Chapter 292: Elemental Hand and Vivian (1)
Translator: Leo Editor: Frappe
‘My goal was to test my new forcefield and complete the mission. It seems everything went according to my plan.’
Angele modified his mentality frequency and talked to Henn. He was walking quickly in the heavy rain. He went around the city and found a small road.
‘Time to meet up with Mincola and the group. Where’s the level 2 spell model you promised me?’ he asked.
‘Don’t worry. I’ll give it to you when the time is right.’ Henn, chuckling, gave a vague answer.
Angele continuously bugged Henn many times about the spell models right after she woke up, but she just would not tell him exactly when.
Angele returned to the Dream Inn to claim the reward of the mission and left right after. He walked down the street beside the river and entered a random tavern at around the corner.
There were several pedestrians running down the street and no one was waiting in front of the tavern due to the heavy downpour.
He pushed the door open.
*Ding*
The bell on the door rang as Angele stepped into the tavern.
The warm fragrance of the wines permeated the air. Patrons of the tavern were chatting and yelling. There were also people playing cards in the corner.
Angele’s brows furrowed. He glanced around and walked straight to a corner on the other side.
There were five or six people sitting around several tables. The conspicuous outfits they were wearing were different from the other patrons in the tavern.
Mincola, Rose, and a white-haired lady were sitting together around one of the tables.
The lady was pointing at a light-yellow leather scroll on the table.
Angele’s footsteps attracted the patrons’ attention, with some of them glaring at him.
However, they did not utter a word as he was but a stranger to them.
Mincola stood up first.
"Hey, Green! You’re finally here."
Rose and the lady just nodded their heads and smiled slightly.
Angele walked to the table and sat down by Mincola.
"Thank you for that tip, Rose. It helped me a lot during the mission." He looked at Rose.
"It’s fine. Although my battle skills are weak, I still want to prove myself," Rose responded in a light tone.
"Who’s this?" Angele turned to the lady who was seated beside Rose.
Silky smooth and untainted, the white-haired lady’s long hair draped over her shoulders. She wore crimson eyeshadows and a white dress. Overall, she looked rather young and attractive. Right beside her chair was a black wand of great length.
"Name is Celine. Nice to meet you, wizard Green." The lady named Celine raised her right hand as greeting.
"Nice to meet you too, wizard Celine." Angele raised his left hand and tapped on the lady’s palm. "I’m still trying to get used to the strange greeting gesture here. It’s quite unique."
(ED Note: Yep, they’re doing high-fives as a greeting.)
"Haha, understandable." Celine smiled and nodded. She moved the leather scroll slightly so everyone around the table could see it.
"We’re discussing the best route to Elemental Hand. This is a map I acquired from a local wizard. It’s not very accurate but we have already made several different plans. Come have a look, wizard Green."
Nodding in affirmation, Angele lowered his head and started inspecting the map.
Three red lines were marked on the scroll and the black dots represented the locations.
The city was marked by a black dot as well and their destination was a larger black dot.
"What’s wrong with the shortest route?" Angele blurted out in question. He noticed that one of the routes was much shorter than the other two which he had a.s.sumed right away that the former might be dangerous.
"Well, there’s a big problem with that route. It’s the same route used by the strongest wizards from the group. There’s a rumor out there that someone wants to kill them and take their badges along the way. We might get into trouble if we choose this one," Celine explained.
"Why don’t we wait for several days instead before we leave?" Angele looked at the map.
"We need to arrive at Elemental Hand before the deadline, so we can’t waste time. Several wizards have been a.s.sa.s.sinated on this route last year while heading to an organization called Lycra. That’s the only path they could use. Also, the area around it is…"
"You’re making it too complicated. The main point is we can’t use this route because a.s.sa.s.sins are targeting wizards who want to join Lycra and they might mistake us for being their targets," Rose interrupted. "It is said that those a.s.sa.s.sins are capable of slaying rank 2 wizards. I don’t think we can fight back at all once we get ambushed by them."
"Let’s choose a different route then." Angele nodded slightly. "Safety is our priority."
"I agree. We’ll all die if the a.s.sa.s.sins are as strong as the rumors said. Let’s choose the second route. It’s a bit longer but it’s safe." Mincola pointed at a red line.
"What do you think?" he asked.
Angele and Rose both nodded at the same time.
"Sure, when are we leaving?" Celine wondered.
"Is everyone prepared?" Mincola eyed the members.
"I’m ready." Rose shrugged.
"I just need to pick up my travel case," Angele responded.
"Me too." Celine nodded. "Just tell us the time."
"Let’s start moving now. We don’t have much time left, right?" Angele chuckled.
"Sure." The others all agreed with him.
The four went to pick up their travel cases after leaving the tavern. It was still raining but they gathered outside the city gate quickly.
Mincola hired four carriages for each of the wizards. They each entered their own carriages and quickly left the city within the heavy downpour.
The noises coming from the hooves and wheels had entirely been masked by the sound of the downpour.
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Angele was worried about their group being attacked along the way, but nothing happened.
The four did not encounter any problem during the trip.
The only thing Angele did was to clean off the broken stones and trees on the road. He did not even find any mutated beast.
Angele had carried enough nutrient potions to be used as a subst.i.tute for his meals.
They arrived at the territory of Elemental Hand successfully.
The entrance to the organization was literally a towering brown boulder.
On the surface of the boulder was a carved human face of humongous size. The face had its eyes closed, while its mouth—completely opened—was the entrance to the organization’s territory.
There were carriages traveling in and out of the entrance and were divided into two categories: carriages transporting resources and carriages transporting the new members.
Majority of the newly-recruited members were wizard apprentices. While the rest of them were formal wizards, only a few were on par with Angele.
All the wizard apprentices being brought into the organization possessed their own recommendation letters and were being escorted by formal wizards.
These wizards were carrying either organizational badges or special enchanted items.
Each member of the Elemental Hand patrol team was riding a special white bird. These aerial mounts were constantly taking flight from and landing on a platform right beside the entrance. Specialists had been hired to take care of these birds while they weren’t on patrol.
The four wizards quickly finished the registration process and were given a different-looking badge after they were officially accepted as formal members of the organization.
The registration process was easy due to Elemental Hand being a.s.sociates with Dark Wizard Tower. Some of the elders of Elemental Hand had been, after all, a.s.signed by Dark Wizard Tower.
The badge Angele acquired during the compet.i.tion was different from those given to members who weren’t members of Dark Wizard Tower.
He thought he would have to pa.s.s a number of challenges before he could be accepted officially.
There were several caverns and tunnels within the territory of Elemental Hand. Similar to a nest of ants, each cavern served its own function. Most of the people Angele met inside the tunnels were wizard apprentices.
The main tunnel connected the entrance of the organization to the platform atop the mountain. This was where the council hall of Elemental Hand was located, and its appearance was similar to a small palace.
As a new member, the organization required him to search for a place to live in within the territory and teach the wizard apprentices several courses. Angele was also required to leave his communication rune to the council so that the elders could communicate with him when necessary.
All the requirements could easily be fulfilled.
Angele, Rose, Celine, and Mincola talked to the several rank 2 wizards from the council. They were the strongest wizards belonging to the organization.
They were a bit confused, however, as the whole process itself seemed a bit too simple and the higher-ups of Elemental Hand seemed busy dealing with something else. Thus, they decided to find their respective places to live in first. Angele learned that there would be ten more wizards who will be joining the organization.
Angele thought for a while and understood the reason. The organization would never trust them like how they would trust the wizard apprentices. Wizards could do anything they wanted to as there was barely any restriction in the territory.
Elemental Hand’s territory was a bit complicated and was divided into three areas: Star Dew Mountain, Ba.s.s River, and the underground caverns. The whole territory had a similar size to Nola.
Angele checked the map given to him by the wizard apprentice at the registration desk and the residential areas were marked clearly on it. There were about ten major cities in the territory and each city had a population of about half a million people.
Angele picked a remote area nearby Ba.s.s River and built a small wooden house. The only protection the house had were the wooden fences around it.
Henn had kept her promise. However, when she double-checked the requirement for the spell, she realized that Angele must still finish learning several basic courses before he could fully comprehend the level 2 spell model.