The Abyss.
When speaking of the Abyss Plane, most people would think of it as a dark place full of evil and danger. But the truth was, there were many pleasant spots in this plane that looked no less beautiful than the best tourist spots at the Fey Continent. Such as a small valley surrounded by mountains and a wide river.
Thanks to the fresh and clear water resource, this lovely and lush spot had attracted many creatures into gathering here, including sapient ones. They were a type of tailed bipedal covered in pink body scales. People from the wizarding world usually called them the “Pink Imps”. Although such a name was mainly because they originated from the Abyss. If one traced their bloodline carefully, they would find that these creatures had nothing to do with real imps. In fact, they would easily become the prey of imps if they wandered too far from their peaceful home.
This alley was rather far from the core regions of Abyss, so one couldn’t find many imps. However, there were still other threats for the “Pink Imps”, such as human visitors.
Right now, there were two people floating above the valley, inspecting the area below.
One of them was a dashing-looking gentleman wearing white gloves, a well-kept suit, and an expensive-looking walking cane.
The other one was a bit younger, who had a red, gold-trimmed wizard robe. His constant smile sort of gave him a friendly look.
The younger individual spoke to his companion with an awkward smile, “Come on, Professor. Mister Kanter just offered some nice phantom tea. You dragged me away before I could pick up my mug!”
Phantom tea was a special species of tea leaves native to the Abyss Plane. It was mildly addictive, but it was still favored by tea lovers.
The suited gentleman glanced at him. “Stay at the camp and Samantha will kidnap you and take you to Moonfrost. Dura is there as well.”
“Dura? ‘The Grafter’ Dura? Why would she be here?”
This name always meant something bad whenever people heard it. Dura was known to be a terrible criminal who never stopped begrudging people for their good looks. Whenever she believed that someone’s body part or facial feature attracted her, she would destroy it and then “help” the victim by attaching a replacement she found from another random creature.
Dura was a level-2 truth-finder just like Sunders, although just a bit weaker in terms of combat strength. Many wizards feared her because this woman could be very reckless and mad when pursuing her goal. Those who became her targets couldn’t lower their guard for one second, or they would soon find something on their bodies gone overnight.
It was worth mentioning that Dura did not necessarily replace what she took with corresponding organs. There was one time when a charming witch had her entire nose taken off, after which Dura slapped a bear’s baculum on her face.
The young man trembled a little when he realized that he was dangerously close to Dura a while ago. He just became a truth-finder and couldn’t hope to best Dura in a fight yet.
“Don’t worry too much. I don’t think you look good enough to attract her. Your hair though... Perhaps she would like to give you some snake hairs and make you into a male medusa.”
“Professor? I must say your speech sounds a lot harsher compared to when we were still together some decades ago. Now I see why Samantha’s so pissed off when she’s around you.”
“You’re interested in Samantha now, Sumesh?”
“No no, of course not.” Sumesh quickly denied.
But Iron Granny told me that Sunders grew a gentler temper during the last few years. Why can’t I see it? he thought.
Sunders looked at the pink imps again. “Back to the matter at hand. Let’s deal with these things. You want to know why Dura came? She wants their tails.”
The creatures’ hairless tails looked a bit curly and resembled that of farm pigs. Also, every pink imp had a heart-shaped bulge at the tip of its tail they used to store their energy.
“They’re stronger than they look. Don’t be careless.” Sunders crossed his arms, which obviously meant that he wouldn’t do the work himself.
Sumesh shook his head but did not protest. He knew Sunders was testing him. Unfortunately, it was a bit untimely because his nightmare domain got a problem right now.
He still went after the pink imps when he thought he didn’t need his nightmare domain to kill these things.
He was wrong.
Several wizard-level pink imps managed to escape from the battlefield when most of their members were killed. It was Sunders who finished the job thoroughly by pulling them back.
Sumesh let out a sigh of distress and returned to his professor.
Sunders frowned at him. “I can see your Truth Manipulation illusion is way beyond what I can teach you before. But why didn’t you use your nightmare domain? That would contain your enemies better.”
With a sad look, Sumesh explained his condition.
“Use your nightmare domain to affect the physical world? Project objects into reality?” Sunders’ eyebrows knitted tighter. “We have yet to figure out how to do such a thing from the Nightmare Realm. What makes you think it’s possible by using a nightmare domain?”
“Heh heh... Sorry, sir. I was... not thinking clearly back then. When my attempt failed, I accidentally ripped a tear in my nightmare domain, and it’s now too unstable to use. This is why I came to the Abyss, in hope that maybe I can get a piece of advice from you.”
“The only way I know of how to mend that problem is to absorb a new piece of nightmare domain and use the new power to fix your old one.”
Sumesh looked down. “As soon as I became a truth-finder, I referred to The Mystery of Nightmare Domain and headed to the Oblation Plane, to look for the nightmare domain you mentioned in the book. I successfully absorbed that one. I’m afraid I can’t take a third one any time soon.”
“That’s quite a big problem.” Sunders held his chin. “Let me see. I did have another theory before but could never try it out because my nightmare domain doesn’t get broken easily. Now this will be a good chance for me to pick it up. But we’ll have to wait until we head back. For now, you should avoid using your domain.”
Sunders transferred all the pink imps into his Gravity Garden before leaving the valley area to go back to the camp.
On their way back, they took some time discussing how to treat Sumesh’s problem, before the topic was slowly diverted to someone else.
“Iron Granny told me that your new student is a Nightmare Form. Is that true?” asked Sumesh.
“Not only that, but he’s a very superior one, if I’m not mistaken. He fused with a nightmare domain as an apprentice, which I never thought to be possible before.”
... The most important thing is, he summoned that nightmare domain himself, Sunders thought.
“A Nightmare Form... and an Illusionist. What a blessed bloke,” Sumesh uttered. “I just got my hands on an image of Angor. Everyone’s been talking about him recently.”
“Image? What did he do this time?” Sunders frowned again. “I thought he’s going back home?”
“Here, take a look.” Sumesh took out a crystal ball.
At first, Sunders was rather glad to see that Angor added a high-tier alchemy item onto the collection list of Phantom Island. Even though Angor might lose or give the item to someone else later, he could always make more.
However...
“Who was filming him? Telling from the perspective, somebody was looking at Angor from under the seawater, and whoever this was tried to be sneaky about it.
“Go and check out what the Centipede Guild is up to these days. And don’t forget to learn what you can find about Angor’s recent moves.”
Sumesh would like to point out that he wasn’t an errand runner, but he decided not to when he saw Sunders’ serious look.
Iron Granny mentioned more than once that Sunders really treasured Angor, and Sumesh finally saw it with his own eyes. Even though he had not met with Angor personally yet, Sumesh knew he had to be as friendly and cooperative as he could should he have a chance to talk to this skilled alchemist AND perhaps Sunders’ most precious student.
“You need anything else?” Sunders asked when he saw Sumesh looking at him.
Sumesh pointed at his crystal ball, which was still in Sunders’ hands.
“I’ll take it. Maybe I can figure out who was Angor’s stalker.”
Sumesh’s lips twitched. He believed that Sunders was planning on showing it off to Kanter back at the camp.
When they parted ways, Sunders put the crystal ball away and closed his eyes to sense the blood sphere he gave Angor.
Nothing special. It meant Angor was very likely to be safe.