He opened his mouth and sent the words using energy particles.
Hikari listened to the message quietly, looking surprised. They finished communicating within minutes.
"Let’s start then?" Angele looked at Hikari.
"Sure."
Angele walked out of the room and returned with a black dagger in hand. A dark red glow surrounded the tip of the blade. He crouched down and started drawing a magic circle on the floor.
The other wizards moved aside and made space for him.
It took about ten minutes for Angele to finish the circle.
It looked like two hexagrams that crossed each other and were surrounded by complicated runes.
Angele stood up and nodded at Hikari.
They started invoking the incantation in a low voice together.
The light from the runes faded gradually and several seconds later, the whole magic circle disappeared from the floor.
Angele’s expression changed as he spoke.
"The magic circle is doing its work, I think. I memorized the magic circle that I saw. If nothing happens, it means the place is safe. However, if a human-shaped shadow appeared in the center of the circle, it means that there are ghosts here. The size of the shadow indicates the strength of the ghosts. Weak ones have the size of a nail and strong ones are about the size of a finger. Strong specters can easily kill an average rank 1 wizard with their curse."
Hikari nodded slightly after hearing Angele’s words. Reyline, Morrisa, and Stigma stood by the door. Their expressions turned serious as they waited for the result.
Several minutes later.
*CHI*
A small light dot flashed in the center of the magic circle and exploded.
The whole room was illuminated by the eye-blinding light.
A tiny shadow slowly appeared in the rune surrounded by a white glow and it was stretching its back. The shadow was about the size of a bee. The white glow around it started turning red as its body solidified.
Angele’s expression changed.
"Run!" he suddenly shouted. "Run! Right now! Don’t stay in this building!"
The five wizards rushed out of the bedroom.
Angele had no time to explain. His face turned pale as he led the team to the main entrance.
"What happened green? What does that red shadow mean?" Stigma asked as he ran.
"Leave the place first. Find your travel cases. We need to go right now!" Angele replied in a nervous tone. He ran out of the building without looking back.
Reyline followed after Angele without saying a word.
Hikari hesitated for a second, then she grabbed Morrisa’s hand and rushed out of the building. Stigma found his travel case quickly and left as well.
The five wizards headed to the entrance of the town after moving away from the building.
Angele was checking the surroundings constantly.
The tension was building up and the wizards were getting nervous, as they tried to figure out what had just occurred.
The white mist was still floating in the town and Angele’s sight was blurry.
They walked down the street quickly and returned to the arched stone gate.
Angele sighed in relief as they stepped out of the gate. He turned around and looked at the street of White Mist Town.
The chilling wind blew the dried yellow leaves into the air from the ground. The town was deadly silent, and he could not detect any movement.
"So what was that red human-shaped shadow?" Hikari asked.
"I don’t know, to be honest, but something is wrong with this place." Angele shook his head. He raised his right hand and saw a strange black box on his palm.
Angele was surprised.
"Whose box is this? Did I take your item by accident?"
"Not mine." Hikari shook her head. "Morrisa, come take a look. Is this yours?"
"No." Morrisa shook her head right away. Her face was still pale after the terrifying experience in the building.
Angele showed the box to Reyline and Stigma, but it seemed like none of them was the owner.
"Impossible…I didn’t grab anything when I ran out of the bedroom…" Angele tried to recall what he did before leaving the building.
Suddenly, an image of a woman with a long white hair flashed in his head. The woman was staring at him in front of the building’s main entrance. The woman’s hair covered half of her face and the muscles on her face were twitching.
"What the…" Angele held his forehead tight with his left hand. An unpleasant feeling was making him dizzy.
He shook his head and did a quick check on the black box.
Golden veins were engraved on the lid of the box.
"We need to leave now. Hey, Green, what happened? Are you alright?" Hikari noticed that Angele was suffering from pain.
"Nothing…My head is aching…" Angele responded in a low voice.
"Are you cursed by the ghost? How strong is this thing…?" Reyline asked with his brows knitted.
"Ghosts are much stronger than you think." Hikari nodded. "The one I met in a ruin on the Dark Red Highland can…"
Angele’s head was still aching, and his ears were ringing. Hikari, Reyline, Morrisa, and Stigma were having a conversation, but he could barely hear anything. It took about ten minutes for those symptoms to go away.
The voices of the wizards became clear again.
"Is there another town ahead? Stigma?" Reyline looked at Stigma after listening to Hikari’s story.
"It will take us at least half a month to reach the next town."
"You’re overreacting I think. It’s just a ghost…We have five wizards here." Reyline did not understand why Angele acted as if he could barely move.
Reyline had read about wandering souls from many wizardry books and learned that ghosts could be eliminated easily with pure energy strikes. He did not believe that wizards could be killed just by their curses.
"Why don’t we just eliminate the ghost and have some rest in the town? We need some good rest. The trip is tiring. What do you say?" Reyline asked in a calm tone.
He then turned to Angele and said, "Sorry, Green. I trust you as a team leader, but we have already reached the central continent. Since Stigma is familiar with the area, I think we should let him lead the way."
"It’s rare to hear you talk so much." Angele finally recovered from the dizziness. He slowly lowered his right hand. "And sure, make Stigma the captain if it’s best for the team. I’m fine with that."
Angele was the leader on the airship since he won the competition and became the owner of the amulet. They had already abandoned the airship, so he thought that it was fine if the others did not want to listen to him. However, the way Reyline made the suggestion was a bit strange. Angele did not understand why he wanted to stay in the town.
"Stigma, you make the decision. Should we stay here or look for the next town?" Reyline turned to Stigma.
Stigma hesitated. He wanted to make the best decision for the team but Reyline was losing his patience.
Reyline had already reached the Crystal stage and was confident that he could win a fight against Angele. His mentality was strong enough to fully activate the secret technique of his family. He wanted to be the one to lead the team, but Stigma came from Omandis and the man knew a lot about the area.
Angele wanted to leave the town as he knew how strong the ghosts could be but Reyline thought that eliminating the threat would only take minutes. Reyline was the Perfect Wizard and he did not want to put shame on his title.
Stigma thought for a minute and finally gave the answer, "Reyline is a Crystal stage wizard. I think he’s capable of fighting the specter. There are five of us and we only have one enemy. I think we should go back to the town."
Reyline was the only wizard that had reached the Crystal stage in the team, but Angele doubted if he had already mastered any level 2 spells. It seemed like Stigma did not want to argue with Reyline since they still needed to travel a long way together.
Angele had a blank expression on the face, still thinking about the black box.
The box appeared from nowhere and there were too many questions with no answers.
‘What is this box? Where did it come from? Why me?’
The biochip had no record on when this box appeared.
Zero was not helpful when it was about ghosts. When there was not enough information about the unfamiliar object. The chip would not consider it as a threat and that was the reason why Zero did not warn Angele about the box in advance.
Angele pursed his lips when he listened to Stigma’s words. "Let’s separate into two teams then. I’ll just stay here. There’s no way that I’m going back to that building."
"Green, are you serious?" Reyline asked in a serious tone.
"Yeah, I am." Angele nodded. The unusual red shadow indicated that the ghost was different from the ones he had encountered before. The town was probably its territory.
"I’ll stay with Green," Morrisa interrupted.
Hikari nodded and looked at Reyline. "I’ll enter the town with you. You’re a Crystal stage wizard now. I think you can deal with that ghost. Your pure energy strike should be strong enough for that."
"Alright then. I’ll wait for you with Morrisa." Angele nodded.
"Green, I thought you were a brave man." Reyline shook his head. "Whatever, let’s not waste time."
He turned around and entered the town with Hikari and Stigma right away.