In the morning.
Within the training ground of the mansion.
Angele held a longsword tight in his right hand; he was training his sword skill combos. He looked more like a normal swordsman at the moment.
His sword skills were simple but effective.
Liv and a red-haired man were standing on the side watching Angele’s performance with smiles on their faces.
"Angele's sword skills don't look complicated but every movement of his seems to aim to dispatch his opponent. I'm not sure if he learned such a combo from a strong Grand Knight." The red-haired man nodded slightly.
"You are right, master Seth," Liv responded politely. "I'm not sure if master Angele has learned to wield a sword from a Grand Knight, but it is possible for him to win in a sword fight against me." She decided not to mention that she had already lost to him once.
"I actually helped him improve his skill combos," she added.
The man named Seth had a pair of blood-red eyes and handsome face. It seemed he was from one of the non-human races.
"Interesting."
He stepped forward and observed Angele’s skill combos carefully.
"I’m just here to check on Green. I need to return to the headquarters as soon as possible. It seems there is nothing for me to worry about."
Angele finished his training and walked down from the platform.
"Angele, I can bring back the items you need after finishing my meeting in the headquarter." Seth walked to Angele and smiled.
Angele shook his head and smiled.
"I never said I needed anything, but you just keep bringing them back…The storage rooms are almost filled up that I had to ask the workers to build a small warehouse outside."
"I’ll see if I can find you some local specialties. I heard the towns around the city produce a lot of interesting spices." Seth shook his head slightly and ignored Angele’s words. "And I have some good news for you. Master Shozo will be visiting master Vivian soon. There will be a dinner party. Make sure you check the messages from the communication runes daily. I’m sure Shozo will bring you some rare materials or something special."
"Master Shozo?" Angele narrowed his eyes and recognized the name immediately.
Shozo and Seth were two of the five students Vivian had. Shozo was Vivian’s first student and was the strongest of the five, as he was already a rank 4 wizard. However, he was not a member of Elemental Hand and he could only visit Vivian once every several months.
Angele had made two big mistakes in recent years. Thus, Vivian had decided to introduce him to her students so that they could help her son when necessary.
Vivian’s five students were close friends with each other. Two of them were members of Elemental Hand and the others were members of different families or organizations.
Seth had spent a lot of time with Angele recently as he liked the young man’s personality.
The other ones knew that Angele was Vivian’s son, so they did what they could to help him in daily life. Seth was the weakest student of the five; he just reached rank 2 not so long ago, while the others had already advanced to the successive ranks.
Vivian only recruited the most talented wizards with strong family backgrounds as her students since she was the third elder of Elemental Hand.
Getting familiar with Vivian’s students would make Angele’s life easier in the future. Developing a good relationship with the ones associated with strong families or organizations was important in wizard society.
Angele and Vivian’s students all knew this point. It was almost as if they had formed a small family, and the five students all treated Angele well.
Angele was introduced to the five students during a dinner party and they communicated with each other a lot using the communication runes.
The biggest problem to Angele was still the slow increase of his mentality level. His mentality increased like crazy when he first started using the advanced meditation technique but then it slowed down by a lot.
He spent most of his time practicing sword skills, doing experiments, checking on the potion, and meditation but his entire progression was slow.
Angele stopped thinking and grabbed the towel that was brought to him by the maid.
"I thought Shozo is very busy recently," he said as he wiped the sweat off from his body.
Seth shrugged. "You know that perseverance alone won’t bring you the result you want. You already know that Shozo wants to develop a romantic relationship with master Vivian, right? They’re similar in age and Shozo is getting stronger. He has tried to impress master Vivian in many ways, but her attitude toward him never changed. Shozo just won’t give up. I know wizards live much longer than mortals but…"
"Master Vivian is a strong woman. I don’t think she will ever fall in love with a wizard like Shozo…" Angele interrupted. He knew what Seth was trying to say.
Shozo’s love for his master was deep to the point of lunacy. He had already reached rank 4 and there was nothing Vivian could teach him anymore, but he did not give up. His love to Vivian was like an active volcano that could erupt at any time.
Angele knew that the man was a walking bomb that could detonate any time the first time they met at the dinner party. It almost felt like there was a fire burning in the man’s eyes when he looked at Vivian and it was overwhelming.
Shozo only cared about the people that were related to Vivian. In another word, Shozo was emotionally unstable all the time. He would talk to strangers normally, but he would kill the stranger right away if he got offended somehow.
Shozo had a muscular body and a handsome face, and his background was also strong. The man was the military captain of his organization, but none of the advantages attracted a strong wizard like Vivian.
Vivian was never a woman who would rely on the help of a man. She decided to ignore the fact that Shozo was trying to develop a relationship with her.
The relationship between Shozo and Vivian was not a secret in Elemental Hand.
"Alright, I need to leave now." Seth waved his right hand. "Make sure to prepare some of that black worm meat for me the next time I come here. The flavor and the texture of the meat were unforgettable."
"Well, I can get you a ton of that meat if it’s easy to preserve." Angele chuckled. The ‘black worm meat’ was the meat he had brought back from the Nightmare Realm. He discovered that the corpses of the black beetles were not liquefied and their meat was actually quite tasty.
Angele made sure that the meat would not make people sick after doing tests using the biochip. He entered the Nightmare Realm in the mansion area multiple times to hunt those black beetles for their meat. Seth had the meat at the dinner party held by Angele and he got addicted to that quickly.
"I’ve been to so many countries, but only you have such special meat. I wonder where you acquired it from." Seth closed his eyes and pursed his lips.
"Anyway, I have to go. There’s a meeting I need to attend at the headquarters."
He turned around and walked to the wall.
"I’ll message you later!" He waved his right hand again.
"Sure." Angele nodded. A blue glow surrounded Seth’s body and the energy particles lifted him up. He floated in the air and disappeared into the air within seconds.
Liv was checking an axe beside the weapon shelf. "I didn’t expect you to get along with master Seth."
"You lost the practice match to me. You should admit it. When will you start to respect me?" Angele turned around and shook his head.
"Your spells are way too weak. I’m a member of the Watchers and the only thing we care is power. You’re the son of the third elder, but that won’t make any difference," Liv responded nonchalantly.
Angele became a bit speechless, but he knew that he was the weakest one of the wizards around Vivian.
"Whatever, I need to meditate now." He understood that power was the only thing that mattered in this world, but he still hated the way Liv talked to him. Angele spent three years to remove most of the impurities from his mentality using the Mask of the Black Wing. Although his mentality was increasing at a slow rate, it was still faster than an average wizard's.
"How’s your Molten Core River going?" Liv suddenly asked.
Molten Core River was an advanced meditation technique practiced by the Watchers. It had been gifted to him by Vivian.
Wizards usually could not practice multiple advanced meditation techniques at the same time as each meditation techniques had many different properties. A wizard would reach the high rank when he successfully finished all the stages of an advanced meditation technique. Angele had high affinity with the Fire energy particles and Molten Core River would help him greatly if he could practice two advanced meditation techniques together.
Most of the wizards in the central continent focused on progressing with a full copy of advanced technique and that was what separated them from the wizards of the west coast. The resources required for different meditation techniques were different so the major organizations usually modified their secret techniques based on what they could get from the resource points in their territories.
The wizards practicing the same advanced meditation techniques would trade the necessary resources with each other and that reduced the pressure on the supply departments in their organizations.
Some strong organizations were built around the advanced meditation techniques they had, including Elemental Hand. Elemental Hand had five main advanced meditation techniques and Molten Core River was one of them. Each of the elders practiced one of the five techniques and they had finished at least two or three stages already.
Although Angele had a full copy of the Molten Core River, he could not find the balance between the two advanced meditation techniques. He still needed to remove the impurities from his mentality. The Mask of the Black Wing would help him more at the moment.
Liv thought the Molten Core River was the only advanced meditation technique he had. That was why she asked this question.
"I haven’t understood the basics of the technique yet. Maybe I’m just not talented enough." There was no point for Angele to tell Liv the truth.