Angor didn’t believe that Freud would be afraid of mortal criminals even if without special powers. The second part of Freud’s excuse was probably the truth, that he wanted to find someone with serious illness for the test.
But on second thought, Angor believed that Freud made the right choice. The dream wasteland was still in its initial state, and Sunny and Alda were helpless children in this place. It would be better to not invite villains to join them.
“Is Tayla... dead?” asked Angor.
“Yes, sir. She was already drawing her last breaths when I found her. I asked her whether she wished to live on in another form and away from the Land of Revelation. She agreed.”
“Good choice. Be careful though, there might be other supernaturals in Freight Town who noticed what you did. Jebra and Miya both visited the town not long ago.”
“Of course.” Freud nodded. “I’ll be as cautious as I can.”
Angor took a moment observing Tayla, who was always grinding that metal stick in her hand.
“What’s she doing?”
“I think she’s trying to make a needle, sir.”
“Needle?”
Freud looked a little embarrassed. “The other day, I promised Sunny that I would get her a new dress as a prize for her songs. But I didn’t find any from the buildings.” He showed Angor the priest robe he was carrying. “Then I asked Tayla if she could help me redo this robe into a girl’s dress. We can’t find any tools though, so she’s just going to make a sewing needle out of a pestle she found. She’s been doing that for over ten hours. Thank goodness we can’t really feel tired in here.”
“I see...” Angor looked at himself and saw the same clothes he was wearing in Padt Manor. It seemed they couldn’t make new clothes appear like controlling a real dream.
“Alright, I’ll go and find some tailoring tools and send them to that mushroom house. Keep an eye out for them.”
“Thank you, sir!”
“Tayla is here, which means our first test is a success?” Angor pondered. “One isn’t good enough though. While you search for more people, I’ll also do the same from my end. Just make sure don’t bring any weirdos.”
“Leave it to me.”
Next, Angor asked whether Freud knew what happened to the strange larva egg.
“It gets bigger and a different color? Umm...” Freud looked a bit surprised.
“Any clue what’s going on?”
“No... I’m afraid I don’t know any more than you do. I heard it from someone that Soft Larvae are highly systematized creatures and tend to divide their members into different classes. Maybe the one you talked about is a very important one.”
Angor knew about this as well. He also knew that the larvae always had different jobs and a supreme leader like how ants did. The “Mutation Larva” he was expecting was only one of the many roles among the creatures. He was hoping that the special egg was a Mutation Larva, which usually held the best value.
Angor spent a moment discussing with Freud about whether they should use the Dream Whelk to get more supplies into the dream wasteland. At this rate, there would soon be more people living here.
“Compared to providing commodities ready to be used, I’d suggest that you bring raw materials and let them produce what they need on their own,” Freud suggested. “Tayla used to wander aimlessly until I gave her a job, and she looks happy about it. Most mortals can’t control their desires and will only become useless slackers if we provide them a plentiful life. We need to build a society.”
...
Angor woke up from the dream wasteland and soon heard a knock on the door.
Auri was standing outside his room while pulling a food cart behind. The red skin around her eyes proved that she had yet to get over her frustration.
“Your-your fried rice, sir.”
“Get in. We can eat together here. It’s time for your meal too.”
“No, I can’t!” Auri shook her hands. “I’m a maid in the manor. I can’t disobey the rules...”
Her voice grew lower until Angor almost couldn’t hear her.
“I’ll-I’ll get back to my work, sir. Chief Mana just told me to check the tea garden.”
Angor watched her go and shook his head with a helpless smile. He simply wanted to cheer Auri up by that invitation, but the poor girl took it in the wrong way.
Toby returned to him to enjoy the meal together. Even though Auri’s cooking was really good, the bird preferred the side dishes compared to the oily rice.
After the meal, Angor headed to Nano’s room. When talking about finding sewing tools, that was where he had the best chance.
The first sight he saw in the room was Nano and Latata yelling at each other loudly. When he arrived, Latata and Nano quickly saw him as a new target for venting out their complaints.
It took Angor some time to figure out what was going on. Apparently, Latata was here to retrieve Nano’s silk for the 23rd time, but Nano refused to hand it over. Nano had been providing all the silk to the Krakoks, and he didn’t have enough to make his own curtain and blankets.
Latata insisted on taking all of Nano’s silk because it was her job in the manor. They had been shouting at each other for a long time, which obviously did not contribute to a solution.
“Ahem!” Angor tried to draw their attention. “Nano, you don’t want the Krakoks to ruin your product, right? Don’t worry, I’ll take it.”
He picked up the soft and delicate material from the desk and left, while Latata and Nano exchanged an uncertain look.
...
Angor left the manor. He took out Gondola and was going to pay Waterford a visit. He believed he could find the proper tools he promised there.
He was pretty used to the scenery along the way and watching it made him feel relaxed.
Unknown to him, when he was enjoying the view, someone was looking at him from afar.
There was an impressive waterfall formation below Angor’s position roaring the sound of nature. Anyone within a few hundred meters of it wouldn’t hear anything other than clashing water.
A naked man was crouching on top of a rock at the bottom of one of the falls, breathing painfully.
An ordinary man in that position would have had his skin torn apart by the heavy water current by now. But this man still looked fine as there were only some bruises on his body.
By some coincidence, he saw Angor gliding above his position.
“Woah, that’s Angor’s boat. Angor is back?”
Leon was currently undergoing an extremely tough training method intended to strengthen his body. By putting his physical limits to test, his spirit power would be improved until he was good enough to become a talent.
Before he succeeded, he had to keep up the training whenever he had time for it.
He had been doing this for many years. He never told Angor about it because he didn’t want his brother to get worried.
Leon was pretty used to the drill now. However, seeing Angor caused him to break his concentration briefly and lose his balance.
The overwhelming flood easily knocked him off the rock and sent him into the water pond below.