Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales
TN: While Archangel Tyrael was mentioned in the previous chapter, it was only a fragmented part of the real Tyrael. Make sure to NOT think of it as the real Archangel Tyrael.
After returning to Lut Gholein, Abel decided to leave. He was worried about the oak tree that saved him instead of his own safety. Judging from what he sensed back then, the oak tree sustained a lot of damage to save him.
With not much to spare, he used the waypoint to teleport himself back to the Rogue’s Encampment. From there, he used several “instantaneous movements” to move to the outer part of the Rogue’s Encampment, where the oak tree was. When he arrived, he saw that most of the trees were already pale yellow. There were a bunch of leaves on the ground. It was almost like the great tree was trying to prepare itself for hibernation.
More shockingly, the blue howling rabbits that lived around here were no longer playing and feeding like they used to be. They just lowered themselves towards the tree in a meek, humble manner. The sight was especially spectacular since they were massive in number. For some reason, it looked like the blue howling rabbits were worshipping the oak tree. Perhaps it was just like what Tyrael told him. Maybe there really was a divine being that was growing out of this plant. Well, not that it mattered, since the idea of divinity was simple too far-fetched for him.
After leaving all that thought behind, Abel went ahead to check on the oak tree’s current state. He went beside it, then slowly placed his hand on the trunk. He used his soul speaker’s ability to get an exact sense of what the oak tree felt like, and just as he expected, what he felt was a great sense of weakness. The oak tree was still alive, but it was suffering from a great lack of malnourishment.
With that, he took out a purple “full-recovery potion” from his portal bracelet and placed it on the ground. The oak tree was a unique being to Abel. It was technically one of his summoned creatures, but the bond between them actually was beyond that. As the host of his druid spirit, it could even be said that the two were so close to each other that they pretty much co-existed together.
Still, he was not quite sure what kind of energy the oak tree expended to survive. And because of the strange connection between them, he couldn’t use potions like those he would to his summon creatures. The most he could do was to let the oak tree drink the potion on its own, which was exactly what he went ahead to do.
After grabbing a potion with its root, the oak absorbed the potion to replenish itself. Soon, Abel’s soulspeaker ability notified him that special energy was brewing inside the tree. It wasn’t enough to cure it of its current condition, but it did manage to make it feel a bit energized.
He went on to give another bottle of the “soul potion.” When the oak tree drank it, it seemed to be in a much better condition. The soul potion was probably just the right remedy, so it seemed. After knowing that for sure, Abel decided to be more generous by giving out five more bottles. Five bottles weren’t enough to make the leaves grow back, but they did make the yellow ones that were still intact revert to the color green.
And there. As the oak tree was back to looking young, Abel finally started to feel a lot at ease. He didn’t understand what Tyrael meant with the term “spirit,” but this oak was important to him as far as he knew. It was the same for the blue bowling rabbits, too. Once they saw that it was healthy, they all played joyfully and returned to eating the fresh grass on the ground.
After spending three full days fighting, Abel didn’t have much time to meditate. Still, he needed time to continue with his wizard training. He decided to go back to Lut Gholein because he knew how important this particular meditation would be for him. If he got it right this time, time, the meditation might just trigger the effect of the song of life.
As he sat inside the training room, he began to absorb the mana around him. Of course, it was nowhere near enough to what he needed, so he grabbed some golden blue howling rabbit crystal cores and held them in both of his hands. The rest was quite easy. Meditating was easy for him to focus on. It wouldn’t take much time at all if he were to enter into a state of intense concentration.
After entering into the meditation state, a strange tune began to play next to his ear. It was the song of life. He wasn’t sure how, but as he played, all the mana inside the training room rushed towards him like there was no tomorrow. Also, in the outer part of the room that he couldn’t see, all the mana in the sky was drained towards his exact location. If this were the Holy Continent, even this method wouldn’t supply him with the amount of mana he needed.
By the way, the mana gathering circle was no longer of use. The song of life did a much better job because, unlike the gathering circle, it was channeled the mana it gathered right into Abel’s inner storage. This way, there was no wasted mana when he was trying to convert the energy with his meditation.
Right now, what Abel had was a rank thirteen wizard rune that was yet to be filled. As the mana poured into his inside, it all moved here so that it became his personal storage to use. The process was bizarrely fast. In a few minutes, he went from beginner to advanced wizard, and soon, he was at his full state. There was even some left before his one-hour session ended.
The promotion qi grew stronger and stronger very rapidly. Things were going so smoothly, in fact, that he thought that he might as well just promote himself into rank fourteen. Everything became a lot easier with the song of life being played. It was like the spirit itself blessed him. Of course, he didn’t know what that was supposed to feel like exactly, but he didn’t think that even regular spirits would be capable of granting him such an effect.
As the promotion qi disappeared, he became an official rank fourteen wizard. Of course, the song of life didn’t end quite there, nor was his meditation session. A large trace of mana was still pouring endlessly into his body. The rank fourteen wizard rune that was just created was not instantly filled with new energy. Beginner. Intermediate. Advanced. Ridiculously enough, it only took a bit over twenty minutes for the wizard rune to become full. Such progress would make any wizard cry in amazement, but for Abel, he was just too focused on his meditation state.
With a little over five minutes, a promotion qi was starting to rise again. He put less thought into challenging a promotion this time. As though it was perfectly normal to do, he started illustrating the rank fifteen wizard rune that quickly transformed him into a rank fifteen intermediate wizard.
When he was done, the song of life started to sound softer and softer, and eventually, it became a silent voice that withered away in the training room. This was when his eyes finally opened. The meditation ended, and for some reason, he could feel something brand new about himself.
“What just happened?’
The first thing he noticed was that his total capacity of the power of the Will was increased. This was because he just became a rank fifteen wizard.
“The song of life!” he suddenly screamed out as he realized. Perhaps the song of life was unique to the dark world. Otherwise, he might’ve just encountered it earlier while he was back at the Holy Continent.
Now, the song of life was not something that would come by easily. First, several tens of thousands of souls had to be gathered for the song to be played. And it couldn’t just be ordinary souls, either. These souls needed to be the ones that had been the worst imaginable despair and usually suffered by falling into the hands of the underworld.
The last time the song of life to be played out properly, at least several millennia of suffering must be heard for them to produce a kind of gratitude that could reach till the end of time. It was the hardest condition to fulfill.
Anyways, by receiving the blessing of the song of life, what Abel accomplished was the same as helping the dark world to “regain the underworld’s attention.” For the past several tens of thousands of years, the dark world was a place that’s been long forgotten by the forces of hell. Now that a living being was finally found here, that living being, which was him, had the luxury of owning all the essence that’s been piled over the years.
And to think that it should take a few more years to become an advanced wizard. Abel honestly couldn’t believe how successful he was with two blessings of the song of life. Right now, he was merely a step away from becoming an advanced wizard. He tried to sense the condition inside his body, and while his promotion was successful, he definitely needed time to stabilize the mana supplied to him by the masses. More importantly, he needed first to ensure that he replenished enough mana to use it immediately.
After getting out of the dark world, the first that he did was to call for Flying Flame and White Snow. Once he put them into his portal beast ring, he returned to the dark world and back to the seaside port at Lut Gholein. There, he called Flying Flame and rode on its back. He then gave it a direction map through his soul chain.
After unleashing a dragon’s roar, Flying Flame used both of its feet to make a forceful leap into the air, towards the direction of the ocean’s end. Normally, Abel could’ve done this with a boat, but there weren’t really any functional ones he could find lying around. Upon staring into the ocean below him, he could tell that even all the living beings inside the water were dead. It made sense. There was no way the underworld would leave anything alive in whatever world it plagued.
Despite having a lot of fun riding Flying Flame’s back, Abel realized that he should’ve used White Cloud instead. He completely ignored the possibility of being spotted by any enemies on the way. Still, after having gone in the air for an entire day, he managed to arrive at Port Kurast without spotting any enemies at all.
Now, Port Kurast was very easy to spot. He could see the tall lighthouse that was far, far away, even when the light it was shining was barely visible during daytime. Also, unlike Lut Gholein, Port Kurast was full of lush green plants that would be very distinct when seen over a distance.
Port Kurast might be old, but like the Rogue’s Encampment and Lut Gholein, this port city was under the constant protection of an unknown force. This way, it was able to maintain its overall landscape despite being withered away over the years.
Needless to say, the first thing that Abel did was investigate this city. He hoped to find some items that he could use immediately. For this, he looked everywhere in all the buildings that he could enter. He was disappointed. In all of Port Kurast, only Asheara’s room was big enough for him to set up a large-sized mana gathering circle.
When he realized that he couldn’t find any useful items in the city, he placed his only hope on the final destination, which was Alchemist Alkor’s hut. It was supposed to be located at the corner of Kurast. he followed a bridge that was made of wood, and he was able to find its whereabouts. If there were someone he had to thank, it would have to be the mysterious force that kept this city in place. Without it, this bridge wouldn’t be possible to walk on.
As he entered Alchemist Alkor’s hut, he saw the area packed with things. They were mostly alchemy tools. In the middle of the hut was an alchemy table, one with many alchemy tools placed on top. When he went ahead to grab one of the alchemy bottles, he noticed that it was nowhere as good as his dark-golden quality “Akara’s alchemy bottle.”
After placing the alchemy bottle back, he began to shift his gaze to a pharmacy wardrobe around the wall. These potions were separated into three. There was the white one, which he knew for sure was the “stamina potion.” If he drank it, he would have no loss of stamina whatsoever in a short period of time.
The other one, the dark one, was the “antidote potion.” He received the same bottle a long time ago. If he didn’t have to use it in his battle against Andariel, he would’ve kept it as a treasure till now. Now that there were dozens of it in front of it, it felt like he was walking right into a hospital that was guaranteed to heal all sickness.
The last one, the yellow, was the seclusion potion. It was a rare type of potion that was supposed to counter the freezing effect of ice element spells. Once the freezing effect appeared, he could just take against and remove all freezing and slowing effects produced by the seclusion spell. This would prove to be extremely efficient in his future battle against ice element wizards.
Needless to say, all the potions were good enough to go into his portal bracelets. They were all very practical items that he was ready to use in combat situations in his future fight.
Next, he found a box sitting in the corner. There were some books and recipes, which he was looking forward to the most. There were recipes for all three potions that he found in the wardrobe and not just that. There were some records that Alchemist Alkor left. They would prove to be extremely valuable in all of his future research.
It was tough to learn about the dark world’s alchemy because the dark world didn’t have any public facility that he could study in. There were libraries on the Holy Continent, but here, he needed to find traces of hidden hints in the most desolate of locations. With all that in mind, he couldn’t express just how grateful he was for the notes Alchemist Alkor left. Not only did it help him gain a deeper understanding of the alchemy studies of this world, but he also received replies in fields that he wasn’t so certain of, such as the history of what happened around this region.
At last, he came to the square hall that was located at Port Kurast. Since there was a waypoint there, he decided to use two of his perfect gemstones to create a passageway that he could move freely between all three cities. As far as he could see, the passageway that led Port Kurast to the land was just at one side of this hall. He wasn’t planning on leaving the port, so he just stood where he was and looked far into the horizon. After spotting a forest that stretched very far, he decided that it was the location that he was going to explore for the next time. For now, since he had stayed in the dark world for a while, it was time for him to make a temporary departure.
After using the waypoint from Port Kurast to the Rogue’s Encampment, he used the Scroll of Town Portal to head back to his magic tower inside Harry Castle. Usually, it’d be dawn whenever he returned from the dark world, but today, he was home at around noon. He was exhausted when he returned, so the first thing he did was to teleport to the garden outside of his magic. He sat on one of his chairs and relaxed by looking at the elven-style garden that he built.
Abel spoke to the air, “A cup of water spirit juice please, Flora.”
It wasn’t just his tower, actually. Flora’s service extended to all of the wizard’s community, even to parts such as the inside of Harry Castle. It was very convenient for him to ask a favor like this.
“Yes, master!”
Soon, a puppet came to him while holding a tray in his hands. It was serving him a cup of water spirit juice. Like a human that’s been trained for years to do this, it placed the cup of juice right on the stone table that was beside him. Once it completed its task, it disappeared under white light.
Abel couldn’t help but smile when he saw this. The juice-serving robot just left by teleportation. Only a tower spirit like his would expend so much energy for something like this. If this were the tower of any ordinary person, it wouldn’t be long before a power shortage happened because of such waste.
While Abel enjoyed his juice and the view around him, Flora’s voice suddenly came to him.
“Master Bernie wishes to see you, Master.”
Abel was about to frown at the request, but this was Bernie, his very good friend. After swallowing all of the juice, he stood up and left with an “instantaneous movement” spell that made him vanish from the elven garden.
“What is it, Bernie?”
As Abel appeared in the cafeteria, the first thing he saw was Bernie eating a meal on his own.
Abel called to his servants, “A lunch for me as well. I haven’t eaten yet.”
Butler Lindsay’s voice came over in response, “Yes, Young Master.”
Bernie went straight to business as he sipped on the grandmaster’s wine, “I have something to request of you, Abel.”
Abel smiled in reply, “We go way back, don’t we, Bernie? Don’t worry. I’ll help you with any that I can.”
Bernie started scratching his head in a somewhat guilty manner, “Our family managed to dig up two portions of the ingredients we need for the sky ships. We need your help to forge the alchemy material for the main circle.”
Abel responded immediately, “Yeah, sure thing. Just hand me the ingredients, and I’ll get it right away.”
This was when two servants and Lindsay came in with Abel’s lunch.
Abel ate a piece of beef as Lindsay left, “I thought you said seven was enough. Why are you still building?”
The sky ship was no ordinary toy. The cost of building them was pretty expensive, even by the standards of the dwarves.
Bernie said with a painful look, “Look, I’ll be straight you, Abel. They’ve been destroyed.”
“Wait, wait, what? All seven of them?”
How? More importantly, who were the culprits that would dare to cross the dwarves like this? Instead of giving Abel a straight answer, Bernie decided to reply by telling a story.
“No, five. According to a document left by our family, one of our seniors managed to find an ancient yacht that could travel underneath the water. If you’re interested, he did pretty extensive research into it.”
Exploring the ocean. Abel chose not to interrupt Bernie. He wanted to hear more because this was something that he has thought about for a while. Not a lot of people on the Holy Continent were interested in exploring the ocean. There were some fishermen, but no one really challenged the mysteries of the deep waters. In fact, the ocean was taboo for all of the races.
The reason was quite simple. The ocean could not be trespassed. If the Budapest Mountain Range and the Double Moon Forest were where the land spiritual beasts resided, then the entire ocean would be where the ocean spiritual beasts depended. Since the number of oceanic spiritual beasts far outweighed the ones on land, no humans treaded into their territories.
Bernie continued, “So the same person went away very far for a very long time. One day, when everyone thought that he was dead, we received a sea route and a message that he sent to our heart jade. After that, no one’s heard of anything from him again.”
Abel inquired, “And you used the sky ships to find his whereabouts?”
“Yes, and damn us for it,” Bernie said in a saddened tone, “We thought that our consecutive ballistas were enough, but as soon as we took flight, we were attacked by the flying fish beasts that were nearby.”
“They were everywhere, I tell you. If we didn’t decide to sacrifice five ships in time, all the fleet would’ve been destroyed there and then.”
Abel grew curious, “I understand your grief, friend, but can I ask why you must go there?”
Bernie replied, “I was going to keep it a secret, but now there’s no way of getting there…. There’s a sea island there. There, we can find a temple of the giants.”
Abel understood as soon as he heard about the giants. The dwarves had always thought that they were descendants of the giants. According to the legends, if they could find the cause for their current body sizes, it’d be possible for them to return to their former glory. This was why they were so desperate when they found traces of the giants.
Abel asked again, “So you want to explore there again?”
Bernie nodded quickly, “Yes. Now that we’ve learned from our mistakes, we have already prepared ourselves for a second expedition. If it also doesn’t work, then we’ll give up.”
Abel couldn’t help but frown, “If you can’t find what you’re after, do you think the expenses are worth it?”
Bernie gave a severe response, “Yes, by all means. We’ll be happy if we can find just the statue of the giants. We don’t care if there are any valuables inside the temple. Once we resume our worship, one day, friend, the spirits of the giants will wake up and come to our aid.”
Abel didn’t understand why the dwarves were so obsessed over giants. It was one thing to have a statue for a divine being, but it was another for the ones being depicted actually to exist. According to some mythologies that were mostly lost throughout time, most of the divine beings were already exiled or killed during ancient times. He really didn’t think that an expedition for an unclear story was really worth it.
Bernie hesitated, “I’m just saying, Abel, if you’re willing to help us, the Goff Family is willing to pay any price for your service. I really mean it. If you help us this time, The Goff Family will open its storage room and let you pick anything that you wanted.”
Abel had a lot of special things around him. Bernie knew that much. Now that there was a potentially tough challenge up ahead. While he wasn’t sure Abel had the ability to cross the dangerous water, he was willing to put his trust in him.
One thing was clear, though. It’d be impossible to reach that island with just the sky ships. All the surviving dwarves from the first expedition hinted at the same message. They spoke in fear when they gave their account. The most vivid information was that there were just simply too many flying fish beasts that blocked the way. The flying fish beast was only a beginner-level spiritual beast, but fighting hundreds of thousands of them was truly traumatizing.
