Angele followed after Ainphent and they heard people arguing before knocking on the door.
*BAM*
The wooden door on the opposite side of the house was smashed open, and a middle-aged woman was kicked out. She struggled in pain, her face turning pale.
Two strong man wearing brown leather suits walked out of the house and a tall man wearing a white bone helmet was behind them.
The helmet was made from the skull of a wolf, and the man’s face was right between the sharp teeth. It looked like a wolf that was trying to swallow his head. The man’s appearance and clothing reminded Angele of the barbarians he had read about in the books.
The man was about thirty years old with a serious look on his face, his arms toned.
"You know I’m Jerries, right? How dare you sell this fake crap to me? And you became a formal wizard not so long ago? What the f*ck is wrong with this Six Ring High Tower’s vendor?"
Angele could see the anger in the woman’s eyes, but she was severely injured, and the only thing she could do was lie on the ground.
The wizards on the street noticed the fight and gathered by the house. Some of them were trying to help, but they were stopped by their friends. Obviously, they knew who was behind these three strong men.
"Hey, it’s none of our business. They’re from the White Tooth Castle and they bring trouble everywhere. Don’t worry, Kuirman and his group will take care of them."
Ainphent looked at Angele and his word echoed in Angele’s ears.
Ainphent knocked on the door and the brown wooden door unlocked by itself. Angele had one final glance at the three men, then followed his new acquaintance into the house.
The first thing Angele saw was a large wooden table under a window that was covered by random items.
Potion containers, crystal lamp covers, incomplete books, strange-looking black wooden pieces, and tiny statues with complicated patterns engraved on them. None of these items seemed valuable to him.
A short woman stood up from a chair behind the table, her hair a mess. She forced out a smile on her face.
"Oh, hey, Ain. I didn’t expect you to come. Long time no see."
She walked to Ainphent and hugged him.
"My dear, Melissa. Well, we just met two days ago."
Ainphent smiled, hugged the old woman, and patted her back.
"Why are you here? I still need some time."
The old woman smiled.
Ainphent pointed at Angele.
"This is my friend, Green. He’s looking for the formula and materials of the Tree Killer Potion. I thought you might have some information about it."
Angele bowed to the old woman immediately. He could sense the strong mentality the woman had. It was like standing in front of a sea of energy. He was certain that this old wizard in front of him was much stronger than master Liliana. It was the first time he had met someone that had reached Crystal stage. Also, Angele thought, she would probably have reach rank 2 sooner or later based on the ancient ranking system.
"Interesting, you’re young but I can smell blood on your hands."
The old woman took out a pair of glasses from a pocket and put them on slowly.
"Anyways, if you’re Ainphent’s friend, I’ll help you. I owe her one." She stopped for a second and said. "Follow me, I need to find the notebook."
Angele nodded.
"Thank you for your help."
"You should thank Ain."
Melissa turned around and walked down the stairs. There was a door at the end of the staircase.
She opened it and Angele followed her into the basement.
Random materials were piled up in the corners, Angele even saw several dolls and toys.
After about half an hour later, Melissa finally found the notebook she was looking for.
"I recorded everything related to the ancient wizards here."
She opened the notebook and started searching for the information.
Another half an hour passed.
"Sorry, this potion you need was hard to craft even for the ancient wizards."
Melissa put down the notebook.
"So, you don’t have it here?"
Ain was a bit surprised.
"I do have the formula, but I don’t have the materials."
Melissa shrugged and dropped the notebook on the floor.
*Clap-clap*
Melissa clapped twice.
A small black box flew out of the item pile quickly and landed on her palm.
"Take this."
She threw the box to Angele.
He caught it and held it in his hand.
It was a metal cube, probably made a long time ago. Under its black paint, Angele could see a hint of silver.
He opened the lid and saw a piece of folded leather paper lying on a silver cloth. Opening it, he saw countless random runes mixed with strings. It seemed like the formula was encrypted.
Angele used more than ten different methods to crack the encryption and finally understood the title.
‘The secret of Tree Killer Potion – Dark Elf Shiva.’
"That’s it." Angele nodded and returned the paper to the box. "How much is it?"
Melissa waved her hand. "Ask Ain, I don’t want anything."
Ainphent smiled after hearing her words.
"Actually, it’s not the first time I bring someone to you, but I think Green fits all the requirements, right?"
"He does fit all the requirements, but are you sure you want to take a Liquid stage wizard there?"
Melissa scrunched her eyebrows.
"Yeah, I believe he can do it. You know I’m good at finding talented people," Ainphent responded.
Angele already knew Ainphent would not help him for no reason, but he understood that there was no free lunch in the wizard world. He would be more cautious if Ainphent didn't want anything from him.
"Just tell me what you want me to do," Angele said, interrupting their conversation.
Ainphent nodded.
"We’re creating a team to explore a ruin. We need wizards that can fight and know strong damage spells. I go to the entrance every day, trying to find someone to come with us, but only a few of them meet the requirements."
"A ruin?"
Angele had heard about ruins several times already, but he had never planned to go to one. Ainphent’s word caught his attention and he was interested.
"What kind of ruins?"
"An abandoned area of an ancient wizard organization. We've already entered it three times, but we never reached the core. However, I found a wizard that's a master of seals and I need a wizard that knows how to fight. Sorry, I didn’t tell you about it earlier, but there were too many people around, and this is a secret mission," Ainphent explained and apologized.
"It’s fine. So, what can I get from this secret mission you said?" Angele asked in a calm tone.
"This formula, plus the materials for the potion. Actually, most of the materials are common, but the Oil of Black Rose and the Heart of the Tree are extremely rare. I have a small bottle of Oil of Black Rose here, I obtained it from a dryad wizard about 300 hundred years ago, and I’ll give it to you after the mission is finished." Ainphent stared at Angele. "For the Heart of the Tree, we might have to try and find it in the ruins. There’s no way you can find it on the market now, you have to visit a ruin like this."
"Is that so?" Angele hesitated. "How many people are in your team now? And how strong are they?"
"I already found three wizards, but I’m not sure if all of them will come. Some wizards just won’t keep their promises. Melissa will come too and she’ll lead the team. Two wizards are at the Gas stage, including you. The rest are at Liquid or Crystal stage," Ainphent said, trying to earn Angele’s trust.
Melissa joined the conversation as well. "The ruin was discovered not so long ago, we need to finish exploring it as soon as possible. If other wizards find out about it, we won’t be able to collect the rarest materials."
"So, when will we go to this ruins?" Angele nodded. "I still have something to take care of here."
"Sure, you have two months." Melissa nodded. "The ruins are in a hidden area, and other wizards have not found it yet. If you decide to accept the mission, please keep the information to yourself. Do you know the Ball of Secret?"
"Of course."
Angele raised his hand.
Melissa clapped her hands again, and a translucent ball flew out of the pile of items, landing on her right palm.
The ball was about the size of a human’s head, and there were three floating black dots inside.
With a flick of Angele’s finger, a black energy particle sank into the ball and joined one of the three black dots.
"Great."
Melissa and Ainphent smiled.
"Now if you excuse me."
Angele bowed again and turned around.
"We’ll wait here for five days after two months are up. I hope you’ll be here on time," Ainphent said in a light tone.
"Sure."
Angele walked up the stairs, opened the door, and left.
Ainphent started discussing with Melissa after they made sure Angele left.
"I’m sure he can help us. He must be a black robe."
Melissa pursed her lips into a smile.
"Yeah, I’m sure he has plenty of blood on his hands. Black robes like him can fight much better than us white robes. Although he’s only at the Gas stage, he should know some powerful damage spells. We need to find out what’s hidden in the ruins. We've already wasted too much time."
"Ethio is doing work as well. They’re already planning to snatch the crystal, so we need to finish this quickly." Ainphent looked at Melissa. "I hope we’ll succeed this time."
"Hope so."
Melissa sighed.