“He did?” Angor gave Tana a puzzled look. “But how? Why are you together?”
“We are both studying at Butterfly Tavern.” Tana looked at Alan and seemed to be recalling old memories. “When we arrived at Floating Mech City, almost everyone was talking about you and your teacher, Sunders. That’s when Alan told us that you two came from the same land.
“Man, Alan was so surprised and happy. He said that his sister will be even happier if she knows that you’re fine.”
Until now, Angor had not fully trusted the woman, but since she also knew about Aleen’s name...
“Alan’s sister didn’t come here, right?”
“I don’t know.” Tana shook her head. “I guess she didn’t. Alan already checked the agency of the coral academy, and he didn’t find Aleen there. Well, the girl has only been in the wizarding world for less than two years. She totally shouldn’t come. Now that I think about it... Alan said you started training a lot later than them, but woah, you’re way better than him now.”
The others all looked their way.
“Tana... you mean this boy started training like, only one year ago?” Hermes asked in surprise. As far as he knew, Alan had reached the summit of his level as a level-1 apprentice, which was already impressive.
Tana nodded. “Yes, if Little Alan did not lie.”
Hermes looked at Angor again, more carefully this time. He already checked. Angor was also a level-2 apprentice like him, who was going to reach his level summit soon.
But I’ve worked hard for more than ten years! How did he—
Even someone who learned a special channeling method couldn’t train so fast without the right talent to go with it. Hermes assumed that the “fitness level” of Angor’s channeling method was 15%, at best.
What he didn’t know was that Angor had been using Singularity Dispersive Meditation, something that guaranteed a fitness level of 30% minimum. And this number would keep rising if Angor’s talent would go well with his training.
“That’s why Mister Sunders almost killed Bogula to get him back...” Hermes shook his head. Like most people, he couldn’t help feeling jealous at Angor’s great fortune.
Tana, on the other hand, didn’t feel as troubled. She already went through her shock when she heard the news from Alan half a month ago.
Sinehowze raised an eyebrow and kept Angor’s superior talent in mind.
“You... began to study wizardry less than two years ago?” Keely suddenly stopped being quiet and asked Angor.
Keely and her kitten, Luna, had been sitting on her broomstick. Now, the two pairs of eyes were looking at Angor curiously.
Angor always knew being outstanding meant drawing more trouble, so he did not wish to reveal too much about himself. But Tana already did so, and he had nothing to deny it now.
When Keely had her question confirmed by Angor, she lowered her head and fell into her own thoughts.
Luna hopped onto her shoulder and gently licked the girl’s cheek.
Wait... Angor remembered how the cat did something similar to him before. Is Keely feeling down?
Although he wasn’t going to ask her. After all, they weren’t friends.
Again, Angor looked at Tana. Before leaving The Redbud, he saw Greya trying to recruit Alan, and he thought Alan would end up with her.
It seemed Alan went to Felicia instead.
Angor did feel happy about bumping into an “old friend” in this place, but he still got questions of his own.
“Why did Alan come here?” Angor meant to ask “Why did Alan come looking for death?”, but he didn’t intend to speak so boldly.
Tana already understood what Angor wanted to know, but she was just as confused. “A month ago, we received a letter from our teacher. She asked both of us to come here, to the purification garden. At first, I thought she wanted to give us a chance to use the purification power in here, but then we ran into Hermes in the city...”
“Tana is my childhood friend,” Hermes picked up the subject and said, “but we haven’t seen each other in a long time. I didn’t know she became an apprentice too. Oh, I was so glad...”
Somehow, people noticed that the man was declaring his “ownership” over Tana as if he wanted no one else to approach her.
Tana frowned at Hermes and continued with her explanation, “Thanks to Hermes, we learned about the funny business that’s about to happen in the garden, and I soon understood what our teacher wanted me to do. But I never understood why she requested Alan as well. I don’t know, maybe she thinks that Alan is too lucky to die in here?”
Angor thought about his travels and assumed that Felicia was still inside Dark Castle one month ago. Did she really send Alan to this trap because she trusted his luck?
“So far, Alan has proved his fortune to us. Look, he found us soon enough. Trust me, I’ll take both of you out of this place safely,” Hermes said as he thumped his chest.
“Keep an eye on Alan. I don’t really need your help,” Tana said as she glanced at him.
“Please! I never planned to come here in the first place. But I need to protect you—”
Angor chuckled as the potential couple “quarreled” among themselves. He chose to stay out of their conversation instead of being a third wheel.
He was worried about Alan’s safety. Now that Hermes promised to keep Alan well, Angor knew it was no longer necessary.
For now, Nausica was the only one he would fully trust inside the garden. Well, maybe Alan was another.
But Alan was already in good hands, and Angor soon began to think about his other friend who had yet to show up.
I wonder how Nausica’s doing...
...
A giant, snake-like flying fish was sent flying and crashed into the side of a mountain while spinning madly.
Before it could see the rotating world around it clearly, a shiny, silver fist was already upon his head.
Bam!
The mountainside was painted with the fish monster’s brain fluid.
“Nice one!” Shan applauded while sitting on Gank’s shoulder. When the big man sensed the happiness from his master, he began to perform a tribal dance.
Nausica used “Create Water” to remove the bloody remains from her arm and joined Shan while smiling. “Can you tell him to stop doing that? He’s gonna shake Shiliew off.”
Shan looked at Gank’s other shoulder. Because Gank was dancing, Shiliew was now sound asleep while hopping in place, which looked quite funny.
“Don’t worry. Remember how she fell to the ground and hit her butt yesterday? And not a scratch on her. It’s not going to kill her.”
Nausica sighed. “If Shiliew learns about what happened during her sleep, she’ll try to murder you next time.”
Shan giggled, and it caused her small braids to swing around. “Nah, Shiliew can’t kill someone as cute as me.”
Nausica chuckled at the silly conversation. She was glad that her teammates managed to find her within a day after the entrance.
To be precise, it was Shiliew who found Shan first. Then the two of them came to Nausica together.
Before entering the garden, Shiliew left some of her blood on Nausica and Shan’s body so that she could find them by “smelling” her own blood.
And it worked wonders.
Nausica had been acting confident in front of Angor, but she already realized that she didn’t have enough strength to back up her image.
Even though she didn’t show it, she felt reassured that someone could help her survive the challenge.
“Are we going to keep moving? I think we’re wasting time without a destination. We should find someone first. An apprentice from the city would be better. We can force him to tell us their plan,” Shan commented.
“I’ve been thinking,” Nausica said as she pondered. “It’s really strange that Mister Lawson didn’t tell us anything about how the garden works.
“We didn’t find any buildings or anything useful besides those fishes. They want us to go to the exit but didn’t tell us how? We can’t possibly look around aimlessly. Maybe the exit is actually easy to find?”
“But I don’t see it.”
“Or maybe it will show up in due time. We just have to wait. Or perhaps...”
“Perhaps what?”
“Maybe it has already shown itself... but at somewhere we overlooked.” Nausica looked at the sky and observed the occasional flying fishes.
“You mean it’s in the sky?” Shan asked.
“Blood sacrifice means dead people. What if the exit is up there? In this case, people all need to try their luck while taking the risk of getting eaten by the fishes. This way, they’ll die faster.”
Nausica reached a similar conclusion that was also assumed by Angor.
Of course, there were many more people who were smart enough to realize it.
“Yeah... but how are going to get up there?” Shan frowned.
“That aside... Focus! We got more fish incoming.” Nausica looked toward somewhere and saw several dozen hungry-looking fishes swimming toward them. “Get ready to engage!”