Ordinary cooking fire and spices did not impede the divine flavor of Erdus’ meat. Apart from pleasuring one’s tongue, the essence of a wizard-level monster contained rich energy that did wondrous benefit to their mana quality.
While munching to their hearts’ content, Angor and the others all quietly activated their channeling methods to guide the extremely pure and potent energy into their own mind space.
“Well, I thought my mana pool’s not going to grow any time soon after my limit-break. Now, this meat just expanded it again!” Nausica commented.
Angor also felt his mana pool growing, albeit just a little. It was still quite welcome since he just had a breakthrough.
He wondered what a Gourmet wizard could do with such remarkable foodstuff.
Toby rubbed his belly while lying on Angor’s shoulder. The bird seemed too satisfied to stand up.
They suddenly stopped talking as they felt anomalous energy ripples coming from Shiliew’s position. The energy came and left in a blink of an eye, yet they still sensed it because it was shockingly strong.
Shiliew opened her eyes and saw everyone staring at her.
“Em, I tried breaking through my limit but... I failed, as you can see.”
“Yeah, it’s not easy to break that barrier toward level-3. You need more than time and effort for that. Don’t worry though. Last time I heard, nine out of ten apprentices in Brute Cavern had not succeeded yet,” Shan said as she comforted her companion.
What she said was usually true—even when looking at the entire wizarding world, more than 90% of all apprentices would be stuck at level-2 for their entire lives.
Shiliew looked at Angor who was sitting on the opposite side of the campfire and showed an uncertain look.
“Don’t mind him,” Shan continued. “What can I say? He’s a freak. The kind of freak that shows up every couple of centuries to scare everyone else.”
Angor didn’t know how to respond, so he only focused on his meal.
No one took this to their hearts—long-term effort was always the “right approach” for apprentices to grow, while what Angor displayed was the irregular case that couldn’t be copied by anyone.
Eating too much of Erdus’ meat might get someone bloated with too much energy, so they did not push their limits. And since Toby had no such “limit” in his tiny body, he gladly enjoyed all the remaining meat all by himself.
Toby was a seabird who always loved seafood, so Erdus’ meat was a perfect dish for him.
Shan felt her appetite returning while watching Toby gorging alone, so she summoned the bartender and ordered several roasted lamb legs and a giant barrel of champagne.
Now that they didn’t need to stay quiet to absorb energy, they talked about all the aftermath following the garden challenge as well as the current conditions of the other survivors.
Angor, who usually disliked gossips, quite enjoyed the chitchats under the effect of alcohol.
Also, he grew interested when he heard a familiar person from one of Shan’s stories.
A level-2 apprentice from Valley of Breeze lost all four limbs in the garden and still made it out alive in the end.
According to Shan, this man named Viking was deceived by his teammates, who left him to die in the fish-infested world. Using his bloodline ability, Viking managed to command a giant ray fish that carried him to the Sea of Purification.
The same ray helped him defeat a Duon he encountered, after which Viking took great risk and transplanted a pair of Duon arms onto himself without proper safety measures. Due to great luck and fortunate coincidences, he finally made it to the Altar of Demise.
Shan told them the whole story just for fun. Angor knew that this Viking man was the dying apprentice left behind by Shayaron at the lava zone. Angor helped him stop the bleeding, but at that time, he didn’t expect Viking to be able to breathe for much longer.
It seemed Viking also created quite a miracle.
Angor knew well that it was impossible to achieve that feat all by one’s luck. Viking survived because he was both strong and determined. Even the seemingly hopeless situation did not prevent Viking from striving for his life.
Angor tried to imagine what Viking went through and figured that he might not succeed if he were the one who got left to die without his arms and legs.
After talking about Viking, Shan mentioned Jebra next.
“Jebra made it to level-3. But he left the city on the second day.” Shan chuckled and looked at Angor. “People said that he was afraid of you, so he ran away as fast as he could. But we know that it’s because of Shiliew here.” Shan put a hand on Shiliew’s shoulder. “Guess this is why they say ‘everything has a vanquisher’.”
“Jebra must already know about these rumors,” Nausica said as she picked up their topic. “He didn’t show up and explain, probably because he believes it’s better if people considered Angor as the reason.”
“Yup, just what I thought.” Shan smiled. “Angor? Like it or not, you’re officially Jebra’s enemy in place of Shiliew now.”
Angor frowned. He really did not wish to bear more unexpected enmity without being responsible for it.
The “true culprit”, Shiliew, interrupted them, “What I heard is a bit different. When I visited my professor the other day, he told me that an apprentice from Pleasure House successfully received the sequence of purification. A witch called Maine. Jebra left Floating Mech City because Maine hates him.”
“Oh... but I thought it was another false rumor,” Shan continued, “and even if it is true, Maine cannot turn the newly-gained power into her own any time soon, so Jebra shouldn’t be afraid. I mean, I still think Jebra was trying to get away from YOU.” Shan pointed to Shiliew again.
Shiliew tried and still couldn’t remember anything about her “grudge” against Jebra.
They spent a moment exchanging more information.
Saladin was still alive; “Duchess of Facade” and “Spirit Chef” stood tall among all apprentices after showing their great achievement gained from the garden; “Wanderer of Wilds” Kayaso was ambushed by a group of furious apprentices and managed to get away due to the help of the patrolling Rune Monitors, but he still got beaten up for good; “Disciple of Philosophy” Suraithota defected from his academy and joined Song of the Deep; Hermes caused quite a scene by intruding Butterfly Tavern just to meet his lover...
Most of these tales were told by Shan. Truthful or not, at least Shan was pretty good at remembering them. Later, she explained that she had read through a good number of gossip magazines in the city, after which she created all these stories by adding up her own experience and assumptions.
“Speaking of hot topics... you’re still in the biggest spotlight, Angor. But they cannot find much about you since you don’t show up in public very often. Everything is focused on your true strength, your pet, your alchemy skills, and where you came from. Most of the rumors are fine. But they get worse when people talk about your alchemy achievement...”
Shan went ahead and explained everything she heard about Angor from other people.
“All in all, it’s safe to say that you’re the most famous apprentice in the entire Brute Cavern now. Don’t worry about the false words because the truth will always prove them wrong.”
Angor considered and decided not to mind such matters.
There were really few apprentices and wizards who would take rumors seriously. Most of the magazine editors were mortals who presumed the ways of wizards in the wrong way while not forgetting to use forged words and overstatements so that their articles could shine. These magazines did not hold much value.
Those who were able to become supernaturals were all wise enough to tell truth from lies. Angor had no reason to care about useless babbles, be them right or wrong.
The empty wine barrel announced the end of their reunion. It appeared that Nausica, Shiliew, and Shan would head back to Brute Cavern soon; it was Shiliew’s professor who would escort them.
Angor did not tell them his schedule because he was not sure about Sunders’ condition.
Before bidding farewell, Angor told Nausica to note down any questions or suggestions about her mechanical arm so that they could hopefully make adjustments and improvements once they had a chance.
It was late at night, yet the city built upon gears and machines did not darken in the least, if not brighter than daytime.
Instead of going back to Sunders’ manor, Angor headed to Elixir Hut, which was located at the lower side of the city. He wanted to properly thank Mithra for treating his condition, and at the same time, he wanted to learn more about alchemy.
Inside Mithra’s personal library, Angor found a notebook named Alchemy Cantrip Reference.
Angor saw Mithra’s handwriting in the nameless book and realized that Mithra intentionally left the book here to let him read. The notebook didn’t teach him any cantrips. Instead, it provided rich experiences that might benefit an apprentice who was trying to study alchemy cantrips.
And this was what Angor needed most right now.
Delighted, he spent an entire night memorizing the book.
Regarding alchemy cantrips, Angor only knew how to use Thaw and Condense, and he barely started to learn Smelt and Freeze. But here, the great insights in the book helped him quickly learn two tier-3 alchemy cantrips—Disintegrate and Solidify.
Knowing how to use Disintegrate meant that he could now attempt to process mid-tier materials while increasing the speed of his crafting process by several folds.
The book also recorded instructions about Narda’s Vision spell. Angor assumed that he could learn this one as well, and so, he tried.
But something unexpected put a stop to his studies—his transmitter, which was issued by Brute Cavern, received an urgent message.