Gondola brought three people to Starlight Island, and when it left, it only took two of them away—Dodoro remained behind.
Angor thought about keeping Dodoro with him, but Maya came to him and suggested that she should be the one to provide Dodoro with basic wizardry lectures. After some consideration, Angor listened to her advice.
Since Dodoro would be staying with Maya, Angor left Dodoro’s “luggage” on the island as well, which included the water bowl with the serpent mark. Angor didn’t think he was going to discover anything from the object, so he simply returned it to Dodoro.
To Angor’s surprise, Dodoro took everything else and gave the bowl back. He said that he wouldn’t entrust the item to anyone else.
Angor used voice transmission to ask the reason for it, yet Dodoro couldn’t manage to give him an answer. “Something told me this is very important” was all Dodoro could say.
Most wizards were pursuers of solid knowledge, but they still trusted instincts and impulse because those worked wonders at times, just like how Angor’s “instinct” helped him escape from danger many times.
Since Dodoro considered the bowl to be important, Angor believed that the item did contain the answer to Dodoro’s secret. Angor agreed to keep it for now. He would return it when Dodoro was strong enough to protect it.
Despite feeling rather reluctant, they still bade farewell to each other.
...
On their way back, Angor was lost in thought when thinking about everything he heard from Maya as well as how to handle Dodoro’s bowl from now on. He was in the same state until Sunders woke him up when they arrived at Phantom Island.
“So, you hid inside The Tributary as soon as we arrived at Brute Cavern? Iron Granny told me.” Sunders gave his student a curious look.
“I wasn’t hiding, just...”
I’m so sick of all the people who asked me for crafting service or to join their clans!
“Don’t mind them too much. If someone goes too far, just kill them,” Sunders said casually as if it were nothing serious. “You can move to Phantom Island. Like I said before, I’ll leave to attend to some other business in a few days. I’ll leave Phantom Island in your care in the meantime. Goode will help you with it.
“You still know too few spells. Feel free to use my books. I’m expecting to see the results of your study when I come back.”
The Tributary was too isolated. Angor considered and agreed to the arrangement.
“May I ask where are you going, sir?”
Angor meant to ask this question back in Floating Mech City, but his attention was distracted when talking about Sunders’ “old friend”.
Sunders considered. He eventually decided to satisfy Angor’s curiosity since his student could be well considered a rising star in the wizarding world now.
“To Abyss Plane. I’m helping Mister Monkey of Moonfrost Union with a small request.”
He wasn’t going to tell Angor how this “small request” might break the peace of the entire region.
“Mister Monkey? ‘Icy Ace’ Monkey?” Angor widened his eyes in shock.
“That’s him.”
Monkey was titled as “Wizard of Permafrost”, but compared to this, people usually knew him as the Icy Ace. He was commonly believed to be the strongest wizard when it came to manipulating ice elements. The second title was also used by everyone in the entire southern region to acknowledge his achievement.
Even without considering his ice-based spells, Monkey was still one of the strongest wizards in the south—a level-3 truth-finder wizard who was one step behind the level of legendary.
“I’m not the only helper. Mister Monkey invited many wizard organizations to attend his quest,” Sunders said. He didn’t seem too concerned about it. “There’s nothing you should worry about. Stay at Phantom Island and enrich your knowledge. You’re a level-3 apprentice now, yet you haven’t decided on a subject to major in. And not to mention spell slots... These problems will take you a long time. You can’t afford to waste time on other irrelevant matters.”
Angor nodded. Sunders was right—gaining levels too fast had left him with many weak points that he had to deal with now.
He was already planning to choose a major subject to study. As for spell slot... he never considered it yet.
A spell slot was a special location built on one’s spirit model, which could hold the model of a spell permanently. This permanent spell model would allow the wizard to cast the spell instantly.
Usually, spell slot was something only wizards should work on, but apprentices with decently-developed spirit models or potent channeling methods could get to it as well.
Angor studied Singularity Dispersive Meditation from an unfinished book, so he couldn’t construct the complete spirit model of it yet. Despite that, his channeling method was good enough for him to sustain spell slots.
Spell slots obtained as an apprentice could only hold cantrips, not real spells. Even so, being able to instantly cast cantrips could provide a lot of surprising advantages.
“Some of the books have recommendations on how to choose the proper cantrips. But again, I hope you can—”
Sunders suddenly halted his words and shook his head. “Never mind. You decide for yourself.”
Angor felt really bad when his teacher left him hanging like this. Regardless, it seemed that the gentleman had made up his mind not to say anything further regarding this matter.
Next, Sunders told Goode about his schedule and asked the butler to handle Angor’s daily needs.
He also allowed Angor to temporarily place the Krakoks at the manor garden, while their provision would be handled by several Phantom Servants.
Angor did not particularly restrict Nano’s actions, but since wandering around Phantom Island only meant danger and stumbling into hostile supernaturals, he told Nano to stay indoors as much as possible except when studying (“Discussing!!” —Nano) the art of crafting from Krakoks.
Time passed by quickly while he was studying.
During the first week, Angor spent most of his time reading books while occasionally sparring with Toby. Their battles would usually end up in ties as long as Toby stayed in his “small mode”. Sometimes, Angor could even gain an upper hand.
However, Angor’s hope for victory would quickly become slim whenever Toby activated his griffin power. And if Toby decided to fully unleash the power of “wrath”, what remained of Angor’s chances would completely disappear.
But these were only results of sparring. Angor wasn’t sure what would happen if he were to engage Toby in a life-and-death battle, which would probably never happen.
Besides, Angor intentionally reduced the usage of his right hand when fighting. His new hand was powerful; this much was for sure. Yet he didn’t know how to fully control its potential. In order not to cause unnecessary issues to Toby, he usually avoided using his powered-up illusions.
The fruitful week had given Angor much combat experience as well as the knowledge he needed.
He took some time and returned to Apprentice Town to retrieve what possessions he couldn’t take away last time, and at the same time, he wanted to pay a visit to his friends.
To his disappointment, he only got to see Dave and Prome, whereas Nausica and Sailum were both absent.
According to Dave, after arriving at Brute Cavern, Nausica, Shan, and Shiliew went on a secret mission to find someone. While Dave didn’t know who they were looking for, Angor was fully aware that the person they were going after was none other than Hookdick.
It seemed they managed to find a clue. About a month ago, the three of them left Brute Cavern, and they hadn’t returned since then.
As for Sailum, Dave had no idea where he was. As soon as Nausica departed for Floating Mech City to attend the garden challenge, Sailum disappeared from people’s view. The boy said something about fusing with a new bloodline, but he did not provide any details.
Angor knew that Sailum purchased “Azure Bloodline” from Twilight Auction, which seemed to be an unknown bloodline with great risk. Since Sailum seemed to be determined, Angor would respect his decision while hoping for a good outcome.
After leaving Dave, Angor took a detour to Bartterfly Pub and bought another piece of information.
About Hookdick.
However, it was basically useless. It seemed Hookdick never returned to Brute Cavern after the garden challenge.
So what did Nausica find out? Or did they leave for another reason?
Since there was nothing else to go by, Angor could only put this matter aside.
He returned to Phantom Island and enjoyed another tiring yet exciting fight with Toby.
When he dragged his sore body back to Sunders’ house, he saw someone that he hadn’t talked to in a long time—Flora.
He once asked Sunders about Flora’s whereabouts. Sunders told him that Flora was busy dealing with a “blood dissolve epidemic” at Parmigi Highlands. The incident had been solved, but the culprit of it—a certain virus called the “Blood Melter”—remained a mystery, and Flora had been going after this wonderful virus that could easily kill powerful wizards.
Because this might be her chance to find the “path”.
Nobody had seen Flora in a long time since she was always busy doing research. Angor was quite surprised to see the witch in a shiny, red bubble skirt floating out of Sunders’ study while carrying that adorable umbrella.
Even though she was constantly occupied with her research, Flora managed to hear rumors about Angor, which she obtained from various sources. Despite that, she never trusted the unreliable gossips that were passed around multiple times.
However, she was VERY surprised when she saw Angor in person.
They had been apart for almost a year. When they met last time, Angor was a fresh level-1 apprentice who just started to learn wizardry.
But now... he was level-3.
To become a top-level apprentice within a year! Even Sunders was a little frightened by Angor’s amazing progress, much less Flora.
After getting over her initial shock, she felt depressed knowing that someone’s talent had bested hers so thoroughly.