Chapter 43: Dead Soul Gra.s.s (2)
Translator: Leo Editor: DarkGem/Frappe
“She’s indeed beautiful and… very attractive.” Angele nodded.
“Well then…” Adolf laughed.
“Wait, Father! You can’t be serious!” Sophia stopped her father from continuing.
“What? You don’t like him?” Adolf stopped smiling and instead had a serious expression on his face.
“Angele is nice, but he’s just not my type. Father, please let me at least make my own decisions.” Sophia seemed adamant on this, so she insisted.
“Your type? You mean that bard from Westwind? The only thing he has is a pretty face!” Adolf spoke in a reprimanding tone, but Sophia kept looking at him, showing how serious she was about this.
“Since Sophia already has someone in her mind, how about just letting me treat you like my own father?” Angele quickly stood up and interrupted their conversation. Adolf still looked angry, but he stopped glaring at his own daughter.
“Well then… I’ll just treat you like my own son,” Adolf said. It looked like he now felt slightly better.
“Master, my father and aunt could use some help sometimes. Would you mind?” Angele said, trying to ease the anger of Adolf and make him feel comfortable. If he asked Adolf to help his family, Adolf would know someday that Angele would repay him well. Adolf looked much better after hearing the request.
“Get out of here, you’re making me mad,” Adolf yelled as he turned to his daughter. Sophia didn’t say anything, only slamming the door close. Angele could hear her going down the stairs furiously.
“I’ll keep an eye out for your father, and if he needs any help, I’ll try my best. I think that will help deepen our relations.h.i.+p,” Adolf said as he began smiling again. He stood up and opened the drawer on the desk. Adolf then took out a tiny, well-decorated box. There was a ruby embedded in the black box. Angele thought the box alone would nearly be as valuable as the gra.s.s.
“This box is made of Agilawood. It prevents the herb from losing its efficacy. I’m giving this to you as well.” Adolf smiled, not caring whether Angele was his son or not. If Angele’s family was in his reach, Angele wouldn’t do anything stupid. Even if Angele gave up his whole family, the only thing Adolf would waste was time and money.
Adolf had wanted to make Sophia marry Angele since the union in matrimony would help them develop a close relations.h.i.+p, but his daughter was just unhappy with the decision. Adolf loved his daughter quite dearly, so he didn’t want to disappoint her too much. He was just faking his anger to make sure that Angele understood the situation.
“I’m still just a low-level wizard apprentice. It’s probably too late for me to pursue my own dream. However, I found you, Angele. I hope you will walk a bit further on this path.” Angele handed over the box to Angele before he seriously said this.
“I’ll try my best,” Angele said after accepting the box.
Both of them knew it was an investment. Adolf was betting on Angele, thinking that he had a huge potential. Even if Angele were to die during the process, Adolf would just stop giving help to the former’s family. However, if Angele were to succeed, he would never forget Adolf who had greatly helped him. It was a chance Adolf had to take.
Angele held the box that was the size of a fist in his hand. He carefully opened it, and lying inside it was a Black Clover. It looked exactly as the book described, and Angele could even see its roots. Angele closed the box, unable to wait in beginning the formal meditation.
“Wait, is there something important hanging around your neck?” Adolf suddenly asked, his sight falling on Angele’s neck.
“Can’t hide anything under your eyes, eh?” Angele smiled. He wasn’t trying to hide it anyway. They had the same goal right now, which was to help Angele become a wizard, but Angele was afraid of laying bare everything he had to Adolf. He took the emerald ring carefully and handed it over to Adolf. The latter rubbed the ring several times, beginning to scrutinize it.
“The energy in this enchanted ring is gone, and the emerald is already cracked. It comes from… Ramsoda College? I’ve never heard of it. An ancient wizard organization, perhaps? This ring is going to help you get on the s.h.i.+p. With this, you’ll be taken into consideration by whichever this wizard organization is. Lucky guy.” Adolf laughed, looking quite jubilant.
“I think the luckiest thing that happened to me was meeting you, Master.” Angele politely said, both of them laughing for a while.
“Wait, which s.h.i.+p are we talking about?” Angele asked.
“Half a month later, there will be a boat coming by. It will be full of wizard apprentices. Our harbor has been given the chance to recommend several students to them, so I can recommend one too. The boat will take you to the place where numerous wizard organizations are established. If you get into one of them, you will obtain the chance to read the books about the higher stages. It’s a chance for you. I was planning on begging someone I knew, but I didn’t know you have an enchanted ring. It’ll save me much time and money,” Adolf said.
“Sounds like those organizations are far away from here?” Angele asked.
“Yea, you will be traveling for a while. The s.h.i.+p will only take you to another land, and then you need to travel for another two months. However, this is a chance you cannot pa.s.s if you want to become a wizard,” Adolf said with a deep tone.
“I understand. I’ll talk to my family and finish other matters before I leave,” Angele said as he nodded.
“Good.” Adolf smiled. “If you want to become a great person, you must keep going forward. You’ll be staying there for a very long time. Spend more time with you family before you go,” he continued.
“Also, there will be about 100 other people from our harbor on the boat. There are also some things I must let you know before you go. I’ll inform you of those later,” Adolf added.
“Alright, I got it. Thank you, Master.” Angele nodded.
It was already 10 o’clock in the evening when Angele left Adolf’s house. He hired a carriage and returned straight to the school. It was still early, but he wanted to try meditating. Angele rushed back to his room after getting off the carriage, instantly closing the door. He double-checked if he locked the door and the window before taking out the box which contained Black Clover inside it. He went to wash and took off his boots and socks. He sat on the bed and began preparing for the meditation as the book had said.
He crossed his legs and opened the small box. He took out the clover and grabbed one of its black leaves. Angele put the leaf that tasted very bitter inside his mouth. Angele couldn’t help but scrunch his eyebrows because it stank. He put the rest back inside the box and put it on the side. He finally started following the steps mentioned in the book, constantly imagining the runes in his mind. Those runes were called the ‘Runes of Will’ as recorded in the book.
Ordinary human beings could keep 3 to 7 runes in their mind, while the gifted ones could keep 8 to 12. People could train their mentality by imagining those runes constantly. When a person reached the 1st stage, he would gain the ability to sense various types of energy in the s.p.a.ce. He would be capable of discovering the energy he should be focusing on by separating the one he could sense the most from the other energies. The number of runes one could keep in their mind determined which stage one was at.
Angele remained on his bed with his eyes closed. He could feel the pa.s.sing of time, the noise outside subsiding as the students went to their beds. It was already 2 o’clock in the morning. Angele’s eyes suddenly started s.h.i.+ning with a green light. His eyelids were shaking as though he was currently having a nightmare. His eyes shone for about half an hour with Angele’s face slowly becoming gray-colored. Another half an hour later, Angele’s face turned black, even having an awful stench on him.
Angele started sweating black fluid. It was very sticky, and his clothes were soaked wet by this. Suddenly, Angele opened his eyes and spat out a considerable amount of black blood onto the ground. The blood stank, but Angele’s face had an expression of relief after discharging everything.
“The combination of Black Clover and meditation somehow increased my attributes. I can feel it. After spitting out all those blood, I felt very comfortable,” Angele said. He was clearly in good spirits and not even tired at all. The clover had already dissolved in his mouth, most likely flowing into his blood vessels.
‘Zero, did you record my brain activity?’ Angele asked.
‘Everything was recorded and stored in the database,’ Zero reported.
‘Show me my body condition,’ Angele asked.
‘Angele Rio: Strength 2.9. Agility 4.1. Stamina 2.8. Status: Healthy. Genetic limit reached,’ Zero reported.
‘My stamina has increased by 0.3!’ Angele was simultaneously flabbergasted and exultant. His stamina was formerly 2.5 when he checked several days ago. Meditating caused it to increase it by 0.3, a huge amount to consider. He had already reached his gene limit some time ago, yet the meditation was changing his body on a genetic level.
‘I can’t believe wizards developed such a training method!’ Angele was absolutely elated, even feeling more expectant from it. He thought that not only was he training but was also evolving. Angele felt curious about the things he could do in the future.