Sunders’ book collections were hard to find elsewhere. Some of them were even unique copies.
Just like Flora warned, all books he could actually understand were mostly intended for apprentices. These did not have much value. Still, there were a lot of priceless books in the room.
Sunders let Angor into his book room because the mortal kid did not have enough knowledge to understand the more important books. Angor might try to memorize them but how much could he remember? There were more than a hundred thousand books here. In ten days, the most intelligent mortal could finish ten books at best.
Besides, apart from some leather books, most paper books were really thick. Many of the books contained both texts and illustrations, so Angor would need to memorize both. It was way too hard.
Considering these, Sunders had no problem letting Angor into his library which contained knowledge valuable to most formal wizards.
Sunders was unaware that Angor had something to record all of his valuable collections.
These books cost Sunders huge amount of magic crystals, favors from other wizards, and effort over several centuries. Now Angor got them all without much trouble. This was a big destiny for him.
Reading these books would help Angor build up a decent foundation as well as make his path towards wizardry smoother.
…
The first ten bookshelves all contained something he could use. When recording the last bookshelf, he found many books he could not understand. He could not even read the characters.
The last bookshelf held a great variety of books as well as some research notes, such as records about organ transplant and life form alteration. Sunders left his own notes in many of them. There were books written in strange letters or symbols. Several books even released a seducing aura when Angor took them in his hands.
Angor decided to put those book into a folder named “pending research”.
He only classified the books in general. He needed to read them before going into details.
It was eight in the evening. Angor heard Goode’s steps, stretched himself and ended his task for today.
He followed Goode to the dining hall. Toby was already eating a steamed fish. Its sharp beak did an easy job picking at its meal. Soon, there were only fish bones left.
Angor finished his share quickly. When he ate some extra milk pastries, Goode walked to his side.
“Mister Padt, at the current speed, we will reach Fey Continent tomorrow noon if everything goes well.”
Angor considered, “I see. But the teacher hasn’t come back, so I don’t know what I should do next. We still follow the route, but don’t go to the continent yet. Stop somewhere near Twilight Harbor and wait for teacher.”
Goode nodded in acknowledgment and left.
Angor had his own reasons for this decision. The cloud whale was as powerful as a wizard. It was talented to manipulate the sea and could exchange air with the atmosphere and fly in the sky. The creature was one of the best mounts on the sea.
But there was a drawback to it.
It could not fly on land where there was nowhere to draw energy from the ocean, so it had to find energy from elsewhere or use its own. The cloud whale was humongous, so it would be troublesome if it “runs out of fuel” on the land with no place to park itself.
That was why the cloud whale usually did not get ashore. The sea was its home.
Maybe because they were out of Devil’s Water, the thunderclouds above were getting thinner, and there were fewer lightning bolts. Starlight could be seen through the clouds now.
Angor filled himself up and left the tent with Toby flying above him. Without the lightning, cows had returned to their grass field.
Everything was peaceful… except some occasional insults coming from around him.
The curtain of a tent not far was flipped open, and a tall man with short gray shock hair leaned on the tent’s pillar. He was taunting Angor, “Hey kid, is it fun playing bird all day? How about coming in here and play with my ‘bird’?”
Angor looked at him. He was wearing a short wool sweater and buckskin pants. His exposed arms had veins pulsing on them which gave him an imposing look.
Angor curled his lips. He could not win in a fight, but since that man could not leave his tent, so… A yelling contest? Bring it on!
Angor prepared his own insults.
“Shut your trap, Ebony. This isn’t Blackberry where you can do whatever you want. Do you want to play ‘bird’? When we reach our place, I’ll help you with it.”
A mature, seducing female voice came from the other side. Angor’s neighbor Nausica was speaking.
Ebony quickly gave up his rude talks. He gave Angor a final, thoughtful look, and lowered his curtain.
With his “flame of war” put out by the lady, Angor was not sure whether he should feel lucky or disappointed.
“That’s Ebony. He used to be a swordsman under my command. Don’t mind him,” said Nausica. She released smoke from her pipe before saying, “He’s all talks. No one knows how much trouble he ever created, and he won’t change that attitude in the wizarding world.”
Swordsman under command?
Angor looked at Nausica’s armor and tried to guess who she was. She won in the death matches using her raw strength, and she had a swordsman who was also a winner…
Nausica said that there were only two individuals who won by strength – Nausica and Balba. Ebony was not one of them.
So how did he make it? By insulting people?
Angor was more interested in Nausica now. She was really strong and had a follower like Ebony. Could she be the military general of a country? A female general. Amazing.
Nausica was just as curious about Angor’s identity. When she saw the masked weirdo who had been serving the great wizard was now being very polite to Angor, her curiosity deepened.
Maybe Angor was a bastard son of the great wizard and was just brought back?
It was only a wild guess. Nevertheless, the wizard must have regarded Angor as someone important. Ebony used to be her underling. The man might have some problems with his attitude but they fought on battlefields together for many years. She should prevent him from offending Angor who “may have a big background behind him”.
Her scolding was more like a warning to Ebony.
…
The next early morning.
Angor was sleeping on his bed. It was a bit hot, so he kicked his blanket off and lay on his side.
Toby slept on its own tiny bed. Its wings and legs spread open in four directions. The bird definitely did not look like a bird.
As the strange pair was sound asleep, the cloud whale suddenly stopped in its tracks and stared at something using its giant eyes.
A deep rupture slowly opened up in the air.
When the rupture appeared, all light within hundreds of kilometers was sucked into it.
Even the moonlight which shone through the thunderclouds clearly changed course and flowed into the rupture.
On the cloud whale, Goode was standing in a dark hall while giving orders to his Phantom Servants. The fires on the candles in the hall abruptly shifted and dimmed. Goode realized something and vanished from the hall quickly.
Nausica was sleeping, but she woke up for some reason she did not know. She could not fall asleep again, so she took out her pipe and tried to get some smoking done. When she brought up her lighter, the orange fire on it blinked and turned into a dark blue ember.
The same situation happened in several places.
It was barely past midnight and the sky was still dark, so only a few people noticed the strange sight.