Chapter 198: Peace (1)
Translator: Leo Editor: Frappe
‘The effect of the ancient blood turned me into an inheritor of the great harpy…’ Angele waved his left hand and the metal mirror sank into his skin.
He turned to his shoulder and saw nothing there. It seemed like the great harpy stayed in the Nightmare Realm.
Angele could feel that a small part of his soul was left in somewhere far away from here, it was the place the great harpy stayed at. They could sense each other’s presences, but there was no way for them to communicate.
"So, can I take things out of the Nightmare Realm? Or…was my physical being actually there…?" Angele wondered while rubbing his chin.
‘Zero, show me the recording. I need to do some investigation.’ He sat down.
‘Searching…Transferring the scene to your brain…’
The events that happened not so long ago visualized in front of Angele’s eyes.
He used his mentality to monitor the changes happened to his energy wave and body condition. Furthermore, Zero displayed the detailed body data in Angele’s sight.
Ten minutes later, the blue lights dots around his eyes vanished into the air.
‘I was right. It was only a small part of my soul that was taken into the Nightmare Realm.’ Angele finally understood what happened. ‘The great harpy from the signet was not complete…She existed because I was in that world all the time. The ancient blood in the signet was weak and the creature I saw is just…an incomplete illusion.’
The ancient great harpies and the regular ancient harpies had low intelligence…They communicated through basic methods and were living by their instinct. Those chaos creatures had the brains of one-year-old kids. Although they were strong, they had no way to control themselves. That was why the ancient great harpies were wiped out by the ancient Wizards. Their power, however, was still incredible.
Angele thought for a while.
‘So I need to double check if the world really is the Nightmare Realm. I need to be more cautious if it’s the real one. Nightmare Realm is one of the countless worlds the ancient Wizards spent a long time investigating…Chances of finding rare resources are very high, also…’
Angele narrowed his eyes slightly. ‘The special abilities the great harpy has…With its ancient bloodline, I was able to enter an ancient world. That might be the reason why so many Wizards were trying to extract the pure ancient blood. I shall keep the method as a secret and look for more notes left by ancient Wizards.’
It was possible that someone was spying on him. The pigeon said there were thieves with special techniques around here. Angele carefully created a thin layer of silver metal to cover up the signet on the center of his palm.
‘Alright, I’ll check what effect the signet has on me.’
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Three days later.
Angele stayed in the small house beside the lake. He spent the whole time trying to test the abilities of the evolved signet. He had not yet got the chance to read the Fire enhancement method he acquired not so long ago.
The illusion from the keys was no longer a threat to him. Shadow beasts would attack him during the first stage, but Angele could easily dodge their strikes. With the help of the great harpy’s ancient blood, the shadow beasts stopped attacking him after about 15 times of tests. They were not concerned about Angele entering their s.p.a.ce anymore.
Angele did some experiments and realized that there were more than 1000 shadow beasts in the illusion s.p.a.ce. Their attacks could penetrate any physical barriers, but they could be damaged by energy attacks. The shadow beasts would revive after being killed after about three hours. It seemed like they were being trapped in another dimension by the keys.
Angele a.s.sumed that those beasts were related to the Wizards from Axis of Time. If a Wizard was immobilized in the dark s.p.a.ce, no matter how strong he was, the beasts would be able to kill him sooner or later as they would keep sp.a.w.ning. However, it was nearly impossible to stop a strong Wizard from moving around.
Also, the beasts would only strike when the keys. .h.i.t each other. They were sensitive about human blood and flesh.
Angele’s signet and ancient blood of harpy helped him enter the dark s.p.a.ce anytime he wanted.
The Nightmare Realm was the second stage, but it seemed like there was an internal cooldown timer. Angele tried many times after the first time, but it seemed like the great harpy was resting while collecting energy to take him into that world. He had no idea how long it was going to take.
Angele decided to check on the harpy later as there was nothing he could do at the moment.
By the end of that day, Isabel sent someone from her family to Angele’s house.
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"You must be Wizard Green?" In front of the door, there was a middle-aged man in a white robe with a silver owl sewn on his right chest asking politely.
Angele nodded. "Did master Isabel send you here?"
The male Wizard nodded as well. "Yes. My name is Rossi and I’m master Isabel’s follower. I’ve been working for her for about 20 years already."
"Come in, please." Angele turned around and led Rossi to the living room. "Take a seat. I just came here not so long ago, so my apologies as I don’t have the time to decorate the room."
"That’s totally fine. Thanks."
Rossi walked into the living room but did not sit down. He just stood by the table and slightly bowed to Angele.
"Wizard Green, Isabel asked me to bring you the resource you asked for. Please take a look."
Angele rubbed his chin. "Ah…I forgot to check master Isabel’s communication rune. I’ve been really busy recently." He pursed his lips to an apologetic smile.
A light blue glint appeared on his nails as Angele raised his right hand. Blue smoke rose from the back of his hand and it looked like something being ignited.
Several seconds later.
The blue glint disappeared from his nails, instead, a pattern with a flying bird was drawn by flowing blue energy strings in the air. It almost looked like there was water on those strings.
Angele raised the other hand and carefully tapped on the pattern.
His skull numbed for a second and a female voice was transmitted into his brain directly.
"Green, we found the heart of the tree. It’s included in this delivery. Also, I added some other items to that. You saved me back in the ruin, so I want to show my grat.i.tude. I hope you can accept them." Isabel’s voice sounded tired. "Also, Rossi is someone you can trust. I’ve known him for more than 20 years, so there’s no point in hiding our relations.h.i.+p in front of him. One more thing, you know the amount of rhino blood I need, right? Can you prepare it for me? If you need any other rare materials, just tell me, I’ll try my best to find them for you. Rossi will be in charge of delivering them to you."
Angele released some mentality waves and quickly created a small complicated rune model in the air. After the model was completed, he focused the wave on the rune.
‘For sure. Also, it’ll be great if you can find me some formulas of potions that help increase mentality. You know what I needed, I owe you one.’ He opened his mouth but no voice came out.
All his voice was collected by the communication rune and his words were delivered to Isabel.
The communication rune worked like a voice mailbox. When it was activated, he would be able to hear the messages delivered to him. It had a range limit, but it was convenient to use.
After replying to Isabel’s message, Angele waved his hands, and the blue strings vanished into air.
"I’ll ask the workers to carry the items inside." Rossi saw Angele finish checking the messages.
"Sure." Angele stood up and nodded.
Rossi clapped his hands.
A group of short men wearing black coats carried white boxes into the living room.
They breathed heavily as they lined up the white boxes on the floor carefully.
Those men had messy hair and large noses. Their skin was dark and their bodies were muscular.
Also, all the men had black beards on their chins, with length varying. They finished their work quickly while keeping everything in order.
A short man with the longest beard walked to Rossi and Angele, then bowed politely.
"Sir, everything is here. Do you need us to do anything else for you?" His voice was deep.
"That’s all. You guys can go have some rest now." Rossi smiled.
"We’ll stay outside the house. Just let me know if you need us to do something," the short man nodded and responded.
Angele looked at the man. The man’s head was around his waist, but they carried the heavy boxes into the living room easily.
"Dwarves or Gnomes?" Angele asked after all the short men left the house.
"They are dwarves, forest dwarves. They’re born with magic resistance, so they can stay in Nola." Rossi explained, "Forest dwarves enjoy peaceful lives. They came to Nola about 30 years ago. Most of them are working as farmers or workers. They earn good money here. Even if they decide to go back to their hometown, the amount of money they have will be enough for the rest of their lives."
Angele felt a bit speechless. "Are there other races like them here?"
"Well…yeah. The ghost pigeons, I think you have already seen them around, they are in charge of delivering public messages. Also, the dryads in the Snake Bird Cliff’s territory have the ability to purify the air. The older the dryads are, the better they can increase the air quality. The dryads created an area with the best air in Nola. People who want to live in the area will be charged a monthly fee. The area is under Snake Bird Cliff’s control." Rossi chuckled. "They found themselves a great way to make money actually. Their business is growing well."
Angele shook his head and smiled.
"Dwarves, ghost pigeons, and dryads are the main races living here. There are also many races with much less population, but I’ll have to prepare a long list for you if you really want to know more about them. If you have time, you can go check the area they live in. It’s marked on the map with a red circle," Rossi added.
"Got it. Nola is a great place. Everything is new to me." Angele smiled again.
"Oh, one more thing. If you want to go to that area, I suggest you hire some centaur warriors. They are honest and reliable. There was one time that I left a piece of ice tongue scale on the ground and one of the centaur warriors returned it to me after picking it up. If he had decided to sell it, he could easily purchase a full set of high-quality gear with the money he’d get."
Rossi recalled the event and smiled. "You know that ice tongue scale is nearly impossible to track, right? That thing has no smell and it’s translucent. If the warrior decided to keep it for himself, there’ll be nothing I can do about it."
"I’ll think about it. Honesty is welcomed anywhere on this land." Angele slight nodded.
"Alright, let’s check the items now." Rossi raised his right hand and pointed at the boxes on the floor.
Each of the boxes was about a meter wide. They were heavy and stable. The boxes’ edges were covered by silver iron strips with rivets.
Angele grabbed the key Rossi handed over to him and crouched in front of one of the boxes. He opened it quickly after unlocking the lock.
Inside, there were pieces of yellow wood with various sizes. Some were large like a human’s head but some only had the size of a fist. Angele noticed some blood stain on the inner walls of the box.
The fragrance of flower mixed with the smell of blood permeated the air as Angele picked up one of the wood pieces.
He held the wood piece in hand and started scanning it using the chip. Blue light dots flashed in front of his eyes.
"How many boxes of the heart of the tree are here?" Angele stood up and questioned.
"18 boxes. The other five boxes have different items inside," Rossi replied.
"Sounds great." Angele smiled. "Thanks for delivering those to me, Rossi."
"It’s my pleasure to work for you and master Isabel," Rossi bowed and said politely, "Now if you’ll excuse me…"
"Sure, I’ll see you later."