Wizards all set their visions toward the future. They did not falter around the past.
Even if it was something worth mentioning for the rest of his life, a wizard who did something memorable would only keep it in a corner of his memory instead of using it as a constant chat-topic.
During their talk, Angor learned something about what happened when he was out cold, such as the last item on the auction.
“Twilight Auction received a Mystery Item and put it up as the final?” Angor imagined what miracle he missed out after hearing Dave’s explanation.
The word “Mystery” was something to help wizards seek the unknown and pursue truth. The word alone already meant something extremely valuable in the world of wizards.
And Angor, as an alchemist, certainly wished to witness something that only existed in legends.
“I wonder what it looked like… What’s the difference between Mystery Items and alchemy ones?”
“I only heard that they use a completely different set of rules in this world,” Prome said, “I’ve never seen one up close, though.”
The books Angor found in Nightmare Realm did not contain much information about Mystery Items either. He only knew that being “Mystery” did not mean superior. Actually, in the right conditions, many mid or low-tiered alchemy products could be more useful than Mystery Items.
Still, Mystery Items possessed way more value.
It was like using someone in a battle arena. An ordinary peasant fighter might defeat the king of a country, but that did not mean the peasant was superior to the king. The king held much more assets on a whole other level.
Most Mystery Items could not be explained using the level system of alchemy.
“I didn’t get to watch the final auction… pity,” Angor sighed.
“Go ask your professor then,” Dave said. He then added, “Did I forget to tell you? The Cursing Puppet went to Mister Sunders in the end. I think your professor’s pretty nice to you, so he might not turn you down.”
“Wait. My professor bought the Cursing Puppet?”
“Yeah. It was… seven million magic crystals. It broke the record of Twilight Auction in the last three centuries!” Dave exclaimed. “I mean, seven million! I’d need more than one lifetime to earn that much money. It looked like a toy made for a small girl… I think even I can weave something better than that.”
Prome recalled what he saw and nodded. “I didn’t notice anything particular on that item either. As far as I can see, its handwork isn’t anything professional.”
It reminded Angor of a story he read before.
“I saw a book in my professor’s library called Wonderful Worlds , written by Great Wizard Fein Werder. The book mostly popularizes knowledge of different planes. One of the stories mentioned a strange item, similar to what we’re talking about.
“Inside a plane dominated by an ocean that had rainbow-colored sea waves, Fein Werder discovered a silver fish…”
Angor continued.
The fish was only as big as someone’s hand. Fein Werder was interested in them because he accidentally discovered the fish’s tribe. Yes, tribe.
After observing them for two months, Werder noticed that the silver fishes had developed basic intelligence. They gathered in the same manner of ancient tribes and fended off predators together. They built their own habitat and established a primitive form of society.
Such primitive tribes were commonly found in many planes, so Fein Werder did not linger there. About a hundred years later when he visited the ocean plane again, he remembered the small fish tribe and decided to take another peek.
The century did not help the silver fish tribe to develop complete civilization, and what he saw was almost identical to a hundred years ago. However, Fein Werder noticed something new. The milters, otherwise known as the male fish, tended to build a “room” as its mating spot by using whatever it could salvage from the environment, such as sand, seashells, corals, and seaweed.
Fein Werder called this spot the “Breeding Room”.
If a hen, the female fish, was interested in a room, it would enter the room and wait for her pair to “do its job”.
Different milters built rooms of different styles. Some used whole shells, some used hard dirt, some dug places inside corals… Fein Werder found it pretty interesting, so he stayed for a few more years to observe how the small silver fishes gave birth to their next generation.
In the second year, he saw a silver fish who had black spots on its body built a delicate breeding room inside a rotten plank from shipwrecks. However, no hens came.
In the third year, the “black spot” did the same trick by making a rotten wood piece into his breeding room. Even Fein Werder was impressed by the stable triangle design which could support two mating lovers no matter how “violent” they moved.
Yet no hens joined.
The fourth year, the fifth… The black spot failed to attract a “she” again in the eighth year, and Fein Werder was getting a bit worried about the small bachelor.
The usual life expectancy of a silver fish was about ten years, which meant this one did not have many chances left.
During the eighth year, the black-spotted fish constructed a miniature and adorable room just like how humans did. Fein Werder could not help approving the genius’ work. At this rate, it was very likely that this one silver fish would bring civilization to the tribe.
Regretfully speaking, such a finely-crafted room still had no visitors.
In the ninth year, Fein Werder began to understand that it was not the room that discouraged potential mates. It was because… the “black spot” looked unsightly among its folks.
Fein Werder realized that female silver fish regarded someone’s look as important as the room.
He silently mourned for the misfortune of the little fish.
In the ninth year, using rotten wood again, the black spot created something yet more complex. It was a fortress, a castle with multiple levels.
It did attract hens this time. However, each time a hen entered the “castle”, the black spot would immediately slaughter it with a weapon.
This time, the black spot managed to draw 39 hens to its home. He killed them all and used their blood to bath the castle in red.
“A fish left single for too long had gone insane…” Fein Werder commented.
The black spot did not get to meet its natural death. The “chieftain” of the tribe ordered guards to siege the castle and executed the black spot in the end.
The story did not end here.
Rather, this was where Fein Werder’s story actually started. As an observer, despite his sorrow when he witnessed the sad ending of the little bachelor, Werder never interfered with the tribe’s business.
When it ended, Fein Werder prepared to leave this plane since there was no more to see. Before he could do so, however, he saw something strange. The “castle” built by the black-spotted fish had undergone amazing changes.
It turned into a Mystery Item without being affected by any external magic!
Fein Werder did not say what the item could be used for in his book. He, however, understood the great value possessed by such an item. Great excitement affected his neutral standing. The man thought he had discovered the right approach to create a Mystery Item.
He no longer saw himself as an observer. He turned into a merciless killer and began slaughtering the fish before using their blood to taint their “breeding rooms”.
But he did not find another Mystery Item.
He did some more experiment on the bodies of the fish, which yielded nothing.
In the end, the silver fish tribe became extinct in his hands while he only obtained that one Mystery Item in the shape of a castle.
Previously, Angor only regarded the story as a “story”. He did not believe someone would watch fish building houses for ten years.
But he found it similar when he heard about the poorly-made cloth doll.
Perhaps it was poorly made in the views of humans. To the fishes, however, the houses they built were great treasures.
With no particular process, the simple castle became a “Mystery Item”.
A doll too simple to be a child’s toy became a Mystery Item called the Cursing Puppet.
They had the same ring to them.
“Maybe the appearance of a Mystery Item is triggered by strong emotions or desire?” Prome offered an opinion after listening to Angor.
Angor shook his head. “I’m not sure. The story is not validated anyway. But I do know alchemists can create such items. I have no idea how though.”
“Mortals-wait, even fishes can produce Mystery Items? Such… mystery.” Dave was lost in thought. He then said, “Now I really want to know more about them. Maybe I can accidentally create one, and I’ll be beyond rich!”
“Thirty years ago, the Floating Mech City sold a Mystery Item called ‘Whelk of The Dreaming Coast’. It can put all non-lifeforms into dreams regardless of their levels. Due to such a useless effect, the item was only sold at ten thousand crystals. So don’t get too worked up. Not every Mystery Item is valuable,” Prome commented.
Put non-lifeforms into dreams?? Angor was surprised. Can randoms objects have dreams too?
“Practice what you learned. There are cases where a tiered alchemy item sold for more than seven million,” said Prome as he patted Dave’s shoulder.
“You must mean those high-tiered ones, Master. There are even better ones called tactical deployments, which are priceless. I wouldn’t care about Mystery or whatnot if I can make something like that,” said Dave as he pouted.
They chuckled and decided to end the topic.
Angor suddenly remembered seeing Lydia talking to Sunders in a strange way, so he decided to ask Prome about it.
“Who is ‘Lady Lotus’ who was inside Chamber 1 today? Why’s everyone afraid of her?”
“Lady Lydia, you mean? She is-”
Before Prome could say much else, a tiny head poked out from the corner of the stairway.
“Lady Lotus is now at Midnight Sovereign??”