Goode was bringing Angor breakfast again.
“Butler Goode, did the professor say anything these days?”
“No, Master never left his study. Like before, there was only Miss Flora who would pay him brief visits.”
After finishing his meal, Angor left the mansion and walked toward the edge of Phantom Island.
While on his way, he glanced at Greya’s hut and didn’t see anything. Similar to Sunders, Greya had never shown up from her hut these days.
He knew Greya was probably still working on the secret hidden inside Twinning Wings. Compared to this, Angor was more concerned about Sunders’ condition.
If Sunders suffered from some serious injury in the Nightmare Realm, there should be enough time for him to recover. Or did he lose his body as well just like Greya?
Angor knew he wasn’t someone who should worry about the wellbeing of a truth-finder wizard, but he just couldn’t help it. Angor believed that he would have already ended up as someone’s prey if he didn’t have Sunders to keep him safe. Even if they did not look at the various alchemy achievements he did before, the incident in Sleepless City was enough reason for the onlooking wizards to seize him for their own gains.
The only thing he could do right now was to pray for the better.
He headed straight to The Tributary and began working on his next plan.
...
One day later, he successfully crafted a simple-looking hexahedron container that had a similar effect as the Church of the Deceased. But instead of keeping souls safe, this one was used for trapping souls inside.
Angor named it the “Ethereal Prison”.
It had been almost a year since he created Prelude to Rebirth, and he still had not figured out the nature of those white bullets generated in the gun. He was disappointed when Narda’s Vision also failed to provide a useful answer. The bullets were hard to identify probably because they were related to Mystery, like Spotty’s crystal.
He wished to check every unknown item he had before leaving Brute Cavern. Since Narda’s Vision didn’t help him appraise the white bullets, he made the Ethereal Prison so that he could use undead souls to test the gun directly.
Next, he went to the underground market to see whether any of the shops offered souls as test subjects. If he could find some by spending money, he wouldn’t need to make another weapon used for suppressing the undead.
And he was disappointed again.
Undead souls were mostly unstable aggregations of negative energy, which were useless to people. Wizards had enough trouble wiping them out. They had no reason to keep them in shops to sell.
In the end, Angor had to visit Prome’s Alchemy Shop again.
He came here to ask how Dave handled his new merchandise, but to his surprise, Dave actually provided information regarding how to find undead.
“Do you remember Vice?” said Dave.
Angor nodded. “Yeah, I made the revolver ‘Rebirth’ for him, after which he let me use his lab. Does he sell the undead? But that gun doesn’t help him to catch them.”
“I don’t know how he did it but that man used something to keep monsters at bay. He’s not selling any undead, but I heard from someone that he handed several undead souls to the resource center half a year ago. That was when I learned that our recourse center kept undead souls for some reason. If you can’t find them in the market, try asking them up there.” Dave pointed upward where the resource distribution center was located.
Angor thanked him.
“What do you need them for? Watch it, those things know some weird attacks that might surprise you in deadly ways.” Dave frowned.
Angor also knew he had to be careful. It wasn’t about getting hurt, for most attacks wielded by the undead beings had little effect on him. What he was worried about was that the white bullets might power up the undead souls, which would cause serious troubles.
“Oh right, about the two illusion items you asked me to sell.” Dave went back to the counter. “I already handed one to an auction holder in Revelation Empire called the Remnant Auction, which is located at a wizard fair named Remnant Coast.”
Remnant Coast? Angor quickly realized that he read about that name somewhere.
According to Dave, this wizard fair was relatively influential among wizards, which meant anything sold there would have more audiences compared to Twilight Auction.
“As for the other item, I’m waiting until the Remnant Auction, which would be held in the Month of Looming Frost, ends before selling it.”
“I’ll leave this in your hands then. Don’t worry if they don’t sell well. They aren’t anything important,” Angor said before leaving the shop.
After evaluating his situation in the past few days, Angor had decided to stay low for the time being so that he would not attract too much unwanted attention. He would make further plans about his alchemy brand after seeing the performance of the initial products.
...
An apprentice who was on a shift in the distribution hall disappointed Angor yet again.
“Sorry, all the undead souls we kept were taken away by Mister Ness about two months ago. We don’t have a single one left.”
Angor frowned. “When are you going to restock?”
“Sir, you should know that these souls meant little to wizards or apprentices apart from when used in certain experiments, so they are not considered constantly necessary to us. You’ll have to wait for someone to provide them.”
“Then... Can you send me a message when that happens?”
“Of course. I need to see your bone card first, sir.”
Angor handed his bone card to the employee and noticed that she widened her eyes a little upon seeing his name, which meant she recognized him.
“It’s done, sir. I’ll make sure you’re informed in time as soon as we receive replenishment.” The employee returned Angor’s bone card with a smile.
Angor nodded and left the resource center.
After he did, those in the building immediately began to spread rumors that Sunders’ student was looking for resources.
...
Angor was going back to The Tributary again.
Truth was, he wouldn’t rely on the promise made by that employee too much. From what he saw until now, the resource center would not get any new souls any time soon.
This left him with only one option, which was to look for new runes in his tablet that could trap the undead without killing them. If he managed to learn this rune, he would then go to the questing hall and look for a job that required him to hunt the undead.
Before entering The Tributary, he heard the familiar sound of flapping wings coming to him.
Toby descended from the sky while wearing a beautiful overall skirt weaved from the petals of moonlilies.
Angor shook his head. “Now I’m not sure what Lady Greya had done to you. Are you a he-bird or not?”
Toby tilted his head—what do you mean? I can’t hear you!
“Alright alright, I’ll just assume that you have the spirit of a young lady inside your head.” Angor lifted an arm to catch Toby. “Now, tell me, why are you here instead of hanging out with your new friend?”
Feeling jealous? Toby “said”.
Angor tossed Toby away and left without looking back.
“Tweet!”—Hey, wait a minute!
Toby hastily waved his wings around.
“Huh? Are you saying... the professor has left his room?”
Angor told his partner to keep an eye on Sunders’ study and remind him if Sunders ever came out. It seemed that Sunders showed up just as he was away from Phantom Island.
Immediately, Angor took out his Gondola and headed to Phantom Island at full speed.