Angele knew that the siblings were born in the basement, they had no chance to explore the world by themselves before he found them.
The day Frey and Freia left the basement was the first time they saw the actual situation of their world. They spent most of their time in the mansion after that and Frey was allowed to eliminate the weaker monsters around the area for practice.
However, Freia was not strong enough to leave the mansion on her own, so the only thing she could see was the forest and the river. Phoenix and Angele were the only two that would play with her from time to time.
Although Angele knew that one day he had to leave them, he still felt a bit depressed.
He lowered his head and exhaled once.
‘I’m still wondering, where did the strange creatures I encountered and the strange things that happened come from if this world was a peaceful place several decades ago…? Like… that turtle…’
He was checking a yellow leather scroll, it was a map of the area around the mansion. There was a large city beside the forest and the rivers.
‘Todd told me that most of the mutated creatures were not intelligent. They were just following their strange instincts. If that’s true, the ruin under the volcano will…’ he rubbed his chin and started thinking.
He recalled the day he met the wall of confusion in the ruin and the scorpion women. The scorpion women were the guardians of the illusion pool, but for some reason, they could not get close to the pool. Their behavior was restricted by the illusion pool, but it seemed like the pool was the source of their power.
The guardians feared the woman in a white one piece dress that was playing on the swing and it seemed like they were not allowed to leave the garden.
‘Those guardians might be the residents that lived in the Nightmare Realm before it collapsed…’
A weird expression appeared on Angele’s face. There were too many strange things in this realm and he wanted to know why.
‘This realm is like a hell that’s full of nightmares, but it’s also somehow related to the main world,’ Angele assumed.
‘What a mess…’
Angele marked several locations on the map carefully.
He flattened the surface of the scroll with the small silver scorpion, rolled it up, and tied it with a metal string.
It was part of the gift to Frey. A map would aid him greatly in his adventure.
The gift contained some magic stones, healing potions, a lot of food, and this map. That was all Angele could do for the brave boy.
****************************
Outside the mansion, Frey was holding a large bag in his right hand. There was a high-quality sword on his back.
"Alright, I’ll be leaving now. Don’t miss me too much, I’ll be back before you know it." Frey smiled and waved his left hand.
"Bring me gifts and take care!" Freia shouted.
"Sure!" Frey turned around and started walking to the Dark Cloud City. He did not tell Freia anything about his plan, he did not want his sister to worry too much about the trip.
Freia thought it was a common mission given by Angele and Frey would come back after the mission was completed.
It was noon and the sunlight was strong. Angele and Freia watched Frey disappear into the forest by the gate. Freia turned around and walked to Angele after Frey was no longer in her sight.
"Alright, go play with Phoenix." Angele patted Freia’s head.
"No… the only things Phoenix does are singing the weird song and dancing in circles… it’s boring." Freia pouted. "What are you going to do, Green? I want to stay with you."
Angele knew that the Phoenix was just acting on its own instinct as it had no intelligence. Freia had some fun with the bird
at the beginning but she got bored after all those years.
The girl did not want to be alone in such a large mansion so she asked if she could stay with Angele.
Freia and Frey treated Angele like their own father after what he did for them.
"I still need to do some calculations. You can stay with me in the reading room if you want to." Angele rubbed Freia’s cheeks and headed to the main building.
They returned to the reading room together.
Freia decided to add some firewood to the fireplace after closing the door.
Angele walked to the table and sat down. He grabbed the quill and started doing the calculations again.
"Green, it snowed last night… I think there’ll be a thunderstorm today," Freia said as she threw the firewood into the fireplace.
"That’s possible, but don’t worry. I just replaced the crystal cards with new ones," Angel responded.
The weather in the Nightmare Realm was strange. There were no four seasons here. It was hot and wet in the morning but it might snow and the air would become dry during the night. The fireplace helped Freia a lot during the chilling nights.
Angele had high affinity with fire energy particles so he did not really need the fireplace. There were many trees around the mansion and he could easily turn them into firewood.
Freia finished adding the wood and walked to Angele. She just stood by the table and watched him doing all the calculations.
The tip of the quill left countless complicated symbols and words on the leather scroll. The noise the quill made echoed in the room.
Several minutes later, a ball of red light appeared by the reading room and turned into a red bird. Red light dots were dropping from the bird’s tail, it was Phoenix.
Phoenix flew to a wooden bird perch behind a bookshelf. It was a cross-shaped brown perch that was specially made for Phoenix.
Phoenix’s head leaned to the left and it started sleeping. The bird’s tail was about half a meter long and the fire energy particles from it warmed up the whole reading room.
Angele glanced at Phoenix, smiled, and continued his calculations.
Several hours passed quickly.
Freia already fell asleep on the sofa. Angele covered her with a blanket and added some more firewood to the fireplace. He knew it was about time to return to the main world.
It was late in the night when he arrived in the main world.
Angele stepped out of the reading room and a maid brought him two wooden cylinders.
The pretty maid was already more than thirty years old. She was still beautiful, but she was not as energetic as before.
"Master, your letters." The maid handed over the wooden cylinders politely.
Angele grabbed the cylinders and glared at the maid.
"Time flies. How long have you been working here? More than ten years, right?"
"Yes, Master." The maid nodded.
"Go find a decent guy and get married. You served me well," Angele said in a light tone.
The maid looked excited after hearing the words. "Thank you, Master!" she already earned a lot of money as Angele paid her well. The girl was purchased by Liv as a slave and she never thought the master would release her.
Angele walked downstairs and sat down on a sofa after the maid left. He opened the first cylinder and found a red leather scroll inside.
The scroll was slowly opened under the dim light.
It was written by Hikari from the Molten Lava River, a friend Angele met on the airship to the central continent.
Stigma was laying low in his family and kept ranking up. Hikari joined the potion master’s guild and Reyline joined the wizard’s guild.
Angele started reading the letter with help of a glowing crystal.
‘Dear Green,
Long time no see. I have a great opportunity here. It’s a secret from the legends and I’m sure you’re interested. I sent the letters to the others too. We shall meet in the air transportation city again. Same location as the last time. I’ll tell you the details there.’
It was a short letter.
‘Air transportation city, huh?’ Angele raised the scroll to the air and ignited it with a dark-red flame ball. The scroll turned black quickly and was burnt to ashes.
Angele threw the ashes into the garbage bin on the ground.
He raised his left hand—there were two rings on his middle and index fingers. One had an amethyst that looked like an eye on the top, and the other one was a silver ring without any gem adorning it.
He rubbed the surface of the amethyst carefully and the color of the gem turned from purple to light blue.
A ray of blue light was slowly released from the center of the gem.
Angele aimed at the surface of the table with the ring. The ray illuminated the table and turned into a light screen.
Several lines of words appeared on the light screen:
‘This is the intel center. Please submit your question.’
Angele remained calm. He made sure that there were no intruders around using Zero and questioned in a low voice, "I need to know the important events that happened around the air transportation city recently."
‘Please wait…’
Several seconds later, several more lines appeared on the screen.
‘Based on your security clearance level, following information can be provided.’
‘1. Partial map of the city’s hundred-year-old treasure.’
‘2. The locations of the strongest wizards around the city.’
‘3. Special service locations in the city.’
‘4. Detailed information of…’
Rows of words appeared on the screen and Angel was reading down quickly.
The Dark Wizard Tower’s intel system was surprisingly strong. He could easily find out what the elders of Elemental Hand were doing every day.
The intel was collected by the Dark Wizard Tower’s elite members; the good thing was that the members’ information was protected and most of them did not have access to the top secrets.
It took Angele several minutes to find the information that was related to what Hikari mentioned.
‘The ruin with secret treasure: You need the Iverson’s Flute to enter this ruin. Danger Level: 3.’
The danger level was set using the wizard’s ranking system. Danger level 3 meant that only wizards above rank 3 could acquire the treasure safely.
Angele narrowed his eyes and looked at the details.
‘Possible Treasures: Half-body lizard, Horror Vines, and Iverson’s Flute (Genuine).’
‘Half-body lizard is a mysterious creature from the tales. It’ll help a wizard progress faster with his advanced meditation technique. Finally, something worth fighting for.’ Angele smiled.