“Aphrodite...” Valli repeated the name she heard with an astounded look as she recalled the beautiful dream she went through. She didn’t know whether that was a dream, an illusion, or a whole other world created by an unknown divinity.
Similarly, she was a frail mortal human who was searching for a miracle during a devastating storm, which was usually harmless to mermaids. For the first time in her life, she experienced the menace of mother ocean and even “died” at the end of the story.
However, she also caught a glimpse of a shining figure hidden behind the tides.
“Was that the goddess I was looking for...?”
Behind Valli, her guards were also whispering to each other while exchanging their different adventures in the fantastic dream. Even though most of them were drowned to death without finding even a tiny fraction of the goddess, they agreed that she was there waiting for them and that they just had to try harder next time. If they had a “next time”, that was.
This was when Angor realized that the “illusion challenge” wasn’t exclusive to himself, but when he asked Toby about this matter, Toby claimed that he never saw the illusion.
“Does it only affect humans and humanoids then?” Angor wondered.
“Oh great wizard, was that a simple dream or a realm built by the goddess that truly existed?” Valli suddenly asked.
“Why do you think so? Did you find anything in it?”
“Yes! Upon waking, I feel... closer to mother ocean. I think I can wield a tiny portion of her great power now.”
Valli chanted something under her breath, and a blurry orb made of pure water element suddenly appeared beside her.
Angor examined the orb and noticed that the power within was as potent as apprentices who studied Elemental Art.
“Oh dear. Guess I made something really nifty.”
He wasn’t very surprised to see Valli’s improvement because he also felt the great power that suggested the will of the sea when crafting the music box. Even if he wasn’t a mermaid or an Elementalist, he could feel his certain senses heightened that allowed him to detect the concealed signature beneath him earlier.
If all of his suspicions were right, then that music box could enhance the strength of people with water-based potentials...
Then yes. The music box was terrifyingly useful.
Using it meant shortening training sessions and making it easier to study water-related spells as a secondary art. This was rare even for high-tier alchemy items.
What he didn’t know was that his creation already helped Jebra gain a giant boost in strength. Any wizard who studied water-related arts would crazily look for the music box, should they hear about it.
“Is-is it actually made by you, Sir Wizard?” asked Valli.
Angor nodded. “It didn’t have anything to do with actual goddesses or anything like that. It’s an illusion brought forward by a new alchemy piece.”
Valli instantly became depressed when she learned that the sacred place, which she believed to be a holy ground for all mermaids and mermen, was merely an illusion crafted by human hands.
Angor saw Valli’s sad look and chuckled. “I don’t know if true gods exist in this world, but I’m a human being. There’s no way the illusion I made is any kind of glorified place you imagined.”
Angor was never religious, or rather, all wizards and apprentices who were after the path of truth did not believe in made-up divine entities they could not see.
He did not deny Valli’s belief straightforwardly just to be nice.
“Any other questions? I’ll be leaving if we’re done,” said Angor.
“Sir Wizard, may I see that illusion again? I really love that music and I wish to reprise it.”
“I’m... afraid I can’t show you the illusion.”
Valli looked down in sadness.
“However, I CAN let you hear the music again.” Angor lifted his gloved right hand and tapped a finger in the air.
Following his move, a group of “teacups” with adorable decorations on them emerged from a small space tunnel. They would look like the components from a tea set used by a little girl if one did not mind their stick-like limbs and all the different instruments they were carrying.
“The music you heard was played by this little music band,” Angor explained while waking up the teacups that were somehow making snot bubbles in their sleep.
As he used his right hand to inject nightmare energy into the teacups, they instantly perked up and began hopping around vigorously.
Valli, as the only female adult present, immediately started to like the lovable creatures that were taken straight out of fairy tales.
Meanwhile, she really wished that she could learn such amazing wizardry as well.
“So these cuties were performing together? I thought I heard an entire ensemble playing!”
Cuties? These things? Angor deadpanned.
Ever since he could use his right hand to replenish energy for his Nightmare Domain, these teacups had turned from fragile tableware into some real monsters that could perfectly block or reflect some of the most powerful level-2 cantrips.
And he wouldn’t call them “cute”.
“Where are you, my queen? I wanna go back...”
“But we have Lord Shava with us!”
“All hail Lord Shava!!”
The teacups were sending their childish flattery to Angor again. However, the mortal creatures couldn’t hear them since they were using emotion signals to communicate rather than speaking for real.
After ordering them to focus, Angor told the “band leader” of the teacups to start performing Aphrodite again.
The beautiful music did not sound as impassioned as when it was accompanied by the violent illusion, but it was no less enjoyable as the members of the audience felt as if they saw a goddess quietly watch the rising sun after the storm had settled down. The fury of the sea had given place to untainted tranquility, and the music was telling the same story from a different perspective.
Once again, all the listeners were fully enthralled by the luscious masterpiece.
Angor discovered this song while searching through the music folder in his tablet out of boredom, and he knew he liked it the moment he heard through the first several seconds. To fully enjoy a “live version”, he later instructed the teacup band to play it for him.
While it was true that it was Valli who gave him inspiration, he found Aphrodite to be much more becoming for the theme of his illusion. As it turned out, he made the right decision.
When the music ended, Valli reopened her eyes and saw Angor no longer here. The strange boat above them wasn’t in sight either.
“*Sigh* Let’s head back...” She ordered her guards while feeling a bit disappointed.
As the giant turtle dived into the water, Jebra slowly moved closer.
...
While sitting on Gondola, Angor was carefully checking the item he just created, completely oblivious of Jebra’s presence earlier.
He named the music box the “Ocean Tuner”. The main engraving on the music box was a divine-looking mermaid who was holding onto a conch shell as big as her body while listening to the echo inside by pressing an ear against it.
Angor based the design on Valli and gave her a see-through silk dress made from “Starlight Fabric”, a special material that radiated brighter in a darker environment.
He already meant to give the initial design a magnificent look. But now, the “water film” created by the strange water drop had granted the item another dazzling coat over its frame.
Even Tulu couldn’t hide his awe and was staring at the trinket with sparkling eyes.
Angor had used Narda’s Vision to identify the properties of the items and was more than satisfied by the result.
“A high-tier item... This is my very first high-tier work!”