On the other hand, Jebra was wondering how he should proceed from here.
Earlier, Sliv told him what happened to the secret dimension but without going into the details. Sliv did tell him to watch Angor’s actions because “Angor might be the one who stole the Mystery treasure”.
While listening to the message, Jebra noticed that Sliv wasn’t being serious about this. Deep down, they both knew that Angor couldn’t possibly have done such a thing.
Jebra immediately knew what Sliv was actually trying to convey. Since Sliv emphasized that it was Flunza’s order, Jebra could see that his teacher was using the excuse to prevent him from going back to Song of the Deep.
Nevertheless, he wasn’t going to fail Flunza’s request. This was the main reason why he asked Angor to come.
Until now, Jebra did not notice anything wrong from Angor’s responses.
Similar to Sliv, he almost disregarded Angor from their “suspect list”. After asking several simple questions that didn’t sound too straightforward, he brought Angor to the guest room to talk about their next business.
“You wish to take up with me?” Angor asked while watching Jebra sipping wine with a relaxed look.
“Yup, my professor gave this task to me. If what I guessed is right, you’re going to leave this place soon, which means I don’t have time using all sorts of tricks to leave a good impression. Might as well make it plain.”
Jebra took out a blue one-use space capsule and placed it on the desk.
“This is everything I prepared for befriending you in the long run. Since I don’t have time for that... I’ll just give you everything and be done with it.”
Angor almost rolled his eyes.
Jebra called me here just to deliver a gift?
But shouldn’t friendship be like something that’s slowly developed over time? He made it as if he could buy it with money, and he looks confident! Well, guess this is the more common case in the wizarding world.
“Aren’t you going to check what’s in there?” Jebra said when Angor remained still.
Angor pushed the capsule away. “I appreciate your honesty, but I don’t think I deserve such treatment. No offense, but personally, I don’t think this is the right way of making friends.”
“Deepsong Gold.”
“Eh?”
“The capsule contains fifteen bars of Deepsong Gold,” explained Jebra.
Angor stopped his action and gulped.
Deepsong Gold was an extremely rare mid-tier alchemy material that one couldn’t easily find from markets. It was exclusively produced by Song of the Deep, and they only provided it to trading partners they trusted.
“Plus 13 other components taken from our storage, and some minor magical materials commonly used by wizards majoring in water element and sea manipulation,” Jebra continued.
Angor slowly pulled the capsule back.
“I’ll gladly accept this precious token of friendship. May it keep us united,” said Angor.
He wouldn’t have accepted Jebra’s offer if it were money or anything too common, but he did need these precious crafting materials.
As far as he could see now, it wouldn’t hurt to consider Jebra as a new friend. Jebra was a well-known elite in this world who might provide him with valuable resources if they did well.
The problem was, Keely might be displeased to see this happening, but she wasn’t enough reason for Angor to change his mind.
Angor stuffed the capsule into his bracelet with a big smile. “From today, you can come to me for any crafting job or alchemy-related business, and I’ll provide help as long as I can.”
Jebra nodded in contentment—Angor’s answer was exactly what he needed to finish his task.
With this settled, Angor stood up and was going to leave. From Jebra’s reaction, he knew that Song of the Deep had not discovered what he did at the secret dimension. But he feared that Jebra would keep asking about his “seclusion”, which would place him in an embarrassing situation. He didn’t wish to keep lying when they were supposed to be friends.
However, Jebra beat him to it by speaking first, “Since we are on better terms now, may I ask something?”
“Go ahead.”
“Is Shiliew doing well?”
Angor looked at Jebra up and down. “What, you’re planning to get revenge on her?”
Jebra looked at the floor. “No. I just want to know her condition. Nothing more.”
Angor made sure Jebra wasn’t making up evil plots before he answered, “I don’t know what she’s been doing when I left Brute Cavern. At least I didn’t hear anything particular going on.”
“Good.” Jebra nodded.
Angor saw Jebra was almost glad to hear about this and suddenly got a strange idea.
Don’t tell me this guy is a masochist or something, so he’s expecting more beating?
That wouldn’t end well. Each time Shiliew encountered Jebra, she would gain a completely different character made of pure madness.
Angor walked to the door of the building and decided to ask something he had been wondering.
“Is it really worth it for you to pay so many assets just to gain my trust?”
Jebra chuckled. “Of course it is. Or do you have no idea how much glory you have earned in the south?”
“Glory?” Angor was puzzled. He didn’t remember doing anything particular since the purification garden challenge. Well, maybe there was Greya’s new spell, but she mostly relied on her own potential. His assistance had little to do with it.
Jebra found himself a new glass of wine. “Well, there was this auction three months ago...”
...
It was already nightfall when Angor stepped out of Blue Estate. The heavy snow finally came to a stop after it covered the entire Lost Paradise City under a thick white carpet, thus allowing the colorful Luminous Stones around the city to look ever more enticing.
Neet was waiting for him outside the building. The man’s giant fur coat did a good job of keeping him warm. He also found a large blanket for his moose.
Again, the journey back to Ross Mansion was silent as Angor went over what he just heard from Jebra. Starting from the incident at Remnant Auction, Jebra told him a lot of interesting events that happened in the south recently.
Angor was really surprised to learn the unusual price of his music box as well as how it was purchased by “Mythril Innovator” Jellal. This was the main reason why his name became popular again in the past few months.
“They sort of came up with a lot of monikers for you,” said Jebra while grinning. “Such as ‘the next stop to Mystery’, ‘the music box man’, ‘the weird lion’... Hey, when are you gonna go out there and get a proper title? These sound so terrible.”
To Angor, this wasn’t much of a big issue as long as people didn’t call him “Baron Milk”. He’d always get a proper name later if he kept getting stronger and became a true wizard.
Apart from these, there were other matters that concerned him greatly.
One of them was the “black domes” all over the Evernight Kingdom. According to Jebra, about 15% of all cities in the Evernight Kingdom had fallen, causing their residents to escape and seek shelter in nearby areas. This included wizard organizations and clans.
No one had figured out an effective way to stop the domes from expanding.
This wasn’t too serious a problem to him since he once ventured inside a black dome and even talked to the monsters that created them. Besides, the parasites coming from the domes couldn’t affect him.
What worried him most was a hazardous situation that struck the Fairy World recently.
There had been large groups of monsters, along with more parasites, that showed up in all three sectors of Fairy World. Now, the entire Fairy World was in a similar situation as the Evernight Kingdom, and it was getting worse still.
As soon as Angor heard about this matter, he immediately thought about Pocratee, the underground village where a giant parasite nest was located.
Someone got inside Pocratee and let the monsters out?