Another example of level-1 cantrips were three cantrips with similar effects: Voice Transmission, Distant Sound, and Spirit Synchronize.
Voice Transmission “packed up” sound and sent it to a target. Its user should have basic knowledge of sound waves.
Distant Sound was divided into three levels. A high-leveled Distant Sound cantrip could push sound directly to a faraway target through air. The user had to be experienced in dimensional knowledge.
Spirit Synchronize could be used to connect the spirit of someone as long as the target did not resist the attempt, thus establishing a spiritual conversation. Those who wished to learn Spirit Synchronize had to learn to read spirit waves just like how they learned sign language. And learning a new language always took time.
These examples described how most level-1 cantrips required knowledge in various subjects. There were many level-2 apprentices who could only wield level-0 cantrip, because of their lack of practical knowledge.
Angor had been receiving systematic and academic education from Jon since childhood, which put him in an advantageous position compared to his peers. He knew a little of everything including human bodies and sound waves. Since knowledge from Earth tended to be a lot different from those used in wizardry, he had to work out the differences before applying his knowledge to cantrips.
Angor once heard about a classroom in Tree Spirit Garden that was designed to teach such knowledge. However, the tuition was quite high. Still, he planned to take several courses from there in order to learn about the differences between civilizations so as not to stray off the correct path.
For now, he did not intend to study any cantrip he was not confident in.
There was, however, something he could study right now. A cantrip about which he received a lot of pointers from Sunders: Melodious Illusion.
This cantrip also asked for specific expertise. Angor already learned a lot from Sunders, plus the fact that he had read about sound waves before, he could definitely try this one out.
He succeeded without spending much effort. Apart from his talent, Angor’s knowledge base was superior after being Jon’s student for many years. He could also fill in any missing spots by referring to the hologram tablet. If Sunders was here, the gentleman would also get quite surprised by how fast his little student could learn.
Angor fully comprehended the theories of the cantrip and stopped there. Knowing the cantrip did not mean he could apply it in reality, which was the key point.
Being able to create a perfect illusion merely by using someone’s heartbeat was his ultimate goal for now.
So, instead of going for something else right away, Angor was going to see how well he could wield Melodious Illusion and realized as much as potential as he could.
Time passed by quickly as he was fully devoted to his study.
As the color of the night covered the land again, Dave came back from the questing hall with another ten new alchemy quests.
When Dave entered Angor’s villa, he saw Angor snap a finger in front of him for some reason.
In the next second, “Angor” was sliced into two halves. Blood immediately came surging out, and several blood drops landed on Dave’s cheek.
Dave’s legs gave out on the spot. He could do nothing but trembled in horror.
“An-An-Angor??”
“I would prefer that Red Butterfly does not use my name to scam others. But… she’s still MY woman!” A fat-looking male walked from behind Angor’s corpse with a knife in hand. “I gave you a quick death, and you should be thankful.”
“Vice?!” Dave called out the man’s name.
But Dave immediately realized something wrong.
“How did I know his name? Is that Vice? Is Vice… fat?”
Next, Dave looked at his hand, which was tainted by several drops of blood from Angor’s body.
Dave took a sniff and could not smell anything.
He felt it again and noticed that the blood-covered area was still dry.
He realized what was going on at this point. “Angor… don’t test your illusions on me, alright? You scared me! And you got so many things wrong! Did I ever tell you that Vice looks rather cool, which gave him more admirers than Parasite Queen? Besides, Vice doesn’t talk much. There’s no way that man’s going to kill you and declare the reason. What do you think he is, a drama actor?”
“Oops. Is that so?”
The reality in front of Dave suddenly shattered, revealing Angor in his usual condition. Angor’s hand was still lifted in the air after he snapped his fingers.
Angor held his chin. “Looks like I need a lot of work before making an illusion. Someone with the right knowledge will see through it so easily. Maybe I should let him say ‘I’ve eaten too much lately so I gained weight’?”
Dave rolled his eyes. “That’s even worse! Who the heck says that after killing someone?”
“Maybe someone will buy it. You never know.”
“Idiots, you mean? And if you’re dealing with idiots, just point behind him and say ‘Look! Alien!’ and get him when he’s looking back. You don’t need illusions for that.”
“You do have a point. I guess I should avoid using people in illusions, or just create someone strange who’s wearing a mask,” Angor considered.
“The beginning was pretty good though. I almost fell for it. If I’m an intruder, you can catch me when I was surprised and gain an upper hand from it,” Dave suggested.