Chapter 254: Competition (1)
Translator: Leo Editor: Frappe
Four days later…
*Blop*
From within a translucent beaker.
A brown seed slowly sank into the water with purple petals from a flower.
Angele held the beaker in hand and observed the liquid.
"Nice flowering tea…" he muttered.
"Glad you like it."
A man sat opposite to Angele in the shadows answered in a light tone.
The shadow blurred the man’s face. His long sleeves and hood covered every inch of his skin.
The two were sitting in Angele’s room, face to face, enjoying a pot of warm tea.
The purple flower in their cups had already bloomed. The color was clean and vivid. The purple petals floated on the surface of the liquid; it looked fresh.
"I didn’t bring my personal tea set with me this time. It would taste even better with my special teacups." Angele shook his head slightly.
"It’s good enough for me." The man grabbed the beaker and took a sip from it. "So, what do you think about the matter we discussed? We only have two days left."
"I don’t know too much about Baron, but we don’t have to go for it right away."
"You know how the crystal runes work, right? It will absorb its owner’s mentality waves. This is our best chance especially because no material that can be used to deactivate the rune is on the airship. Take it and carry it with you until it recognizes you as the owner. The longer we wait, the harder it’ll become," the man explained. "I didn’t interact with anyone else because Baron’s Talent Skill will detect my presence if I’m in its range. I had to hide my mentality with spells just for that."
"Talent Skill, huh?" Angele repeated, "You mean his forcefield? What does it do?"
"He can monitor every wizard’s location and condition on the airship if he wants to." The man lowered his voice.
"Interesting. I have one more question for you. Why did you come to me?" Angele smiled.
"I found out that you were out of Baron’s forcefield range for some reason." The man’s answer was straightforward.
Angele knew that someone was releasing the mentality wave in a different way when he boarded the airship. He did not want to waste too much time trying to figure out what was going on, so he decided to stay away from the source of the mentality wave and create a special barrier.
He doubted if Baron’s forcefield was helpful during a battle.
"I thought everyone on the airship has noticed the special forcefield."
"They’re not as smart as you think." The man shook his head. "We can work together and take the crystal rune from Baron. What do you think?"
"Sounds good to me. We can decide who will become the owner later." Angele nodded slightly.
"Alright then. Two days later, the crystal rune will recognize Baron as its owner." The man stopped for a second, then explained, "You need to carry it with you for seven days before it recognizes you as the real owner, so we need to do it before that happens. I think there are other people going after it too. Be prepared."
"For sure."
"I’ll see you later." The man stood up and moved to the wall behind him. He slowly vanished into the shadows. It almost looked like he passed through the wall.
Angele narrowed his eyes, unsure of what spell the man had cast, but it was not surprising that wizards had their own special skills.
The man was the missing wizard on the airship, who had suddenly knocked on the door and asked Angele to help him fight against Baron.
Zero confirmed that the man was a Gas stage wizard based on the mentality wave he was releasing. However, Angele was certain that the man was a Liquid stage wizard after observing him during their conversation. He was extremely confident in winning the fight against Baron for some reason.
Angele grabbed the beaker and sipped some tea. He turned around and worked to the window.
Below the airship was the sea of trees.
The only things he could see were several flashing green dots, likely some luminous plants.
Angele enjoyed the night view for a while. The seed inside the beaker had already sprouted and it grew into a flower within seconds. The white petals looked vivid and soft.
During the four days, the only things he did was studying, researching and meditating. It was his basic daily routine.
It would take a long time for wizards to learn spells, and they needed to practice building the spell models a countless number of times to master them. Although they just needed to invoke the incantation once they mastered the spell, the learning process was hard and supporting materials were required to cast certain spells.
Angele had the help from the biochip, but he still needed to do the detailed modification by himself. It would take other wizards years just to master a modified spell.
Most of the wizards on the airship were light wizards. Angele doubted if they knew any powerful damage spells and as a dark wizard, he had many practical experiences from all the battles he had fought.
The man cast a special spell when he left but Angele was not concerned. He did not look like a great fighter, and Angele could take the crystal rune using force if they were unable to reach an agreement.
For a wizard like this, Angele could make him lose the ability to fight within minutes.
Dark wizards were used to engaging in battles and they could cast the needed spells quickly once the fight started.
However, the light wizards would not be able to react so fast even if they were prepared for the upcoming battle. They needed enough time to figure out which spell could be cast to counter the opponent’s attack. Some of them even needed a longer time to finish the incantation than usually once they were under pressure.
Angele shook his head slightly. He was not the slightest bit interested in the competition. He had never considered light wizards as threats. They were like the fledgling birds—a tiny storm would easily destroy them all.
‘I can just usurp the crystal rune from the winner of this so-called competition.’
*Thud thud*
Someone knocked on the door as Angele finished thinking.
"Come in please, it’s not locked," Angele answered the door.
*Creak*
The door was pushed open.
Under the dim light, Angele saw a man wearing a large white robe stepping into the door quietly.
"Perry? It’s late in the night. What’s the matter?" Angele recognized the man right away. It was Perry, the first wizard to talk to him on the deck.
Perry had shaved his beard, but his hair was still messy.
He closed the door after entering Angele’s room.
"Green, I already talked to the others. Let’s fight Baron the day after tomorrow and take the rune from him. We need to focus on the strongest wizard on the airship, then we can decide who will become the owner of the rune."
"But it’s just one of the three crystal runes, right? We still need to fight against the winners from the other airships…"
"It’s different. Once you become the ‘captain’ of this airship, the rest of the members must help you fight against the other airships. You’ll be able to acquire all three crystal runes one way or another." Perry smiled. "Even if you’re not the strongest wizards in all of the airships, you can still win the fight with the help of the crew. It has happened more than once in history."
"Never heard of that." Angele pursed his lips. "How many people are on your side?"
"We’re a group of four, right? The couple agreed to join us too. So, it’s six versus three. I think we can win." There was a confident smile on Perry’s face.
"What’s the plan?"
"I’ll raise my right fist when the time is ripe. You just go all in on Baron once you see the signal. He’s the strongest one." Perry explained, "We’ll figure out a peaceful way to decide on who to give the rune to. What do you say?"
"Sounds good." Angele nodded.
Perry told Angele about the details and left the room quickly.
Angele thought for a while and then lay on the bed, starting his daily meditation.
Although meditation would not increase his mentality anymore, Angele had already developed such habit, and it could replace sleep.
Nothing happened on the second day.
Angele walked around on the deck. The temperature was low, and the wind was strong in the sky. Baron was standing by the railings. It seemed like he was modifying the speed and the direction of the airship.
He was carrying an enchanted item that could warm up his body, so he only wore a long white robe.
Angele’s Stamina was well above average. Nonetheless, he just did not like the cold air. He enjoyed the fresh air, but he did not stay too long on the deck.
Although he could just use fire energy particles to warm up his body, he did not want to waste any mentality on that.
Angele detected some mechanical movement from the room on the left. It was probably someone setting up a magic matrix or circle.
He did not know too much about the magic matrix or the magic circle, but he had learned a lot from the defensive matrices that Wisp had sent him back in Nola.
The most basic magic matrices on the airship were the ones in the cabin. They were used to warm up the rooms.
Angele returned to his own room and continued the study of enchantment.
He had finally found some practical ways to apply the Fire enchantment knowledge.
Angele finished studying more than 20 different basic courses, and seven different needed languages. After wasting a lot of materials, he successfully did some basic Fire enchantment on his own.
Although the success rate on enchanting level 0 spells was low, it was still a huge step forward for him. He spent about 30,000 regular magic stones to buy materials for the enchantment in recent years. The biochip hadn’t been able to help him much during the process.
Enchantment was different from Potion Concocting. The simulations of the biochip could not be applied to the actual process. Angele needed to be extremely cautious when applying the enchantment and he also needed the experience to solve the possible problems that might happen during the procedure. A lot of mentality would be consumed when applying the enchantment, so Angele only did the test when the current environment he was in was relatively safe.
Not all materials were compatible with the fire energy particles. Moreover, there were also countless possible combinations. The density of the energy particles, the environment requirement, the mentality requirement, the compatibility, and the resistance—all were needed to be tested one by one.
It would take a long time and a lot of materials to actually make an enchanted item.
Even masters of Enchantment could not speed up the process. Although their success rate was higher, anything could happen during the procedure. That was precisely the reason why enchanted items were so difficult to find.
They were many wizards studying Enchantment but crafting enchanted items was a different story altogether.
Angele studied enchantment for a while, then decided to check the magic device he acquired from Red Beard.
He sat beside the table and took out a metal pouch. The pouch protected the magic device from being detected by other wizards.
Inside the pouch was a white ring.