"Why is that place so strange?" Angele was currently relaxed. He asked out of curiosity.
"The garden is a playground of Banshees and Infant Spirits, and most of the rare plants there were soaked in negative energy particles. It's a place full of traps and dangerous creatures," Liliana explained.
"Good thing is, you are familiar with Necromancy and negative energy particles. Those creatures did not affect you too much. Otherwise, you would already be dead. Come here and sit down."
Liliana pointed at Angele, and a black chair appeared behind him suddenly. Angele looked at the chair for a second before he sat down.
"Ghosts and the other creatures inside the manor don't care who you are. They are just a bunch of strange monsters that want to drain the life energy from you. I'll help you with the sequela. However, don't ever go there again. There are reasons why we formal Wizards don't adventure in that place," Liliana warned.
"I won't go there again, Master." Angele nodded.
"Good, I'll cure you first," Liliana muttered.
With an oil lamp in hand, she turned around and opened the drawer on a small cabinet.
Liliana took a small, white accessory box out of it. She walked toward Angele slowly and sat down.
She pointed in the air again, and a black table appeared between the two. Liliana put down the accessory box and pushed it to Angele.
"This is the best I have. If you want to stay alive, you must wear it for three years. Don't just take it with you, you have to put it on the back of your hand. Its roots will go into your veins." Liliana had a serious look on her face.
"Three years?" Angele finally understood what he was dealing with. Even Master Liliana could not cleanse the curse in one attempt. Allen was not exaggerating at all; the garden was extremely dangerous.
"This is the first step. I'll take care of the rest later. Your soul attracted a lot of disguising spirits…" Liliana stopped for a second, "As payment, give me half of what you got there. I'm asking too much."
"For sure." Angele nodded immediately.
Wizards often adhered to the tradition of bartering. Angele himself knew that Liliana would not help him for free.
"Put it on your hand then." Liliana pointed at the white accessory box.
Angele grabbed the box and opened it carefully. His expression changed after seeing what was inside. There was a diamond-shaped silver accessory laid on a piece of white silk, with complex patterns engraved to its surface.
"Where do you want to put it on?" Liliana smiled.
Angele stared at the palm-sized accessory, "On the back of my right hand, I guess."
Liliana nodded. She did not do anything, but the silver accessory floated in the air and quickly stuck onto the back of Angele's right hand.
Angele did not feel any pain. The accessory had already mounted on the back of his hand before he could realize. It became a part of his hand, and the whole process was a bit strange to him.
"Next, let's treat your sequela. Those monsters found you charming, and did not do too much damage to your body."
"What? They liked me?" Angele was speechless, he almost went crazy after being haunted by that girl.
"They did not intentionally cast any spell on you. You're just affected by their natural evil force field. Those monsters have a different magic system from us, so it's hard to explain." Liliana stood up and asked Angele to follow her action.
She waved her hand in the air and all the objects around disappeared. The whole place became dark again. The only source of light was the oil lamp in her hand, but it barely made their faces visible.
"Eye of Darkness." Liliana raised her left hand with her palm facing up.
Suddenly her palm split in half, and a crimson, empty hole appeared from the gap.
Angele heard the sound of the wings of insects vibrating, and a small mosquito flew out of the empty hole on Liliana's palm.
It was a gray mosquito the size of a bean with translucent wings. The mosquito left the hole quickly, shook its wings and flew into the air.
After that, a pile of gray smoke rushed out of the bloody hole. It looked like a pole, but Angele knew it was formed by countless gray mosquitos. There were so many of them that they looked like a pile of smoke.
The noise they made filled up the room. Angele stood at the opposite side of Liliana, and those gray mosquitos climbed upon his body quickly. He was not feeling well, but he knew they were probably doing something about the curse and he decided to stand still.
The tiny mosquitos were all over Angele's body. Around his clothes, skin, neck, and hair, all those tiny insects were climbing. Goosebumps rose upon his skin. He was trying his best not to move. After several minutes, the gray smoke stopped coming out of the hole, and the gap slowly closed.
Some of the mosquitos were hovering above Liliana's head. They formed several gray lines and made the bridge that connected Angele and Liliana.
Those lines lasted several seconds and the mosquitos started to form a gray ball between them. The mosquitos that were moving around Angele's body left him and joined the ball that had the size of a human head.
*CHI*
The ball floated in the air and it was cracked open by a red eyeball. Angele could see the veins on the white surface of the eyeball and the red pupil was staring at Angele. The eyeball turned around like a surveillance camera from time to time.
"Suharick, roselice?" the eyeball asked in a strange tone.
Liliana's lips moved, but Angele could not hear her words. It seemed like she was talking to the eyeball.
The eyeball turned to left and right, almost like shaking its head. Liliana scrunched up her eyebrows and said something again. They were trying to reach an agreement.
The eyeball hesitated for a second before it nodded.
Suddenly, a seemingly endless hollow space appeared in the middle of the eyeball. A strong white arm that had red pimples all over its surface reached out to Angele from the hole.
As the white arm hit his head, Angele tried to dodge but Liliana stopped him.
He could feel the chill on his skin. It was almost as something was moving around inside his body. It was an unpleasant experience.
'That arm felt like a mudfish. Wet, sticky, and it stinks,' he thought.
The arm moved around Angele's head. It was looking for something but failed, so it reached out toward Angele's back.
"AH!" A high-pitched female scream came from Angele's behind.
It was the voice of that girl in red. Angele had recognized it immediately. He thought the girl had already been eaten by Moroco. Angele turned his head around and saw a translucent girl's shadow being pulled out of his body by that white hand. The hand grabbed the girl by the neck and dragged her into the abyss right away.
The hollow space closed slowly and the gray mosquitos covered the eyeball immediately. They slowly separated from each other and turned into gray smoke poles.
Liliana raised her hand, and the crimson hole appeared on her palm again. All the mosquitos flew back into the hole at full speed, and the room became silent again within seconds.
She lowered her hand slowly, "It's done." She smiled.
Angele was relieved. He now felt much better after the 'treatment'. He grabbed his case and opened it up.
Ten minutes later…
Angele walked out of the room with a half-empty case. He had a gloomy expression. Liliana took away half of the rare materials he obtained. Although he knew he needed to pay Liliana, he still felt a bit downcast.
"Finally." It had been the most dangerous adventure that Angele ever had. It was dreadful, as he hadn't had a good sleep in a long time. He was afraid he would be killed by that girl in his dreams. Zero could not detect her presence at all, so he had to stay alert.
"Now, I need to go to the Potion Store and I need to get my hands on the Water of Asu. Also, I need a good defensive spell model!" Angele mumbled, "I'm still too weak. I want to be able to handle things by myself!"
Angele almost died during his first solo high difficulty adventure, and he learned how dangerous those Ancient Wizard resource points were. He was not prepared like the others, and he still lacked the ways of obtaining helpful information.
"Wizard. I need to break the limit and become a formal wizard!" Angele rubbed the silver accessory on the back of his right hand slowly. He was unhappy that there was nothing he could do at the manor and at the town. Messi's granddaughter was swallowed by the shadows, and he lost Tom as well. If Angele was strong enough, he could've at least saved two lives.
Most importantly, he wanted to be able to protect himself. Angele was mad at himself. He knew he was still way too weak. The excitement of using spells was already gone, and he realized how much a difference was between wizard apprentices and formal wizards.