Angor checked many times and finally accepted the truth, that he did reach level-3 for real.
The following tests told him that he could channel mana just fine, which meant his breakthrough was “proper” instead of being forced.
As for why this happened during his sleep... he took a guess that it had something to do with that strange condition on his shoulder.
It might have been caused by absorbing too much of the purification aroma. But how did that work?
“Is my professor here? Did he say anything about my condition?” Angor asked Number One.
Number One “nodded” by looking at the floor. “The Master should be here, but he did not provide his opinion. I received a voice transmission from him, that I’m to take Mister Padt to the bedroom, and that is all.”
“Voice transmission? He... didn’t come himself?”
Number One nodded again.
“Then who treated me?” Angor believed that someone checked his body since Number One already told him something about an examination.
“It was Mister Mithra. He came not long after your arrival and helped diagnose your condition.”
Mithra? Did Sunders ask him to come?
But Number One denied when Angor asked that question.
He was getting really confused. If what he heard was right, Mithra came here for some other reason and only treated his body while at it.
So what was Sunders doing then? This strange itch is probably related to Nightmare Realm, he should totally be concerned.
Is he absent? Wait... Number One said Sunders “should be here”?
“Are you sure my professor is here right now?”
Number One remained silent for a second.
“Number One is not sure, Mister Padt.”
The machine butler proceeded to explain.
During the past few days, Sunders never left his study, and Number One couldn’t check on him without the gentleman’s consent.
It was when Angor returned from the purification garden did Number One finally hear something from Sunders, which was to tell Number One to bring Angor to safety.
And Number One couldn’t tell whether Sunders gave the order from the mansion or somewhere else.
Angor frowned. As he recalled, Sunders stayed out of his sight since a week before the commencement of the garden challenge. And on the day of the challenge, he once went to Sunders for advice but wasn’t allowed into Sunders’ study.
Did he stay there for nearly a month?
Did something happen to him?!
Mithra once mentioned that the strongest wizard in the entire city was undeniably Lawson, and supposed that Lawson and Sunders somehow got into a fight, nobody could foretell who would win.
So what possibly could have happened to Sunders?
Angor felt more and more anxious and decided to go check on his professor.
“Number One, give me a hand...”
...
Angor didn’t get to see Sunders. Again, he heard the gentleman’s voice from across the door. And this time, Sunders sounded really tired for some reason.
“I’m fine. You get to your own business.”
Since Sunders told him to go away, Angor didn’t even get the chance to ask about his itch and the possible condition that was related to Nightmare Realm.
Sunders did not force him to go away, but still, Angor chose to stay quiet for now because he had something else to worry about right now.
He heard someone laughing in the study, and it wasn’t Sunders’ voice.
Or rather, the strange voice sounded a lot like Sunders but... not exactly.
He has a visitor?
Angor’s curiosity got the best of him, and it told him to press his ear on the door.
A sudden power wave pushed him away.
The power did not harm him—it only meant to keep him far.
As Angor thought about what was going on with Sunders in vain, Dodoro showed up from the hallway.
According to Number One, Dodoro had been taking care of him during his coma. It was still early morning, and it seemed Dodoro was going to do his job again by bringing water and wet towels.
Angor asked Dodoro to assist him back to the bedroom since he trusted Dodoro more than the machine butler.
Instead of going for his bed, Angor went to a soundproof compartment to meditate. The absolute quietness helped him with meditation as well as to collect his thoughts.
Just now, Sunders pushed him away from the door really fast. Yet he still managed to hear something—a series of horrifying snickers and a short phrase he heard once before:
“Angor, my disciple.”
Compared to the gentleman’s usual tone, this new voice sounded younger and... flippant.
Angor remembered hearing a similar phrase back at Midnight Sovereign when he had to remain in connection with Sunders while shutting off the nightmare passages. Just as the passages were being closed, someone spoke from Sunders’ voice transmission in a similar voice.
“My disciple Angor” was what he heard back then. There was more to it, that someone was going to examine his soul and welcome his death.
Angor didn’t mind it since the situation in Midnight Sovereign was too dire for him to care about anything else. Sunders also told him to ignore the strange voice.
Also, Sunders mentioned something about a “long-lost friend”.
Is Sunders talking with a “long-lost friend”, so he shut himself in his room for a month?
But that didn’t make much sense.
Angor could only give up thinking about it because he had nothing else to go by.
He still had to check his own condition, especially on what happened to his soul. Anything else could wait.
He believed that the itch was caused by absorbing too much of the purification aroma, and ever since he woke up, he felt something was strange with his soul. He had been waiting for a chance to have some privacy so that he could eject his soul safely.
As soon as he chanted Spirit Mantra, he saw what he was looking for.
His soul, or what he believed to be his soul, looked no different than his real body now, which meant his soul quality had attained an even higher level. He realized he could affect the physical environment to a certain extent without even consuming any soul energy.
He did a small test by picking up a book without using gravity power, and it went well.
This also meant that his soul could now live on in this world for a longer period of time without the need for his physical body. And as long as he didn’t run into any wizard who could recognize his condition, he could very well deceive people by presenting his soul form in front of them.
As far as he knew, only high-level soul-manipulator apprentices could achieve such perfect soul quality. In fact, his soul was already beyond that level and was fit for becoming a wizard now.
Angor looked at the strange scar on the back of his shoulder.
The scar was releasing pure soul energy at a slightly faster rate compared to before. It was still not enough to sustain his soul-related abilities, which meant that Angor still needed to study the training method he received from Isabelle.
Still, as long as he did not overuse his soul energy, his soul training combined with this continuous energy replenishment was enough to cover most of his expenses.
Is this all because the scar absorbed so much aroma back there?
He assumed it was a good thing to happen. Yet he ended up with more and more questions about the nature of this soul scar. Everything came with a price, and he didn’t believe that the scar provided him soul energy without any cost.
Something told him that even Sunders might not have an answer to this.
He needed to use the scar as a “seed” to explore the Nightmare Realm again. And that didn’t look so easy.
He did some further tests and noticed that the scar would stop pumping soul energy if his energy was full. And if he consumed some energy, the “supply” would come back again, as if the scar could tell the condition of his soul.
Angor was worried—it was as if the scar was somewhat intelligent.
The good side was that he didn’t need to fret about his soul exploding from receiving too much energy.
His soul was strong enough for him to forcefully go for the next level now. This was exactly what happened to Jebra in the garden—when Jebra’s soul gained enough quality after the purification, he immediately proceeded with a breakthrough.
Angor sighed. He then put all the questions aside for now and cleared his mind before he started to meditate.
At the same time, a strange butterfly slowly entered the territory of Floating Mech City...