The train dived deeper into the land, while its wheels clanked against the metal railway with unchanging frequency. Apart from the occasional candles along the tunnel which illuminated a small part of the walls, the tunnel was completely dark.
Half an hour later, the train entered a spacious area inside the land.
Angor was very shocked at the amazing place hidden under the surface. There were extending woodlands, glittering river streams as well as wildlife running around. He could not see the edge of the place at all. Actually, he would not believe that he was below the ground had he not gone through the tunnel.
He poked his head out of a window and looked up. There was no ceiling in sight. The whole area was bright as day.
“There are plants up there that reached all the way to the surface, which transmit light to here. In the night, they can even bring stars and moonlight,” Prome exclaimed. “The residents in Darkivil Empire are rough thanks to their nature, and you’ll find many criminals gathering here who came from different nations. However, we must admit that the gods bestowed such a paradise to these underground folks.”
The underground race a.k.a the Subterrians was another variation race of mankind. They were still considered humans but were not exactly the same beings.
On the outside, Subterrians was a bit shorter than average humans. There were occasional exceptions when a Subterrian would grow taller than two meters, but in general, they were smaller than homo sapiens and the Karabits.
Just like common people, Subterrians also came with different characters, such as kind ones or evil ones. However, most of them tended to have tough natures due to the lack of resources underground.
And Angor soon got to experience what it meant.
It was obvious that the train was intended for supernaturals, and someone still went to steal on the train, who was then burnt to crisps by the offended apprentices.
A mortal who dared to steal from supernatural was a rare sight. Most other mortals would keep a respectful distance.
The train station sat in the northern suburbs of Midnight Sovereign. Angor saw the silhouette of the capital in the distance when getting off the train.
The vast city held structures of different styles. From here, Angor could not see the boundary of the city. However, the Midnight Sovereign still seemed smaller than some of the biggest cities he saw in the Earth films.
In this world though, it was one of the biggest cities in the southern region.
Angor suddenly coughed when a sharp smell invaded his nostrils. He looked around and saw a steam boiler in the station releasing a greasy smoke trail into the air.
He also noticed that there was a thick layer of dust collected on the plants nearby. Even the air looked a bit unclear under all the smoke.
“The air underground grew a lot worse ever since Evory built their railway into Midnight Sovereign. Mortals who keep the trains going have no choice but to pollute the air like this. So short-visioned,” Prome joined Angor and explained.
“But thanks to the traffic, it’s easy for them to establish economic relations,” Angor said.
“One of the obvious merits, yes,” said Prome. He pointed to the great city far away and said, “Let’s move. Wizards always cause unnecessary troubles among mortals. Let’s go to Twilight Well as soon as possible. At least the air is better over there.”
Just as Angor was wondering what “trouble” meant, several people dressed in elegant attires rushed into the train station with children in their arms.
Next, they went for anyone that looked like a supernatural and immediately knelt down.
“Please take my child, sir! Look at his skin! He’ll definitely grow into a beauty! He can run errands for you!”
Angor realized that these people all came looking for someone to take their children as students. But as he recalled, there were only level-2 apprentices or lesser people on the train aside from Prome. Those who studied under these people would probably never achieve anything good. More importantly, one could not just go find a teacher and become supernatural. It called for talent.
However, mortals did not care. They only wanted their children to join a wizard so their families could enjoy fame and prosperity over several generations.
This was the reason why wizards tended to stay low among mortals. Otherwise, something bothersome would always find them.
Prome was naturally the center of attention with his bright robe. He sighed and prepared to chase them away. If not for Angor, Prome would have used his flying vehicle to come here so he would never get troubled by these mortals.
Usually, when something similar happened, Prome would simply display his power and blow the nuisance away with a spell. But according to Dave, Angor preferred more gentle means, so Prome planned to deal with the mortals in a peaceful way this time.
Prome put on his display as a seasoned master and prepared to accept all the flattering first. Before it could happen, however, a giant explosion came from the boiler room.
“Huh, the boiler exploded?” Prome wondered.
Everyone looked toward the source of the ruckus, including the mortal nobles.
Thick smoke came flowing out from the boiler, covering the entire train station in a matter of seconds.
“Dammit. Cheap mortal shit,” Someone yelled in the smoke.
“Let’s go already, under the smoke’s cover.”
“I can’t see the way! Lemme use something to clear it first… Hey, wait. That’s no smoke. My spell didn’t work.”
Prome frowned and felt something wrong. Before he could look into it, someone patted him on the back.
In the next second, all the smoke, noises, and blown boiler suddenly vanished. The air was still hazy, but nothing troubled their view.
“Man, Angor, next time you do an illusion, try to remind me earlier, alright? You always scare me,” said Dave as he joined them. “I almost ran outside with everyone else if you didn’t tell me otherwise.”
Prome looked back and saw it was Angor who touched him.
“That’s an illusion?” Prome finally realized what just happened. Now that he thought about it, the scene looked so wrong in many ways—the boiler would never produce so much smoke in such a short time.
But the illusion still tricked him for a good moment!
Prome stared at Angor, somewhat terrified of the boy’s potential.
“Just a simple illusion so the nobles don’t drag us down. Let’s go,” said Angor as he nodded to Prome.
The three of them left the station and heard someone who was left behind cursing loudly.
“This ain’t real smoke!”
“It’s fake! Someone used an illusion!”
“F*ck it! Who the hell did this shit?”
“Hey! How do you get rid of this thing? Shouldn’t it go away after I discovered the truth? I can still see the smoke!”
Dave looked back at all the level-2 apprentices stumbling inside the train station. He was startled as well when he realized Angor used something so simple to trap so many people who were of a higher level.
He was glad that Angor was his friend, or he would be wandering aimlessly in the illusion like everyone else.
“Um, what about those people?” Dave pointed to the confused apprentices.
Angor shrugged. “My illusion only covered so much area. They can always walk out of it, or they can wait for someone to discover the illusion nodes and break them.”
“But what about mortals?”
“I only used enough mana to sustain the illusion for five minutes. They can wait it out.”
“Good job you did there,” Prome commented. “If you go for the tower now, I believe you can reach the top without relying on your alchemy weapons or Toby.”
Angor shook his head. “People will get wary if I use illusions too much. I still need weapons to compensate for my lack of strength.”
As they talked, Angor sensed that his illusion was breaking apart.
“Someone found the nodes,” Angor wondered who managed to break his illusion so fast. But on second thought, he should leave as fast as possible so no one learned that he was the “culprit” behind this. “Anyway, we should go.”
Soon, a group of apprentices covered in dust rushed out of the train station furiously.
“Come on out, bitch! Whoever you are!”
“I’m so killing this bastard today!”
Despite their yells, the “criminal” was gone.
Among the angry crowd, a woman wearing tree leaves as decorations spoke to her companion. “I think that was a Melodious Illusion… Didn’t you learn something like that before?”
“It was. But whoever deployed the illusion was a lot better than me. He blocked our senses with some unknown effort. But he didn’t keep doing it, or we’d have a hard time escaping from the illusion.”
The speaker was a woman who only wore a transparent silk veil and violet cloth which covered her breast and back door. “It must be someone really talented in illusions. Not every illusionist can block our judgmental senses with such ease.”
“An Illusionist… You can find many illusionists among Occultists. I wonder which master did that,” said the leaf woman with a tilt of her head.
“I smell no blood. He only used an illusion to get rid of the annoying mortals. Good job, I must say. He got rid of the flies, and gave a lesson to these arrogant apprentices.” The silk woman leaned on the shoulder of her beautiful companion. “Lady Daichese… you mentioned something about a strange treasure, right? May I check it out?”
“Daichese” shook her head. “No way, Anna. I’m going to use this thing to buy a glass of White Orchid Potion. The moment you see it, you’ll try to steal it.”
The woman in silk, Anna, curled her lips. “Come on… What’s so precious that I can’t even take a look?”