Water Barrier was a level-2 cantrip that constructed a defensive force field made from rearranged water elements.
Angor had been studying this skill, which was usually considered as one of the worst among all defensive cantrips. Putting its combat value aside, this cantrip had a special trait that made it very useful for resisting high underwater pressure.
During the second phase of the purification garden challenge when people were thrown into the Sea of Purification, most of them could move around in the water because of this cantrip.
By that time, Angor was instead using the built-in Purification Field on his hat. Fortunately, his hat wasn’t broken by any incident or he’d immediately get squashed by the deadly strength of nature.
After getting out of the garden challenge, he had been using some of his free time to read about the Water Barrier.
However, another matter put a stop to his study schedule. When he received a foreign hand and the bloodline of a nightmare projection in Witch’s Town, his physical build was improved by a large degree that he no longer had to worry about diving underwater.
This was why he gave up on learning Water Barrier later.
Now that he had another reason to study a water-based cantrip, he found it necessary to pick up Water Barrier, about which he already gained some proficiency.
Combined with the boost given by Ocean Tuner, he successfully grasped how to unleash a Water Barrier within two weeks. He still needed more time to learn how to shorten his cast time and make the cantrip helpful in battle, but as far as he speculated till now, Ocean Tuner had already helped him study the cantrip way faster than normal.
Also, he just found another interesting discovery. It seemed the illusion of Ocean Tuner granted permanent affinity boost only for the first visit, while all subsequent visits would only further improve water affinity for a short period of time.
This meant the user must often go inside the illusion, meaning, getting drowned, if they wished to constantly train their water-based cantrips at a faster pace.
Although this restriction was completely expected. An item that could boost someone’s training efficiency without an upper limit was no longer a high-tier tool, but a Mystery-level treasure.
With the second part of his test done, Angor stored the music box in his bracelet in satisfaction. This item was meant as a gift for Lady Mirror. There was a group of half-naked dashing mermen huddled around the goddess, just to satisfy Lady Mirror’s “inviting but not too explicit” request.
Angor mostly created the images of these mermen based on the “gentleman portraits” he received from Lady Mirror. Of course, he wasn’t brave enough to use the actual looks of these powerful wizards, so he made some small adjustments on them.
Since Ocean Tuner could help him with his training before reaching the wizard level, he thought about waiting until his next level-up before giving the music box to Lady Mirror. Last time he heard, Lady Mirror had gone into seclusion with no intention of showing up too soon. He probably had a lot of time before meeting her again.
As for the second effect of the music box, which was to “grant revelation to sea manipulator wizards”...
He only knew about two of such people. One was Roman from the White Clam Seafare Association, who died at Silver Palm Isle, while the other one was Jebra, whose whereabouts was unknown.
In order words, he had nothing to test on the second effect right now.
Out of random, he looked up and saw Tulu still controlling the boat while gazing at a direction. Also, Tulu was muttering something under his breath, such as he sensed rain coming from that way, so they’d better steer away from it.
“Mister Padt, do you need something?” Tulu looked back and saw Angor staring at him.
Tulu had removed his bandages and revealed the giant scar over where his left ear was supposed to be. Such a sight had somewhat turned his handsome young look into that of fierceness.
“It’s nothing. I just got a feeling that, with that weather prediction skill of yours and how you learned to weave water element so quickly, you’re probably talented to become a sea manipulator,” Angor said while holding his chin.
Tulu used to disdain sea manipulators because Roman was one such man, but after spending time with Angor and learning more about the wizarding world, such prejudice had left his mind.
“Are they like someone powerful, sir?” Tulu didn’t know why Angor mentioned such a thing.
Angor showed a devious grin. “I was thinking, if you’re to become a sea manipulator, that illusion would definitely be helpful to your improvement. And to think that you don’t want it...”
Tulu made a duck face when he realized that Angor was simply making fun of him.
Seeing Tulu’s sad look, Angor smiled in contentment and took out some Moocher Meat along with a glass of honey produced by Moonlily Fairy.
Tulu saw the delicious food and glanced at his package of rose cakes, which were close to spoilage, and took a small bite. Comparing his boring food with Angor’s wonderful-looking snacks only made him feel worse.
Angor felt fulfilled enough and decided to talk about more serious matters. “How long until we reach the Land of Revelation at this speed?”
Naturally, Tulu wasn’t going to express his annoyance in the open. “If nothing stops us, we’ll get there tomorrow morning, Mister Padt.”
This was almost as Angor predicted.
They departed from Ferran around the end of the Month of Resuscitation and spent about one month flying on the sea. At this rate, he had enough time to wander around the Land of Revelation for fun and still had ample time to get to Old Earth.
Although... he didn’t have a reason to waste time like that. As he planned, he was only going to retrieve the Dream Whelk from the Land of Revelation and immediately head to Old Earth. As for recruiting talents... After what he went through during the talent tests at Ferran, he had decided to fully entrust this task to his luck.
He only needed one more talent to fulfill the quota of his recruitment quest. In the worst case, he could simply use the bottle of Potion of Austere Night on his brother as long as Leon’s starting spirit level wasn’t too poor.
Angor then took out a piece of bright-green fabric from his bracelet. He made it into a simple headscarf and tossed it to Tulu.
“Hide that scar so that you don’t attract too much attention to me.”
Tulu gazed at the bizarre-colored scarf in his hand with a doubtful look. Isn’t this stuff going to get us more attention instead?
“Don’t worry. I’m not going to walk on the street with you anyway,” Angor added.
Then what’s the point of this?? Tulu roared in his mind.
Tulu still kept the scarf since he knew this was indeed meant to protect him. He knew a lot of mortals who would get extremely judgmental or over-talkative when they saw some small birthmarks on people. His terrible scar would undoubtedly attract unnecessary trouble.
But that color...
Using his instinct of a sailor, Tulu moved Gondola closer to the surface of the water and dived into the sea.
A moment later, he captured a strange-looking fish, removed its bulging organ, and sprayed some ink-like liquid onto his scarf before putting it on.
Angor saw everything and sighed. Aw. I like the previous color better...
...
The beacon of a lighthouse in the distance penetrated the impervious veil of night.
“We’re not far now, Mister Padt!” Tulu looked at the source of light and exclaimed in delight.
Even though he didn’t show it, Angor was just as excited about getting to obtain his very first Mystery item soon.
As the first ray of sunlight came from the horizon of the sea, they reached a woody coast where nobody else was around.
“Where exactly are we going, sir?” Tulu asked as he hovered Gondola above the trees.
“Central Empire.”
Angor told Tulu their destination and expected Tulu to act as the driver again, but Tulu only stared back at him with a confused look.
“You’re not familiar with the landscape of the Land of Revelation, are you?”
“Ehh, I only once traveled to Versailles Principality together with The Limpet, sir. I don’t recognize this place. At least this is nowhere near Versailles.”
Angor observed the surroundings, most of which were uncultivated wilderness.
“Let’s just move ahead. We’ll know where to go if we reach civilization.”
While Tulu followed his order to head inland, Angor leaned on the railing of the boat to recall what Freud told him before.
According to Freud, “Whelk of the Dreaming Coast” was hidden back at his home, the Central Empire, which commanded 19 other principalities around the Land of Revelation.
And since this was Freud’s home...
Angor reached his spirit feelers into his Church of the Deceased in order to talk to Freud, but he changed his mind when he noticed that Freud was busily writing something at his desk.