Gondola smoothly proceeded while following the flow of the Shanube River.
Vonman poked his head out to look below when he thought he heard something howling. He wasn’t sure if his ears were working properly when the sound of the river almost deafened him.
He almost fell off the boat when he saw a giant head just below Gondola when Gondola should be flying some hundred meters above the ground. It was a giant that was walking on the riverbank while causing more noises into the already noisy area.
“By gods... What is that?!”
Angor also looked over the edge of Gondola.
They were looking at a “Highland Goliath”, a native inhabitant at Parmigi Highlands. They were known for their long life span and near-human level intelligence. Though they tended to take it easy inside their territory instead of moving around or causing harm.
It was definitely not common for one of them to show up here.
“Tulu, slow down and proceed carefully,” Angor called.
“What’s the matter, sir?” Tulu was in charge of steering the boat. He quickly decreased the energy output.
“Something’s not right around here. Just be careful.”
Vonman and Guina were already nervous when they set foot in the wizarding world for real. Hearing Angor’s words, they grew even more stressful.
The giant noticed Gondola flying past its head. But it didn’t pay the vehicle much attention before resuming its travel. It seemed the giant was trying to make it across Shanube River by swimming.
When its form was fully hidden behind the vapor curtain, the recruits on Gondola all sighed in relief.
“These giants don’t usually cause accidents to humans not because they’re nice, but because they’re too lazy to do anything. Stay away should you run into one in the future,” Angor explained.
They heard yet more strange noise, but it came from above them rather than from the ground this time.
They saw several odd machines flying past them. These things had different metal parts mixed together, but generally, they all resembled human shapes.
Angor knew them too. They were mechanical puppets, a type of common merchandise found in Floating Mech City. But they were usually crafted by alchemists who were good at Tooling. Angor didn’t remember any such alchemist around Brute Cavern. It was strange that a wizard who didn’t know alchemy would buy so many mechanical puppets.
As he wondered what was going on, an overwhelming aura descended upon Gondola, along with someone’s gruff voice.
“Neat vehicle you got there. I’m taking it!”
The recruits were instantly pressed against the floor by the force. Angor managed to maintain his posture, but he did feel terrible on the inside.
The level of the aura felt similar to Eureka’s, which couldn’t fully suppress his movement. And if he could move, he could escape.
However, Angor was confident in running away by himself only. He couldn’t take the other three with him.
He poked Toby, who read his mind and immediately went into Griffin Mode, then fully prepared the power of gravity.
“Sequence of gravity?!” The stranger’s voice raised a pitch.
“For escaping. Note that you can’t stop me, sir.” Angor made this clear before he put on a more polite stance. “This is not very far from Brute Cavern. Do you have to use violence here?”
“You’re from Brute Cavern?” A man poked his head from behind one of the puppets.
He had a pair of thick goggles and an alchemy robe full of greasy taints, all of which suggested that he was a typical alchemist who spent most of his time in a lab.
“That’s correct. I’m Mister Phantom’s student, returning to the organization as requested.”
“Mister Phantom, huh?” The stranger removed his goggles, checked Angor’s look, and landed on Gondola with a backflip.
Angor didn’t stop the man since it was hopeless to do so. But he did tell Toby to fully prepare a gravity boost so that they could get away the moment it was necessary.
While carrying the smell of burns and catalysts, the alchemist took out a magazine and began comparing Angor’s face with a picture on it.
“You’re the ‘music box man’, Angor?”
“... My name is Angor, sir. Someone made that moniker up. It has nothing to do with who I really am.”
“It IS you! I saw that record of you making an item on the sea, but I never learned where to find you. Now I finally got a chance to talk to you!”
“May I know your name, Mister...?”
“Nah.” The man waved an arm. “Call me Nelson, if you would. You’re the better alchemist here. Don’t deny it.”
Angor waited for Nelson to continue.
“Such... masterful work!” Nelson looked around Gondola with twinkling eyes. “You made this yourself?”
“Can you remove your aura, sir? Or you’re going to seriously hurt my guests.” Angor pointed to Guina, who had begun to bleed from her wounds. “If she’s dead, I’ll fail my recruitment quota. That would be sad.”
Nelson muttered “weaklings” under his breath and did so.
“Vonman, take Guina inside. Tulu, keep the boat moving at the original speed.”
Angor took a seat and looked at Nelson, who also sat down on the opposite side.
“I heard there were tons of wizards who recently went to Brute Cavern to find you. So you were off on a recruit mission?” Nelson shook his head. “This is nuts. Why would Mister Rein appoint you as the recruiter? Such misuse of true talent!”
Nelson seemed to be the talkative type. As he criticized the corruption and inefficiency of large-scale organizations, he also revealed some personal information for Angor to hear.
“Do you need something from me, sir?” Angor found a chance to chip in so that Nelson didn’t keep talking for hours and on. “As for this boat, yes, it is one of my products.”
“It’s freaking beautiful! You brought out the hidden property of Wavy Clams? Nice. They weren’t lying when saying that the ‘thorny lion alchemist’ got skills!”
That title sounded a little better than “music box man”, but Angor still preferred not to hear it. He just hoped that Nelson did not mention “Baron Milk” next.
“I’m glad to hear your approval, Mister Nelson. You haven’t told me why you’re here?”
“Oh, I just thought I could come and take the boat away by force. But since it’s you, never mind that.”
“... Thanks?”
“No need to thank me! I’m a Tooling alchemist too. We can exchange notes and study from each other!”
Angor saw Nelson’s puppets had surrounded Gondola and sighed. Apparently, Nelson wouldn’t let him go easily.
The puppets wouldn’t prevent him from leaving, but he didn’t want to give up the others. He considered and decided to comply. Nelson claimed that he was an alchemist trainee studying in Floating Mech City and majored in machine alchemy. He should have some valuable knowledge to share.
“I can’t get luckier than this! I haven’t left my lab in years, and when I did, I met you!”
Angor was still wary at the beginning of their discussion, but as Nelson began to bring up more constructive issues, he changed his mind.
As someone who couldn’t tolerate mistakes, Angor slowly grew more excited during their debate, especially when Nelson had other opinions regarding his field of expertise.
Slowly, their alchemy meeting turned into a heated battle of words.