He might not have the same level of artistic senses as the masters, but his music box was creative enough to attract more crowds.
The only pity was that he only created one music box. The other Echo Flower was ruined.
Should he give the creation to Lady Mirror or Toby first?
Angor’s first thought was to satisfy Toby since the bird was his true partner. But again… Lady Mirror saved his very life, and he already promised to pay the lady a visit. He had yet to fulfill that promise.
He struggled a little and decided to present the gift to Toby anyway. He just said that he would get the work done tonight a little while ago. He could always go buy another flower from Dave later.
When leaving the underground lab, Angor was welcomed by a colorful figure dashing through the air. Toby, in his flower dress, landed on Angor’s shoulder and gave his master a gentle peck on the cheek. Then it looked at the interesting item in Angor’s hand.
As a creature created by Greya, Toby already learned how to appreciate beautiful creations such as art pieces and human clothing.
Toby flapped its wings happily and looked around the music box in curiosity.
Angor smiled. “Here, the gift I promised. Told you I’d get it finished today.”
Toby nodded madly, causing his bird body to shift up and down in the air, like a butterfly fluttering above a flower.
Angor explained how to use the music box as well as its effects, before handing the trinket to Toby.
The music box was a lot bigger than Toby. However, the bird did not seem bothered by the size difference. He held the box in his beak and returned to the attic immediately. Soon, City of Sky began to play upstairs, followed by Toby’s own chirping.
Angor chuckled and shook his head. He would go find Dave to buy another Echo Flower now.
Instead of finding Dave in Prome’s shop, Angor ran into the bulky guy called Hercules instead.
According to the man, Dave asked him to watch the shop while Dave himself went to do some alchemy work down in the storage.
Angor thought it fine to leave Dave be and tried to buy the flower from Hercules. However, the muscle guy could not understand a thing about alchemy, so Angor had to go looking for Dave in the end.
Inside the storage, Angor saw Dave working on a model of a fencing sword using Thaw. And Dave looked pretty adept at this, after spending all those days working with Angor.
Angor stayed at a distance and waited.
The shape of the sword was soon made under the manipulation of Hand of Spell. However, Dave did not use Condense to fix the shape next like Angor expected. Instead, he took out some extra materials and began to chant something before a stream of mana was injected into the materials, causing them to glitter.
“Synthesis?” Angor realized what he was looking at.
Before he could observe more of Dave’s work though, another mana stream sank into the sword, and the weapon was completely shattered to waste.
“Damn. Again,” Dave complained. He already saw Angor coming. “That was my third try today.”
Angor looked at the remains on the floor and noticed that they came from more than one weapon.
“Are you always so hard-working?” Angor teased, “Or did I flip a switch in your head?”
Dave lifted his head proudly. “I was too broke to buy materials before. Now I have money! And I better put it to use. Enough about me. What are you here for? You accepted more quests?”
“Nah. I came to buy an Echo Flower,” said Angor as he checked through the shelves. “You still have them?”
“You still going on with your music box? Did you fail?”
“Yeah, but I didn’t fail. I already made one for Toby. I still need to make another though, as a gift for my… helper.” Angor decided not to reveal his incident with Lady Mirror.
“Helper?” Dave realized what Angor meant and did not push. “You’re in luck. I just have one flower left here. After getting scammed by Toby, we never restocked them again. It’s not like many people need them.”
Dave checked through several crates and finally took out a flower from a corner. Then he refused Angor’s bone card. “I think I got this one for a mere 30 merit points. I never spared the effort to account it yet. Just take it.”
In Angor’s memory, the man called “Dave” used to be someone stingy over every merit point. But now…
Such a change in character was expected though, considering how Dave had earned like a thousand crystals already.
Angor complied and accepted the flower. “Alright, I’ll be leaving then. I need to get it done tonight and send it out tomorrow.”
Dave nodded. “Don’t forget that our tickets are for tomorrow afternoon. If you miss it, you’ll have to attend the second grand auction at the end of the year.”