"I want to..."
"I want to go back to the center of the Mist Belt and have a look." Angel finally blurted out after a moment of hesitation.
After the words fell, everyone’s brows all furrowed.
Nis and Ferro, almost in the same reaction, immediately spoke to dissuade Angel.
For a moment, the narrow medical room suddenly became lively.
Angel paid no attention to Nis and Ferro’s dissuasion, turning his head instead to the bed where Renko lay and cast an auditory illusion, isolating external sounds to prevent the noise from burdening Renko further.
After completing all this, Angel turned around, his gaze fixed on Sanders.
Sanders did not protest, his expression unchanged, as though listening to a very ordinary decision.
"Is this your decision?" Sanders spoke, and everyone else fell silent.
Angel nodded solemnly.
Sanders remained silent for a moment before slowly speaking: "Then go ahead."
Upon hearing Sanders’s response, Nis immediately wanted to say something, but was stopped by a glance from Kanter: Even Sanders agreed, so why interfere?
"I just want to say, you all leave here first, I’ll return alone to the center of the Mist Belt later."
Kanter: "Actually, I can accompany you. It’s a good chance for us to have a private chat."
Angel shook his head: "No need. I want to go alone."
Kanter said nothing more, but looked at Sanders. Sanders gave Angel a deep look: "Alright, but you’d better come back alive."
Angel chuckled, merely nodded without speaking. Because... he feared jinxing himself.
"Mentor, don’t you want to ask me why I want to go back?" Angel asked curiously when he saw Sanders seemed to lose interest in chatting.
Sanders: "Any action you take, I believe has a reason."
Moreover, Angel proposed this precisely at this moment, indicating that his reason for returning belongs to a more urgent matter. Before this, Angel had shown no signs of wanting to go back.
To have turned his thoughts in just a few minutes clearly suggests some mysterious other reason.
And such an urgent mysterious "other reason" usually involves personal secrecy.
Thus, Sanders did not ask. He also knew that if Angel wished to share, he would do so himself, just like now.
Nis: "Your mentor isn’t interested, but I am. Why don’t you tell us why you must return to the Mist Belt?"
"Witnessing the birth of a disordered object should be quite helpful to me," Angel gave a reason.
Everyone furrowed their brows slightly, seemingly understanding Angel’s choice a little. Angel is an alchemist, currently the only one in the Southern Domain, and the closest to the mystery class alchemist, isn’t it quite normal for him to be interested in the birth of a mysterious object?
This world has no shortage of stories depicting people who pursue their passions at any cost.
Angel seems to be planning to do just that.
The reason sounds quite legitimate for pursuing the mystery class breakthrough.
Whether this reason is genuine, Sanders thought it probably... isn’t. Does Angel love alchemy? Yes, but Sanders knows Angel’s attitude towards alchemy is more pragmatic than fanciful.
Angel is self-aware; he won’t daydream about things currently beyond reach, like the mystery class.
He may have once come infinitely close to the mystery class, but that was a happenstance of time and place. Angel wouldn’t greedily think he truly belongs to the half-step mystery alchemist.
He still has plenty of alchemy knowledge to learn.
In this situation, coveting the mystery class is delusion.
So, chasing the path of mystery class for an ephemeral "birth of a disordered object" certainly doesn’t align with Angel’s ideology.
Of course, this is merely Sanders’s perspective; he understands Angel, so he knows how flawed Angel’s reasoning is.
But others aren’t the same; they perceive Angel superficially, thus finding his reasoning quite compelling.
For instance, at the moment, including Kanter, Nis, and Ferro find Angel’s reasoning quite convincing and sincere.
Conversely, Nausicaa feels this decision is somewhat unlike what Angel would make. But now, even Sanders agrees with Angel’s decision, so Nausicaa can’t oppose him. Moreover, Nausicaa actually believes in "risk and opportunity coexist," which is why she rashly followed Reynaud to venture into the lab this time.
"Well then... alright, when are you leaving?" Nis asked.
"In a quarter of an hour."
...
The reason for leaving a quarter of an hour is because Angel plans to make a trip to the Wilderness of Dreams.
He intends to place the books he has replicated in the lab within the Wilderness of Dreams using illusion techniques.
This is not a difficult task and was quickly accomplished.
After finishing everything, Angel bade farewell through the Mind Ribbon and jumped out of the Moonlight Bird ship, flying into the sky.
In the clear nightfall, Angel looked towards the direction of the lab... A calm appearance, but was it truly calm? Only by going over can one know.
Just as Angel was about to leave, a subtle ripple appeared around him.
Turning back, a black gentleman’s silhouette appeared beside him.
"Mentor?" Angel instinctively identified the figure, quickly adding, "No, it’s an illusion?"
"My true body is still on the island; I’m using an illusion avatar to accompany you for a while," Sanders said indifferently.
An illusion avatar is much like an avatar, except it doesn’t require splitting consciousness and instead uses illusion to carry some awareness.
Anything encountered by the illusion avatar is instantly transmitted to the main consciousness.
The effect is somewhat similar to the Wizard’s Eye, but offers more operability.
However, illusion avatars have a major flaw; since they don’t split consciousness, they have distance limitations. With Angel’s current capability, illusion avatars can be numerous but can only reach at most a few kilometers before disappearing.
Sanders’s illusion avatar is evidently more advanced than Angel’s; he said he could accompany Angel for a while, which surely isn’t a short-lived few kilometers avatar.
Angel nodded; he was hoping to have some alone time to talk with Sanders.