"Of course, I’ll be back," Stigma responded in a low voice, "Also, Green, thanks for helping me out this time. I left some gifs for you and I think you will like them. You can pick up the gifts in the Trove Trading Company in the air transportation city. The code is 95452 and you can unseal the gifts with your own communication runes."
Alright, we’ll meet again."
"Take care."
*Pa*
The green vortex rune broke into pieces and disappeared into the air. It meant Stigma deactivated the communication rune by himself—it seemed like he did not want to leave any traces behind.
Angele knew that Stigma would not return to the west coast even though he said so. Stigma would not want anyone to know about his family’s location, not even his friends. The prophet from the enemy’s organization could track them down using the information he mentioned in the communication runes.
‘Well, I thought it would be a happy ruins exploration experience, but I guess things happen. Stigma should have told us the truth earlier and everything would be much easier.’ Angele exhaled once slowly. ‘The shadow lord… I should stay out of her sight also well…’
The shadow lord was one of the three lords in the Anfarian High Council of the central continent—the Elemental Hand and the wizard’s guild stood no chance against her. The good thing was, Cena and Terry were swallowed by the death wave from the Abyss Canyon, so they would not be able to send any information back.
It was part of Angele’s original plan—if his identity was completely exposed to the shadow lord, Vivian and the Elemental Hand would be in big trouble. The difference in strength was huge—the shadow lord’s palace was like an elephant and the Elemental Hand was just an ant.
The high council had been ruling the central continent for thousands of years. While they could not give orders to other organizations directly, no one wanted to mess with them.
‘The terrifying power of the death wave will remove any traces I left behind and the prophet from the shadow lord’s side won’t be able to inform them about my situation using the tracking spells. I shall return to the air transportation city while I’m still safe. I can start progressing again after I return to the mansion. The shadow lord, huh… It’s a big problem…’ Angele had the plan in mind.
Angele closed his eyes and started recovering on the back of the lions’ leader. The lions finally stopped on the grass by the city when the sun started setting.
He threw a high-quality magic stone to the lion and headed to the city quickly.
Angele found Reyline and Hikari in a barbecue restaurant when the night was about to fall. They were eating and chatting.
"Didn’t you receive the messages?" asked Angele via energy particles transmission as he removed his hood and checked the surroundings.
They were the only people in the restaurant at the moment.
"What’re you talking about?" Hikari was cutting a piece of deer steak into pieces. "Everything is finished, right? We asked for assistance from the wizard’s guild and the potion master’s guild, they already took care of the problem."
Angele walked to them and sat down at the table.
"He still has some problems and had to find a safe place to stay."
"So, he’s gone already?" Reyline sounded a bit surprised. "We came here to help him and he left without saying a word? What the hell?"
"How serious are his problems?" Hikari questioned in a low voice.
"Very serious."Angele nodded. "But, he said he left us some gifts, and he was confident that we would like them."
"I start to hate this guy." Reyline’s brow furrowed. "If Stigma thinks we can’t help him on the matter, the situation must be bad. Is it related to the incident in the White Mist Tow
n?"
"Well, you guessed it right," Angele asked for some fruit wine and a barbecued steak. "Actually, we haven’t talked to each other for years. How are you doing now?" His sight fell upon Reyline.
"Reyline, you’re a rank 2 wizard now, right? You were already at the Crystal stage when we arrived at the air transportation city."
"Yeah. You’re right." Reyline took a sip of the green fruit wine. "I advanced to rank 2 about four years ago."
Hikari picked up a piece of meat and delivered it into her mouth. "I’m still at rank 1 and it might be hard for me to advance to the next rank, there’s a bottleneck. I’m doing fine with my potions and I acquired some high-level potions from the guild. I should be fine."
"You need higher mentality level to use higher level potions. You can only use level two potions now and you should try increasing your mentality faster. Anyways, it seems like you’re an important member of the guild." Angele smiled.
"Yeah, I’ll be promoted after advancing to the next rank and I’ll become the department head of the potion lab." It seemed like there was a bright future in front of her.
"I heard that you can command an army of 5000 energy soldiers as a department head in the potion master’s guild, right?" Reyline interrupted. "The energy soldiers, the Watchers from the Elemental Hand, and the Sunrise army in my guild are all strong military units."
"No, it’s different. The energy soldiers are energy creatures with no intelligence. They are weaker than the Watchers and the Sunrise army, but yeah, I can command an army of 5000 energy soldiers if I become a department head."
"I’m now a student of the Ice Breaker master Cameron, he’s a high-rank wizard in my guild. I need to join a mission in the eastern snow mountain after this," Reyline said as he looked at Angele.
Angele was sending a message to Lyn but he raised his head quickly after Reyline stared at him.
"I’m working in the human resources department. It’s boring."
"That’s not bad at all." Hikari smiled. "Sadly, Stigma didn’t leave his family. He could have earned a decent position in a large organization if he chose to leave."
"I’ll be leaving if he’s not coming. My guild members are waiting for me," Reyline said in a low voice.
"Let’s go see what Stigma left for us in the trading company." Hikari was curious. "I don’t really need any resources and I want to know why he was so confident that we’ll like the gifts."
None of them were depressed that Stigma would not be able to come.
Wizards had long life expectancies and they did not care if they could not meet with their friends for the next several decades. They already got used to such situations.
The three finished their food and stood up. Angele asked a pedestrian about the exact location of the trading company and hired a carriage. They headed to the trading company right away after leaving the restaurant.
There was a white building that looked like a church sitting quietly between the luxurious gardens in the center of the air transportation city.
There were many people passing by its gate and the street lamps on the side brightened up the whole area. Most of the people were nobles, scholars, or Knights.
Angele sat in the carriage and watched several wizards stepping out of the trading company. They jumped onto black griffins and took off into the sky.
The three sat in the carriage and looked at the engravings above the gate of the trading company: Trove. Under the word, there was an engraving that looked like a gray bat.
"That’s the place. Trove Trading Company is the most reputable company in the Tarry River area, you can rent their storage, purchase insurance, apply for a loan, or exchange currency here." It seemed like Hikari was familiar with the place.
"I’ve rented their storage several times," Reyline added, "However, the other two trading companies are more popular in my area."
"Is that so?" Angele had never used their services but he refused several of the company’s dinner party invitations—he never liked those merchants. "Security level is high here."
His sight fell upon the two towers on both sides of the main building.
The white towers were about half the height of the main building, but they looked like two guards guarding the main entrance. There were crescent moons engraved on the towers.
"Two level 2 trading towers, only for wizards at rank 2 or below, this is like the enchanted version of the trading tower on the west coast," Angele said in a calm tone.
"Yeah, they must have high-quality items for wizards at rank 2 with such trading towers, which means the company is probably protected by wizards above rank 3,"Reyline added, it was a simple observation. "Also, this is just a branch, their main location is probably guarded by rank 4 wizards."
The carriage slowly stopped.
"Masters, we’re here." The old coachman yelled.
Hikari took out a silver coin and handed it to the coachman.
"That’s the fee."
"Thank you, master."
The three jumped off the carriage one by one. There were many people walking on the street at night, and there were fully-geared guards patrolling the area. The wind was a bit cold.
Although the death wave from the Abyss Canyon was still not over, the people in the city did not seem to care. The only change was that there were adventures on the street.
The three entered the gate just like other pedestrians. They walked past a fountain, walked up the stone stairs, and entered the main building.
Angele saw several white robes with blonde hair as he entered the building. He was a bit surprised but his expression remained indifferent.
"What happened?" Hikari noticed Angele’s reaction and looked at the white robes by the counter as well.
"Nothing." Angele started walking again, he moved to the closet counter beside the white robes.
The white robes were only five to six meters away from him, but his skin was aching. It felt like being pricked by hundreds of needles.
Their mentality waves were so strong that the radiation energy in the air was being drawn to them. Angele compared their information that was gathered by Zero with the stone wizards he met, but none of them had such strong mentality waves, not even the rank 4 wizards.
Reyline and Hikari followed after him—they also noticed the white robes.
"May I help you, Sir?" A deep voice came from the counter. Angele turned around and looked in front of him.
It was a monster with a strange appearance.
The monster had a white body that looked like it was from a lion and two heads over its shoulder. The one on the left was a goat’s head, and the one on the right was a lion’s head. The monster’s tail was a snake, which was introducing their services to other customers.
It was the lion head that spoke to Angele. The head had the size of a wheel and it was staring at Angele with a pair of large eyes.
"Insurance? My brother can help you," the lion head looked its tail, the tail was a snake, and it seemed like the snake was in charge of selling the insurance.