The Wizard World
chapter-344

The flying blue butterflies broke into pieces and their remains slowly dropped to the ground.

The whole mansion was surrounded by the glowing blue dots.

Angele took several steps forward and reached out of the barrier with the right hand, catching several blue light dots.

The blue light dots landed on the center of his palm and turned into a small pile of ash.

"It’s over," he muttered as he turned to Todd. "Todd?"

Todd just stood there quietly with his eyes wide open.

Angele hesitated for a second and realized what happened. He walked to Todd and put his right hand on the man’s chest. It was cold and there was no heartbeat.

"He passed away…" Angele doubled-checked Todd’s condition using Zero and concluded.

Suddenly, he heard people crying from the main door of the building.

Angele turned around and saw the two kids crying by the door. They stood there and stared at their father. There were tears brushing down his cheeks.

Angele felt a bit depressed, he carefully put his right hand on Todd’s left shoulder.

Silver metal liquid covered Todd’s body and Angele’s force field slowly lifted him up.

He brought the dead body to the two kids.

"Let’s go. We can bury him in the backyard so you can pay tribute to your father anytime you want," he spoke in a low voice. Angele wanted Todd to help him explore the realm but he did not expect Todd to use up all his remaining strength and lose his life so easily.

Angele walked to the backyard with the two kids.

There were already many tombstones in the backyard. The gray tombstones lined up the empty ground behind the small garden.

It was late in the afternoon. The orange sunlight shone upon the land.

Angele buried Todd carefully and engraved his name on the tombstone. The two kids broke into tears.

Angele was not sure what he should say to comfort them.

The Nightmare Realm was dangerous and most of the people already died.

The ancient wizards from the main world probably communicated with the intelligent creatures from the Nightmare Realm before the unfortunate event happened. However, it seemed like the realm was uninhabitable at the moment. Angele did not understand why Todd decided to burn himself out when the energy barrier was still holding up well against the blue butterflies. He should have demonstrated the strength of the barrier to Todd.

"Did your father teach you how to use the crystal card device?" Angele waited patiently until the two kids calmed down and questioned.

"Yes, we know how to use the device." Frey nodded slightly. Freia grabbed her brother’s right hand; they knew they had to learn to survive in this chaotic world.

"Great." Angele nodded and patted the two kids’ heads. "Your father did everything for you and I’m sure he wants to see you live a happy life. Take good care of yourselves."

"Yes." The two kids’ expressions turned serious.

"Go have some rest. Use the training method your father taught you and start training tomorrow. Here, take this." Angele handed the crystal card device that he removed from Todd’s arm to the two kids.

The black crystal card device weighed about seven kilograms; it might be a bit heavy for the kids.

Frey wiped the tears from his eyes and grabbed the crystal card device carefully.

"Green. I’ll work hard and learn to use the device." He bowed to Angele.

"What do you want to do in the future?" Angele looked at Frey calmly.

Frey bit his lips and looked at the crystal card device.

"I want to protect my sister. Green, please let me work for you. I don’t want to take clean water and food supplies from you for free."

Angele looked at the boy and smiled.

Frey knew that there was no such thing as a free lunch in this world—it seemed like Todd taught them well. He wanted to protect his sister and he knew that he needed to earn the supplies by working in the mansion.

Angele learned a bit more about the hunters in the Nightmare Realm.

The hunters were strong fighters with a lot of practical experience. However, they were just mortals that had the ability to control the energy particles. Their skills were powerful, but their life expectancy was not extended like in case of the wizards. Many of them were killed by the illusion zones and some died in their mid-thirties due to the energy radiation and the polluted resources.

In this collapsed word, it was nearly impossible to find clean water and food.

Frey decided to stand up and protect his sister from the danger.

Angele stared at the boy and he could see the dedication in the boy’s eyes. There was only one crystal card device and the boy had the potential to become a hunter.

‘This kid might become a great hunter in the future…’ Angele thought.

"Sure. Let’s go. Work for me and I’ll provide you with a safe environment to live." Angele nodded, turned around, and walked to the main building.

　　******************************

Most of the things in the Nightmare Realm were taken care of. Angele would deliver the clean water and food supplies to the kids from time to time. Also, he replaced the magic stones in the control panels with crystal cards.

One crystal card could provide the matrix with enough energy to last for more than three years.

Frey kept practicing the skills using the crystal card device in the mansion’s training ground. Angele provided him with a large number of high-quality magic stones and Freia did a lot of housework.

Angele was the only person they knew in the Nightmare Realm and they were getting closer and closer. Frey and Freia almost treated Angele like their father.

Although Angele sometimes disappeared for several days, he would bring back various types of drinks and food. Also, he gifted Freia several interesting toys for her to play with.

With the help of the energy barrier, their life in the Nightmare Realm was peaceful and happy.

In the main world, Angele already traveled to the Elemental Hand’s headquarters and accepted the offer as Vivian wished.

　　******************************

Elemental Hand’s headquarters was in a large city called the Mermaid’s Song.

Thin clouds covered the gray sky and the atmosphere was heavy.

There was a yellow, rectangular castle standing quietly on a small hill in the green sea of trees, a white square in its center.

The castle was surrounded by a moat, its water crystal-clear. Gentle wind was blowing over the rippling water, the image of the castle reflected on the latter’s surface.

On the bridge above the moat.

Two carriages were slowly moving into the castle gate. The guards in white armor suits were yawning, they glared at the carriages but did not do anything.

The carriage on the left was black, and the carriage on the right was white. A pattern that looked like a yellow flute was painted on both carriages.

The noise made by their rolling wheels was quite loud.

Angele was sitting inside the black carriage. Wearing a black robe, he was peeking outside through the window.

There were mercenaries with greatswords and longbows on their backs passing by. They were also apprentices with books, crystal orbs, and short wands in hands. Some of them were showing off their recent rewards acquired by completing missions and the rest was just moving forward with their faces covered by the hoods.

The bridge was bumpy and it felt a bit uncomfortable, sitting in the carriage.

No one was talking inside the carriage. There was a man with silver hair wearing a black robe sitting opposite to Angele.

The man crossed his legs and put his hands on the knees. He was looking at the pedestrians outside the window curiously.

"Cruise, what do you think?" Angele opened his mouth. "We arrived in the morning and the mercenaries of the Mermaid’s Song are returning to the city. It seems like the situation is complicated."

The man named Cruise nodded. "Yeah. The situation is complicated. It’s a large city on the border and it’s common for mercenaries to stay here. However, some of the wizards here are not from the central continent and it reminded me of something." The man had an attractive voice and he sounded confident.

"What’s that?" Angele already knew the answer but he still asked.

"The illegal slave trade." There was a gentle smile on Cruise’s face and he was stilling looking out of the window. "We’re transferred here to accept the two most important positions in the human resources department, but it seems like there will be some trouble…" he sighed with mixed emotions.

"I don’t care." Angele chuckled. "You’re the department head and I’m just here to assist you."

Cruise rolled his eyes and shook his head. "Of course you don’t care… I wouldn’t work so hard if I had a mother like Vivian either."

The conversation ended here. Angele could see the clean water in the moat from through the window.

Beside the moat, there was a line of small buildings with identical appearance. There were people standing by the windows, observing the bridge.

"Our job is to evaluate the apprentices, wizards, and knights who want to join the organization. There’ll be a lot of politics involved during the process. Also, many new members are sent to the headquarters by the human resources department of Mermaid’s Song every year. The previous department head died during a mission and that’s why we’re here," Cruise explained.

"I’m here because I have a kind mother, but you were selected as the department head by the council, which means the elders think you have the necessary skillset for this position." Angele decided to praise Cruise a bit as they would be working together in the future.

Cruise knew what Angele was thinking.

"Thanks. I’ll try to take care of most of the things for you. However, there will be times when I can’t offer you help. I hope you can understand that it was not me who dragged you into this mess."

"I understand." Angele smiled. He knew that Cruise was a strong wizard that knew how to deal with people. Cruise came from a large family and he probably wanted to earn some achievements as the head of the human resources department.

However, Angele was not concerned. He would finish the assigned job, but he was actually here just to make friends with people in higher positions. Everyone knew that Vivian was Angele’s mother and they understood the reason why Angele was sent here.

Angele spent a lot of time trying to stabilize his mentality after completing the third stage of the Molten Core River. Also, he learned several more level 2 spells and studied the potion crafting theory, advanced enchantment techniques, and fundamentals of magic circles in his free time. Angele was still very young compared to other wizards and he could take his time when studying complicated subjects.

The magic circles required for the fourth stage of Molten Core River were much harder to learn than the ones from the third stage. The difficulty was on a different level.

Angele checked the process, he needed to combine four different magic circles to finish the engraving. However, his mentality level was too low to finish all four magic circles. He could only finish 20% of the first magic circle.

There was nothing Zero could do to help Angele learn the magic circles. Angele needed to overcome the challenge by himself—just like the other wizards that were practicing the Molten Core River.

There was no shortcut for the fourth stage of the Molten Core, so he had to be patient.