After making sure the Melodious Illusion could be triggered properly, Angor began the last step—using Condense to cool-fix the final product.
White vapor shifted around until the shining surface of the music box was revealed.
For a moment, the object shined so brightly that Angor had to close his eyes. When he looked again, a perfectly-made semi-transparent object lied in his palm.
The crystal tubes acted like multifaceted prisms like diamonds. Any light that went inside the object would come back out with greater brilliance.
Surrounded by the intertwining tubes, the flower in the center of the creation easily fascinated the minds of its viewers.
Everything about the trinket possessed very simple colors, such as pale blue on crystals in droplet shapes, pale yellow on the blooming flower, and pale white on the ocean wave paints. But combined with each other, they gave the entire object a modest yet luxurious feel.
Anyone would find this thing an outstanding art piece.
Angor was not sure that his creation was enough to please Lady Mirror. At least he himself was satisfied with it.
But as a music box, its functionality was the important part rather than its looks. He quickly got over the great excitement and began testing the music box itself.
The trinket held two special effects. One was a calming aura created by Tranquility Rune while the other was an illusion facilitated by the music that it played.
Both effects required mana support. The music box was designed to help people enjoy its music in a dreamy scenery, so Angor would not want people to keep sustaining it by spending mana.
The music box had to have an energy source. Since Angor had not learned about any highly-efficient energy sources, he chose to use common magic crystals.
The chamber to contain the magic crystal was located in a small area at the flower’s root. Users could simply replace the crystal as if renewing a battery.
As long as the magic crystal was not depleted, anyone could trigger the special effects by operating a winding key on the music box.
Angor used the original design of a winding key as a trigger, but the music box did not really need any spring mechanism in it. Angor kept the component merely to salute the inventors of the amazing toy.
Once the music box was started, its user could spin the key clockwise for two clicks to active its full effect, or spin counterclockwise for one click to shut off the illusion while keeping the music running. Another counterclockwise click meant turning off the music box.
Angor opened the crystal chamber and placed a magic crystal inside.
He took a deep breath and operated the winding key carefully.
Colorful light streams flowed on the surface of the item.
Next, a strange aura was released from the box, and Angor suddenly felt his stressed mind growing quieter.
For a moment, he forgot everything that troubled his mind.
“The Tranquility Rune worked well.”
Angor grinned a little while enjoying the amazing effect.
Soon, the prelude of the City of Sky came from the “flower” in full perfection without any quality loss. The gentle musical notes brought by the strange instruments slowly drew their listeners into another dimension…
As the music began, Angor’s illusion also came into effect.
A water ripple effect was shown in the air. In the next moment, Angor found himself in the midair again. There were the boundless sky and drifting clouds above him and fresh-green fields beneath.
The Melodious Illusion was constructed so well that Angor could not help praising his own work. He spent a long time on the back of cloud whale, so he fully knew how to create the scenery in the sky to the fullest extent.
As the music continued, the illusion slowly changed.
Clouds moved apart until the “mysterious floating island” came into view.
…
After repeated tests, Angor was certain that the music box was a huge success. Everything he wanted on the item was realized.
Common artists expressed their emotions and their ideals on flat surfaces, sometimes even through sculptures. Angor, however, managed to break the barrier and indulge people by their eyes, ears, and minds. In this way, even those with less taste for art could easily read Angor’s great innovation.
He might not have the same level of artistic senses as the masters, but his music box was creative enough to attract more crowds.
The only pity was that he only created one music box. The other Echo Flower was ruined.
Should he give the creation to Lady Mirror or Toby first?
Angor’s first thought was to satisfy Toby since the bird was his true partner. But again… Lady Mirror saved his very life, and he already promised to pay the lady a visit. He had yet to fulfill that promise.
He struggled a little and decided to present the gift to Toby anyway. He just said that he would get the work done tonight a little while ago. He could always go buy another flower from Dave later.
When leaving the underground lab, Angor was welcomed by a colorful figure dashing through the air. Toby, in his flower dress, landed on Angor’s shoulder and gave his master a gentle peck on the cheek. Then it looked at the interesting item in Angor’s hand.
As a creature created by Greya, Toby already learned how to appreciate beautiful creations such as art pieces and human clothing.
Toby flapped its wings happily and looked around the music box in curiosity.
Angor smiled. “Here, the gift I promised. Told you I’d get it finished today.”
Toby nodded madly, causing his bird body to shift up and down in the air, like a butterfly fluttering above a flower.
Angor explained how to use the music box as well as its effects, before handing the trinket to Toby.
The music box was a lot bigger than Toby. However, the bird did not seem bothered by the size difference. He held the box in his beak and returned to the attic immediately. Soon, City of Sky began to play upstairs, followed by Toby’s own chirping.
Angor chuckled and shook his head. He would go find Dave to buy another Echo Flower now.
Instead of finding Dave in Prome’s shop, Angor ran into the bulky guy called Hercules instead.
According to the man, Dave asked him to watch the shop while Dave himself went to do some alchemy work down in the storage.
Angor thought it fine to leave Dave be and tried to buy the flower from Hercules. However, the muscle guy could not understand a thing about alchemy, so Angor had to go looking for Dave in the end.
Inside the storage, Angor saw Dave working on a model of a fencing sword using Thaw. And Dave looked pretty adept at this, after spending all those days working with Angor.
Angor stayed at a distance and waited.
The shape of the sword was soon made under the manipulation of Hand of Spell. However, Dave did not use Condense to fix the shape next like Angor expected. Instead, he took out some extra materials and began to chant something before a stream of mana was injected into the materials, causing them to glitter.
“Synthesis?” Angor realized what he was looking at.
Before he could observe more of Dave’s work though, another mana stream sank into the sword, and the weapon was completely shattered to waste.
“Damn. Again,” Dave complained. He already saw Angor coming. “That was my third try today.”
Angor looked at the remains on the floor and noticed that they came from more than one weapon.
“Are you always so hard-working?” Angor teased, “Or did I flip a switch in your head?”
Dave lifted his head proudly. “I was too broke to buy materials before. Now I have money! And I better put it to use. Enough about me. What are you here for? You accepted more quests?”
“Nah. I came to buy an Echo Flower,” said Angor as he checked through the shelves. “You still have them?”
“You still going on with your music box? Did you fail?”
“Yeah, but I didn’t fail. I already made one for Toby. I still need to make another though, as a gift for my… helper.” Angor decided not to reveal his incident with Lady Mirror.
“Helper?” Dave realized what Angor meant and did not push. “You’re in luck. I just have one flower left here. After getting scammed by Toby, we never restocked them again. It’s not like many people need them.”
Dave checked through several crates and finally took out a flower from a corner. Then he refused Angor’s bone card. “I think I got this one for a mere 30 merit points. I never spared the effort to account it yet. Just take it.”
In Angor’s memory, the man called “Dave” used to be someone stingy over every merit point. But now…
Such a change in character was expected though, considering how Dave had earned like a thousand crystals already.
Angor complied and accepted the flower. “Alright, I’ll be leaving then. I need to get it done tonight and send it out tomorrow.”
Dave nodded. “Don’t forget that our tickets are for tomorrow afternoon. If you miss it, you’ll have to attend the second grand auction at the end of the year.”