Before joining everyone, Angor scanned his bracelet and found Toby sitting beside the Soft Larva nest while curiously peeking inside it.
He kept Toby inside the bracelet while going through the inter-plane tunnel just to be safe. Now that they were “safely” in the Abyss Plane, he decided to let Toby out to get some fresh air, even though the air around here wasn’t exactly fresh.
As soon as Toby was freed, he excitedly did a spinning maneuver in the sky, then landed on Angor’s stretched-out arm with a happy look.
“Oh my. Our little friend likes it here, I take it?” Madelyne seemed fond of Toby’s adorable look.
“Do you like this place?” Angor asked.
Toby nodded madly as he flapped his wings non-stop.
“It feels like home...?” Angor read Toby’s emotion but failed to understand why the bird would think this way.
Toby could barely contain his eagerness and quickly flew off.
“Did your partner come from the Abyss?” asked Madelyne.
“I don’t think so...”
Greya said that Toby was born from the torn emotions of a legendary monster, though she never told Angor where this monster was from.
Was it a monster from the Abyss then? Angor wondered.
This was very likely because any legendary monster existing in the wizarding world would have gone into the hands of others instead of being taken by a Gourmet.
Of course, Angor wasn’t planning on telling anyone about his ideas. No matter what Toby’s “ancestor” was, it should be long dead. Toby was Toby.
...
They arrived at the main group and saw Sennefer talking to Fortuna with an unpleasant look.
Angor noticed that Fortuna was no longer an image. Her graceful charm was now clearer to see when she truly stood there. Like in her image, she was an elegant church sister of a very young age. But for some reason, her eyes were completely covered behind bandage wraps that slightly ruined her overall character.
From the occasional whispers of others, Angor learned that several people went missing in the inter-plane tunnel. Sennefer was currently consulting Fortuna about this matter.
“Both the guidance barrier and the energy readings are fine, which means they didn’t perish in the tunnel. It could be that they mistook the coordinate and were sent to other locations,” explained Fortuna.
Though someone who lost their way in the Abyss without a team to rely upon was as good as dead.
Sennefer didn’t look happy when their team already lost some members at the beginning of their Abyss expedition.
“We will pray that they find a settlement in time.” Sennefer shook her head. “Let’s go to Cinder Rock. Once we’re there, we will split up into teams and handle the necessary tasks according to the situation.”
Fortuna bowed to Sennefer and slowly walked away.
Angor thought they’d be following Fortuna on foot, which might take them months to get to Cinder Rock. Though he soon noticed that he was wrong. Fortuna was simply looking for spots where the dimensional energy was more stable so that she could open a door of teleportation.
Following her lead, people went inside the floating door one by one, after which they arrived at somewhere a lot more gloomy. The earth beneath their feet was dry and deprived, while dark fog blocked their view in every direction. Added with the fact that the Abyss Plane did not have sunlight, it was difficult to see beyond a few meters.
A large fireball suddenly appeared in the distance and quickly grew larger as it approached the group. The rampaging energy contained inside the attack suggested that it was not to be underestimated.
Thankfully, the fireball wasn’t fast. Those who were close to its landing point had enough time to stay clear.
From where the fireball came, they heard someone rambling in an eerie voice.
Madelyne stepped up as she said, “A corpse belongs to the grave. I’ll send it back.”
She created a spiky whip from the center of her palm and used it to pull a short figure from the fog into the middle of their group. It was a skeleton wearing broken rags and a short cane that was burning on its tip.
Angor checked and noticed that the fire appeared to be the same one that made up the fireball.
“Is it a monster native in the Abyss?”
“This is a Flame Bearer. These creatures used to be peaceful residents in the Abyss, but a certain type of corruption power claimed them,” Madelyne explained as she used her whip to ground the captured skeleton to pieces.
Next, she crouched down, picked up the skeleton’s weapon, and removed a flaming orb attached to its end.
“Nope. The energy is too chaotic to be of any use.” She tossed the orb to Angor. “You can have it and do whatever you want with it.”
None of the wizards seemed to care about Madelyne’s action. Though some of the apprentices were clearly jealous of Angor’s new loot—that orb could at least sell for hundreds of crystals in the right hands, and that was big money to most apprentices.
Using Narda’s Vision, Angor saw the orb as a fire-based crafting material that could either be used in alchemy products or as a simple explosive weapon.
“A broken Flame Bearer’s Orb is useless unless you gather more and fuse them into an intact one,” said Madelyne. “No one knows how to do such a thing, however. You might have some luck asking a Flame Bearer Lord, suppose you can defeat one. Though I highly doubt they’ll talk to you.”
In other words, the broken orb was pointless to most people.
The appearance of the monster wasn’t much of a threat. But this had told them that Cinder Rock was indeed in danger.
Maher moved to the front of the group and spoke to everyone, “We’re sure to run into more monsters from this point onward. Be very careful. I shall take my team and head up there first to remove wizard-level monsters.”
Up there? Angor frowned. Are we supposed to fly?
He watched the union guards leaving the ground one by one, after which Sennefer asked everyone to follow up while keeping some distance.
Meanwhile, some apprentices who couldn’t fly began moving ahead and deeper into the fog instead.
A gust of wind came and cleared up their vision, allowing them to see many rock pillars that reached all the way into the sky.
Angor narrowed his eyes and saw countless more pillars beyond his field of vision. Though it wasn’t long before the fog returned and hid everything again.
“This is the Great Rock Formation,” Madelyne explained with a smile. “Don’t get surprised yet—you need to keep your appetite until you witness Cinder Rock. That’s when you’ll drop your jaw.”
While following Madelyne’s track, Angor looked down and saw the walking apprentices now climbing along the surface of the rock pillar ahead using their own tricks. In fact, they were not any slower than those who could fly.
Angor fully activated his flying boots and sped up. It seemed everyone was well prepared before coming to this place. He didn’t want to fall behind.
He kept climbing for half a minute but still did not see the top of the rock pillar.
On his way, he would occasionally bump into weak monsters that couldn’t even harm apprentices. The guards ahead probably left them here intentionally so that the apprentices behind had something to do.
Angor also tried to test his skills by going after a monster. But he never found a chance because each time a monster came into view, several frenzied apprentices wound instantly overwhelm it and slice it up.
Even some of the slightly stronger targets were no match for large groups of greedy hunters.
With no other choice, Angor remained behind and stayed out of everyone’s way.