Dave grew doubtful again. “Angor… you’re not serious, right? Saka became a supernatural ten years ago and always grew in strength smoothly. He’s now at his bottleneck as a Level-2 apprentice. It’s only a matter of time for him to become a Level-3.”
So what? I knocked him out for good. Angor thought in his mind.
“Well, I just wanted to know about Silvia’s skills, just in case, really.”
Dave was unconvinced, but he proceeded to answer Angor’s question anyway.
Angor remained silent after hearing Dave. What Dave said about Silvia’s skills was exactly what he saw during his battle against Saka.
The problem was, anyone who was affected by Soul Howling looked miserable in the end. Even if they managed to survive, Silvia’s Soul Absorption would definitely go for the win, unlike Angor’s case in which Angor was not affected in the slightest.
This meant that Silvia did not have any problem. He was safe because of something on him.
Angor had a feeling that he was losing control of his own body. Whatever happened inside him?
Instead of feeling lucky about how he resisted Silvia’s soul attacks, Angor was more afraid of something unknown lurking in him.
“I think I need to ask Sunders about this,” he mumbled. He would never sleep well again if he did not get a clear answer.
Outside the market, gentle moonlight had illuminated the sky, decorating the apprentice town like a calm, deep ocean. Angor stayed at Dave’s shop late into the night to exchange some alchemy experience with him.
For many times, Dave tried to ask why Angor wanted to know about Saka, but Angor only diverted the topic every time. Dave gave up in the end and asked about something else instead.
“You sure you don’t want me to sell your weapons right now? There are many quests in the questing hall that ask to buy alchemy weapons. They would pay double price than average. A tiered long-range weapon may probably sell for twenty thousand merit points or more.”
“Not now, I can wait.”
The message about the garden of purification had not been announced yet. Angor already decided to wait until then. To him, whether the information could raise his profit was unimportant—he was going to earn anyway.
“Why would the questing hall buy weapons though? There are alchemists in the organization, right?” Angor asked.
Dave glared at him. “You’ve been in here for half a year now. How could you not know something so basic?”
“Um, so… why?” Angor blinked innocently and acted as if he was only an eager student.
Dave answered in a somewhat impatient tone, “Who told you the quests are all from the organization?”
“They’re not?”
“No, duh! Brute Cavern only put up a really small number of quests for people. Most of them are published by other wizards or apprentices. The quests looking for alchemy weapons are initiated by Level-3 apprentices. I think they learned some kind of secret, so they are all preparing for something to come. There are many teams looking for new members.”
“I see…” Angor was not interested in their secret. He was still thinking about how the quests were published. “So, I can put a quest there too, right? Say, if I need someone to help me find a potion or an alchemy material?”
Dave nodded. “Of course you can. Although finding a potion might be a little…” He glanced at Angor and continued, “You can’t find alchemy potions in the underground market or from quests. We’ve too few alchemists in Brute Cavern.
“But, you can try accepting quests which ask for custom weapons. There are always such quests with great payment, and sometimes they give you rare materials in return. Keep in mind though, you should avoid quests which don’t provide blueprints. No alchemist will ever accept them because creating a correct blueprint takes too much time. You also have to find proper materials for the new blueprint on yourself. If I had that kind of time, I’d rather spend it on improving my skills.”
Dave’s suggestion provided Angor with a new idea. Angor did not really want the extra merit points because he could always earn points by making more weapons. He was, however, interested in the rare materials.
However, he was busy with his tower challenge now. Any new idea would have to wait until he reached the top level.
“Are you going to make something new recently? You know, I can always help you with your plan,” said Dave as he revealed an intrigued look.
Apart from being a bit jealous about Angor’s skills, Dave also developed respect toward Angor. He believed that he could learn something really good if he followed Angor’s steps.
Even if there was no alchemy knowledge to learn, he could still gain innovations from Angor’s creations. Those alchemy weapons he saw last time all had wild, yet great designs, especially the Tang… Tang Dao? And Emei Piercers. Their names sounded weird, yet the simple shapes held great potential, which meant Angor possessed some unique and viable alchemy ideas.
For alchemists, having their own inspirations was always more important than having great alchemy skills.
“Plans?” Angor considered. “There’s one. But it’s not a weapon.”
“Oh! Can you tell me?” Dave really wanted to know. It was not polite to ask for someone’s alchemy plans so boldly, but Dave could not really hold back his urge to learn.
Angor did not seem offended in the least. “It’s a music box.”
“Music box?” Dave rolled his eyes. He knew what that was. Some kind of plaything in noble families, completely useless.
“Why music box? Try something else maybe? Another weapon will do. You just began to study alchemy, there’s no need to go for different stuff so early.”
Angor shook his head and insisted. “I’m not really overdoing myself. It’s just a simple toy for Toby. Toby loves music, so I want to make something using Echo Flowers.”
This was what Dave thought:
To make a toy for a familiar pet… how much time and money does he have?!