“Countless choices lead to countless roads, where one of them shall be the one true path toward the truth. I’m visiting you either to help you discover the right one or to steal your rightful choice. Now, which is it? That’s a question for you.”
The shadowy figure who stood on the other side of the flow of time smiled brightly.
This was when Sunders suddenly opened his eyes and woke up.
The land in front of him was scorched black. The ruins of a good number of buildings proved the former glory of this place, which was no more.
This spot at the depth of Abyss Plane was once a frontier city built by humans to repel demon invasions. But it was obliterated several thousands of years ago, and the city’s residents all turned to skeletons chipped away by the passage of time.
“What’s the matter, Sunders?” An old man with white eyebrows and common yet tidy clothes stepped out from a temporary magic hut.
Sunders shook his head slightly. “It’s nothing. Had a random dream. Kanter... we’re not too deep inside yet, which means you can still back out. Those from Gravity Forest are already gone. You should have no reason to remain.”
The old man was “Eventide” Kanter, the current master of Lilith’s Clan, and one of Sunders’ few friends.
“Gravity Forest is the least of your problems.” Kanter shook his head. “There’s still Song of the Deep. Since Maya offered to send me a message, she must have predicted danger. It’s strange though... I haven’t seen anyone from Song of the Deep showing up.”
“Something kept them busy, perhaps.” Sunders sighed. “Mister Monkey already planned to invite you to the mission. Since you came on your own, it’ll be hard to escape from the duty now.”
Despite his words, Sunders was grateful that Kanter came to help. While he wasn’t afraid of Song of the Deep, he preferred not to fight against them all by himself. Kanter’s presence was very reassuring.
“It’s fine. Keely has grown into a strong girl who can manage the business of Lilith’s Clan now.” Kanter showed a gentle look. “I’m only a simple and lonely old man who has no burden left behind. Who knows, if Mister Monkey makes it to the level of legendary, he might help me find a great destiny.”
“Mister Monkey is beyond brave, that much is sure,” said Sunders. “To plot against the offspring of a Grand Demon... Even if he becomes a legendary wizard, it remains to be seen whether he can come back alive.”
Kanter frowned. Successful or not, Monkey’s mission would definitely infuriate a Grand Demon, by which time everyone who took part in the mission would receive the demon’s anger.
“It already happened, let’s just stay focused and be safe. So what kind of dream did you just have? Maya once told me that we can always find valuable clues from the dreams of wizards. You don’t look well back there. Did you perhaps dream of a demon calamity?”
Sunders considered and shook his head. “The calamity is certain now. The southern region will be bathed in blood unless Mister Monkey changes his mind, which is very unlikely.”
“Not the calamity? What hit your mind then?” Kanter narrowed his eyes. “That little student of yours?”
“Angor? What makes you think so?”
“I heard the news on my way here. That boy sold a music box recently and earned two hundred thousand crystals out of it. Heh, you should’ve seen the looks on everyone. Keely has been saying that she’s going to train harder in order not to get surpassed by Angor.” Kanter chuckled. “Now I’m curious. A music box sold for two hundred thousand? What kind of music box is that?”
Sunders grinned. “That must be one of his simple toys. Trust me, you have no idea of his true skills.”
“True skills?”
Sunders thought about Angor’s “Manifestation of Mystery” and sighed again. “If people learn about his thing, I’m afraid the whole world will fall into disarray.”
Kanter failed to understand the explanation.
Sunders pulled a diamond-shaped item out from his “ear stud storage” and handed it to Kanter. “You want to know about his little inventions? Take this ‘Monument Loop’, a similar creation as the alchemy illusion he sold at Remnant Auction. I’ll let you keep it for a few days since you’ve been a good company.”
Kanter inspected the item. “The crafting’s fine... yeah, I’d call him a good alchemist well on his way toward a master.” He put it away before speaking to Sunders again, “You haven’t told me about your dream. Was it Angor or not?”
“No. I saw the Time Thief.”
“Time Thief?! What did he steal from you this time? An old choice? Or a future one?”
“An old one. And I’ll let him have it. It probably isn’t time for him to look at my future choices yet.”
“Right... He’s only interested in choices that make you a truth-finder. But he got his mark on you. He’ll come again when you become a legendary, no doubt.”
Sunders proceeded to describe the dream in which he encountered the Time Thief as a child. Kanter had heard this story many times by now, but each time he did, he couldn’t help but feel jealous.
“Guess I shouldn’t tell you about that?” Sunders looked at Kanter’s somewhat sad expression.
“You just made me want to meet the Time Thief really bad. I mean, anyone would like that.”
There was a saying in the wizarding world that anyone who saw the Time Thief was a potential truth-finder in the making. In other words, being visited by the Time Thief proved one’s exceptional talent.
The Time Thief did not force people to make choices before “stealing” their leftovers. People all had themselves to blame if they made the wrong choices and gave up the proper ones to Time Thief.
Also, following the rule of equivalent exchange, the Time Thief was known to pay compensation for stealing choices.
“The right way of finding the truth is different for everyone. If someone tells you that I’m bound to reach the ultimate truth, they’re lying,” said Sunders.
“They say that everybody has a chance at it, but I don’t believe so. In my view, most people already threw the right choices away without realizing it, at one point in their lives. And one of these discarded choices might be their only opportunity to reach the truth. Seriously, if I ever see Time Thief coming to me, I’d just tell him to take whatever he likes and give me something in return.”
Sunders smiled. Kanter just reminded him of the old days when they explored the world with the fearlessness of youth. Such an attitude caused them to idle away a great deal of time during which they missed great opportunities, either forced or willingly.
“Maya always says that the dreams of wizards are likely to foretell true facts,” said Kanter. “Is there any reason why you would dream of the Time Thief at this moment?”
“No idea. Maybe he’s onto some unlucky b*stard and decided to let me see it out of random.” Sunders turned away. “Let’s move. It’s not easy to find good rest around here... Now I feel energetic enough to breach the next barricade and go further in.”
...
The “unlucky b*stard” was now hiding inside an unlit basement while gazing at his new cape in disbelief.
“What the heck?” Angor shook his head to clear his mind. “Is Narda’s Vision not working properly?”
He closed his eyes to prepare the cantrip again before he checked the cape in his hand for a second time.
In his view, countless digits and symbols emerged from the item and were accepted by the “server” in his mind space, as they should be.
To his confusion though, he saw about 10% of all the information as uncertain.
But he considered all possible variables when making the cape, and he was sure none of the materials had any properties he was unfamiliar with. So where did the uncertain factors come from?
Again, Narda’s Vision told him a strange result.
The cape’s main function was “Empty Ballad”. When left active, it disoriented Prophets who studied the three major prophecy arts and prevented them from “peeking” at him. And just as described in Enchantment Cyclopaedia, the magic array consumed a huge amount of energy.
There were many secondary effects on the cape made possible by various components such as sturdiness, resistance against fire and water, and self-cleaning.
However, there was one extra result shown by Narda’s Vision, which Angor didn’t expect while designing the cape.
[????: Fully prevents the detection attempt of a legendary individual or beyond, at the cost of inestimable energy. One time only.]
Angor was glad to have the extra surprise, which seemed pretty powerful, even though it would only work once.
But he felt uneasy since he had absolutely no idea where this thing showed up from. He did use many tiered materials to craft the cape, but those were far from enough to resist the power of legendaries.