Chapter 355: Upheaval at the Port
Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
Three days later, at the beginning of the Month of Freezing Earth, Angor finally established the model for Voice Transmission cantrip with the help of the hologram tablet.
When apprentices tried to learn a cantrip of the same level, this process would usually cost them most of their mana reserves.
Angor, however, barely spent one-thirtieth of his mana.
For one, Singularity Dispersive Meditation allowed him to develop his skills with great efficiency. And when he could find nothing else to do in the plane passageway, he trained so fast that he skipped a level without learning the necessary spells.
He was glad his tablet could make up for it.
After Voice Transmission, he planned to learn “Heal”, which was another essential cantrip for apprentices.
However, before he could get to it, he heard someone at his door again.
When he opened the door, he saw a pale, wrinkled face behind it.
“Mi-Mi-Mister Ma-Mask... I...”
“Mister Mask,” an old woman beside him said, “Tyrael had realized his terrible mistake. Could you please forgive him?” It was Caroline, the other national-level doctor in Zeal Dominion.
Of course, the old man who couldn’t speak well was Tyrael, who no longer looked so energetic and righteous after being tortured by terrifying illusions for three days.
“I already gave him my punishment. Don’t bother me again without a good reason.” Angor slammed his door shut without much of a thought.
He went back to the guest room and thought about Tyrael’s visit.
It was nothing personal with the old man. He just found it troublesome to have visitors who kept interrupting his work. Baal and Magician should totally come, while Leonrick and Tyrael obviously learned his address by some other means.
He didn’t intentionally conceal his presence, but it was still irritating that people kept coming to his door, oblivious of his privacy.
Angor thought for a moment and called Trusan. He told her that she had to give her lessons to Dodoro indoors for the next few days.
Next, he deployed several illusion nodes around the house.
The illusion wasn’t physically harmful to anyone. Angor simply placed something that placed fear into the minds of trespassers. As for potential mental trauma... he didn’t really care. Unwanted visitors should definitely pay their price.
...
The night had arrived. Using the moonlight, Angor traveled along the canal and reached the central area of the Bay District.
A giant plaza decorated with fan-shaped ground bricks sat here. In the middle of the plaza was the statue of an old man immersed in a book while a water fountain surrounded it.
This place was a lively gathering spot during day time, where people would enjoy the songs of traveling bards and pigeons.
At night, however, it was quiet and without a single soul around. Apart from the sound of the night breeze, only the water that was still flowing in the fountain could be heard.
Angor pulled his hat lower and walked to the end of the plaza, which was a multi-towered building that looked like a church.
The Central Library. The very core of wisdom in Water Grasse.
There were armored guards stationed in the front hall, who didn’t notice Angor’s arrival at all.
The main hall on the ground floor was situated behind a long hallway decorated by ornamental church windows. Several dozen bookshelves occupied the hall in different sections. However, Angor didn’t intend to stay here. He kept walking deeper inside.
Following Baal’s info, he found another passage at the end of the hall which led to the underground area, which was his destination—the Ancient Tome Chamber.
Under Infinite Reticence, none of the patrolling guards stopped his advance.
The key to the chamber came in three parts, which was held by the library’s director and two vice directors. Anyone who wished to go inside had to receive approval from all of them.
Of course, Angor had no time for that. He simply used his spirit feelers to pick the lock.
Once inside the chamber, he placed a simple illusion at the door so that no one would notice what had happened.
The chamber wasn’t large. The whole place smelled like rotten papers, but there was not much dust and dirt, which meant people had been taking care of it.
Intending to use his time to its fullest, Angor immediately began reading through the books.
The woman’s grandfather, as mentioned by Baal, saw the “serpent-on-rod” mark from a book. Angor didn’t need to read too carefully. He used three Hands of Spell, added with his own pair of hands, to check four books each time and look for that particular totem.
Time went by quickly as he swiftly went over the books.
...
While Bay District had fallen into a peaceful slumber, the inland area of Water Grasse was still brightly-lit; especially the Tarot Port, which had never snuffed out its lamps, given its position as the most prosperous trading port in the entire Zeal Dominion.
Groups of sailors and merchants came and left, while countless vessels switched places at the port. Many of them came and joined the queue in the morning and waited until midnight to get admitted.
This lively sight would persist until the latter half of Month of Freezing Earth, by which time Tarot Port would enjoy temporary peace for three months, after which the travelers from everywhere would come rushing once again as the canal thawed.
“Your shift already? How many ships have we got now?” the manager of the dock asked when he saw a man in a nightshift suit coming his way.
They were responsible for keeping the sea gate running. Similar to the city gates on land, members who managed the sea gate were responsible for issuing temporary passes to visiting vessels. But they were usually busier than the land gates since the vessels would keep coming at night.
“I don’t know.” The second man shook his head. “I reckon we’d stay this way for two to three days. Ya see all that ships over there? They said the Heaven Sea lifted their limits again. Soon, Wood Empire and Eve Imperial will send their ships our way too, and we’ll get a hell’ot busier.”
“Just two weeks.” The manager put a hand on the man’s shoulder. “A three-month vacation is a-waiting, and I bet those land guards will get jealous again.”
“Things said, I still want to swap places with them. At least their schedule is predictable, unlike us.”
They suddenly heard yelling, and they saw all the sailors and carriers had stopped their works.
“A ship’s going down!! Lend a hand!”
The night guard widened his eyes. “Sh*t, it’s around the sea gate. I gotta head back!”
There were six ships for the sea guards; all parked around the bars near the gate. When the guard on shift arrived, he was shocked to see a patrol ship in terrible trouble.
The patrol ship, which was about 15 meters long, was broken in half. It was now sinking slowly with both ends gradually tilting upward.
What was still left above the water level was burning in flames. In order not to get toasted alive, those still alive all jumped into the water and called for help while they floated on the starry surface.
The sailors and workers at the port all began to swim to the victims.
“What’s happening here? Why’s the ship broken from the middle?” The night guard couldn’t believe his eyes.
Among the chaos mixed with screams and cries, no one noticed that a small kayak boat slowly sailed into the Tarot Port.
A man wearing a pair of black leather boots walked ashore. “Huh, I need more practice... Breaking a ship cost me a third of my mana,” he rubbed his shoulder and mumbled.
A strong wind blew around him, extinguishing several port lamps.
The mysterious man put a hand on his ox-hide wide-brimmed hat. “My my, so eager, my cuties.”
Three small shadowy figures landed on his shoulder.
The wind slowly died down. One of the small figures whispered into the man’s ear, and he nodded before he walked into the curtain of night.
When the figures presented a dozen small sacks to the man, he chuckled in an evil way and grinned at the objects which were still twitching a little.
When he walked into a small alleyway, he suddenly stopped and looked toward a dark corner.
“Come out. Why keep hiding?”
With uncertain steps, another small shadow slowly approached him.
The man reached out a hand. “Come here.”
The shadow hesitated before he jumped onto the man’s hand.
“Now tell me, what’s the matter?”
The shadow whispered something into the man’s ear.
“Someone saw you? My my... Now this is trouble. Fine, you can leave now.”
He waited for the shadow to walk into the darkness before he held his chin.
“Interesting... There’s someone here who can sense a Krakok.”