Angele did not care what the two were doing. He turned around and stared at a target in front of him.
'Zero, start recording my spell power. Use degrees as the measurement.'
'Recording.'
Angele raised his hand slowly. Some black mist rose from the tip of his finger.
He snapped his fingers loudly, and the wind energy particles blew the black mist toward the target.
*CHI*
After several seconds, the yellow wooden target turned gray but no visible damage could be observed.
Angele furrowed his eyebrows.
'Reporting results, as well as the power data.'
'Necromancy energy particles need 5 degrees of energy to be effective. Enemies with a Stamina lower than 1.5 will take fatal damage, enemies with a Stamina over 1.5 will take mild damage, and enemies with a Stamina higher than 3 will take almost no damage,' Zero reported.
Angele finally understood how much damage he could do with pure energy particles. Casting spells would do much more damage than hitting enemies with energy particles. Also, the cost was way too high for what the energy particles could do.
'It means, 5 degrees of energy will only damage normal human beings. When enemies have knight-level attributes, those energy particles won't do anything. I should've tested it earlier when I had the chance. Casting spells will conserve my energy and do much damage to my opponents.' Angele thought with furrowed brows.
'How much energy do I need to destroy the wooden target?'
'19 degrees,' Zero replied.
Angele narrowed his eyes. He drew his black dagger and walked toward the target.
*CHI*
Angele was surprised that his slash did not break the target.
He stood still and applied more force to the slash.
*CRACK*
The wooden target was split in half. The upper part dropped to the ground.
'I had to slash it with more strength… It means my physical attack equals about what 19 degrees of energy can do,' Angele thought.
He tested other types of energy particles after. With Zero's storage function, Angele had a total of 30 degrees of energy in his body, but different types of energy particles had different densities.
Wind energy particles had low density. Angele destroyed a wooden target with 19 degrees of energy. The wind he summoned was almost like a small tornado.
Angele left the lab after he used up all the energy.
The next day, he went to the lab again. He tested Fire energy particles this time, summoning a small fireball with 19 degrees of energy. The wooden target was easily destroyed.
Angele assumed, 'Degrees is the universal unit for calculating basic energy consumption. Different energy particles do similar damage when the consumed energy is same. Generally speaking, all the negative energy particles do pretty much the same damage, the only thing that matters is the energy consumption. That's how the unit is created. In addition to that, the density of energy particles does not really matter. Zero probably noticed it, but I didn't.'
Angele left after he had no energy left and returned to the lab again the next day.
He stood in front of the target he just destroyed, and thought, 'If I can set degrees as the unit for my spell power output, I can probably start measuring my actual combat power and it'll be much easier for me to record the data.
'Water of Asu is essential to me, but there's no way I can get it right now. I should keep doing experiments right now.'
After several days of testing, Angele learned the limit of his physical attack power, which was 20.1 degrees. It was a bit weaker than his pure energy particle power, which was around 22 degrees, but that was the best he could do.
With the new unit, Angele now had a way to measure how strong his enemies were. Although fights were not only focused on power, he would have a general idea about how he should fight the opponent.
The other two wizard apprentices he had met before came to the lab every day as well.
The middle-aged woman was Kelly Navister. A rank 3 wizard apprentice who specialized in Enchantment. The other young man was a rank wizard 2 apprentice. He was initially afraid of joining their conversation, but when Angele approached him and asked what he was practicing, he finally started talking. The man was named Michele, Kelly's nephew. His father was a rich merchant. He was the hope of the family.
*BAM*
Angele hit the wooden target with a ray of green flame.
The target was covered in green flame and started burning immediately. It turned into a pile of ash within seconds.
'Heart of the Glowing Elephant. Flame Strike. Damage type: Energy. Spell power: 12 degrees. Mentality consumed: 1. Mana consumed: 0.'
Angele was satisfied. He nodded and put the heart back into his pouch. He could only cast Flame Strike twice a day, but it could be cast instantly and its damage was acceptable.
12 degrees of power could penetrate normal armor pieces and could injure a knight greatly. Grand Knights had their own energy barriers. It was likely that it would not do too much damage to them.
Angele still had the one-time bomb made from the other heart. He thought the power of that bomb would be much higher than the heart.
*CLAP CLAP*
Angele heard someone clapping hands.
Kelly smiled and walked toward him. The woman had an average-looking face, and her brown hair was draped over her shoulders. Her lips were thin and she had sharp eyes.
"Angele, how are your experiments going?" she asked. The woman was smiling, but Angele could not sense the kindness from her smile.
"Almost done." Angele nodded. He was not trying to hide anything from others. The glowing heart was just an average enchanted item, and the only thing important to him right now was the new spell models he was testing.
"Kelly, is there anything you would like to discuss with me?" Angele turned around and smiled.
The reason why Michele was afraid to talk to them was due to their ranks. Rank 3 wizard apprentices were far more significant to the school than rank 2 wizard apprentices. It was hard for the wizard apprentices to go from rank 2 to rank 3, so that made rank 3 apprentices rare.
Although all the wizard apprentices had the chance to visit the wizard masters, masters would not spend too much time on them as they had more important matters to take care of. Rank 3 wizard apprentices created their own group. They would not spend too much time with wizard apprentices of lower ranks.
"Not many apprentices were summoned back this time. I heard several formal wizards were killed during the war," Kelly whispered.
Michelle just stood there and listened. He was smiling politely, but Kelly was not interested in him at all as he was just a rank 2 wizard apprentice. Michele was already 20 years old, and it was very unlikely that he would become a wizard. Although Michele was her nephew, he was not valuable to her. It was an unspoken rule that rank 2 wizard apprentices should only talk to rank 3 apprentices when asked.
"Really?" Angele wiped the dust off his gray robe. After all the tests, his robe was covered in dust.
"No one is applying to the missions listed on the board right now. Many masters lost their disciples in the war as well." Kelly wanted Angele to guess what she was trying to imply.
"So what?" Angele was not concerned.
"It means, the school needs us. There are many unsolved events around the area. People will think Ramsoda is weakened, so they will try to take advantage of that. It's not our problem anyway, I'm just letting you know. Angele, you asked if I had any special potion formula in my family, right?" Kelly smiled.
"I thought you said you didn't?" Angele asked her about the formula collection the last time they chatted, but Kelly said she didn't have any formula in hand.
"We don't, but I found someone who did." Kelly wanted to get close to Angele. Angele reached rank 3 at 18 years old, which was an incredible feat. There were not many talented wizard apprentices left in the school at the moment, and Angele would become a disciple of one of the masters soon. It was the best time for her to do Angele a favor, and she was hoping that Angele would do something for her in return in the future.
"Who? And what formula?" Angele's expression changed. He asked in a serious tone.
"The authentic formula of Griffin's Nightmare. Their family specializes in collecting rare materials. It's not a big family, but they declined my offer." Kelly laughed.
"Why?" Angele's eyes narrowed, "Thanks for the information, Kelly. Can you tell me more about the family, if you don't mind?"
"Sure." Kelly's expression turned serious, "They sell all types of materials. The family got stronger because one of them became a wizard apprentice using a special method. The wizard apprentice was from our school. He learned from a wanderer who was a wizard. The wizard was a potion specialist who was being pursued by his enemies due to Griffin's Nightmare. He acquired the formula from an incident, but he burned it in front of the people chasing him because he did not want to get involved anymore. However, the old wizard tricked everyone. He actually made a copy of the formula and gave it to his student. After the wizard apprentice died, the formula was passed down for generations as a family heirloom. Someone in my family discovered their secret not so long ago."
Griffin's Nightmare, Angele read about it on a book not so long ago, "Griffin's Nightmare… I heard it could make Water of Asu more effective. It's a lost formula. I didn't think it was still in someone's hand. Since they declined your offer, I guess you want me to help you to take it from them? Tell me, what do you need me to do?"
The formula was too valuable for Angele to pass. He was hungry for power, and he would not mind getting his hands dirty. However, Angele had his bottom line. He would not do something that was too cruel.
Kelly's expression did not change after Angele questioned her. She already knew that Angele would help.
"The potion will help you break the limit easier, and it's extremely rare, so we are the only people that know about the situation. I already took care of the family members who sent me the message…" Kelly stopped for a second. She was trying to tell Angele that it should stay as a secret between them, "We almost wiped them off the land. However, a rank 2 wizard apprentice suddenly appeared and interrupted my plan. His spells were very strange. My nephew was hurt during the fight." Kelly looked at Michele, who was still listening to their conversation by the side.
Michele rolled his right sleeve up after hearing Kelly's words. Angele saw a long silver scar climbing up his arm, which looked horrifying.
Angele was a bit surprised. He had never seen a silver scar.
"Did you ask other rank 3 wizard apprentices to hep?" Angele asked.
"I did… We only told them about the name of the potion. Most of them had no idea what it was. They were not into Potion Study, but since you asked me about the formulas, I decided to discuss the matter with you," Kelly smiled, and answered.
Angele doubted if they were the only ones who knew about the situation.
Griffin's Nightmare was also relatively known as the Nightmare Potion. Although it was rare, rank 3 wizard apprentices did not really care about it. The materials required to concoct the potion were all very rare, and the success rate was low. Even if they could acquire the formula, they would not be able to afford the cost.
Kelly probably did some research after Angele asked her about the formulas, so she knew that Angele needed something like this badly.