Chapter 398: Truth (1)
Translator: Leo Editor: Frappe
Sando slightly held up the skirt of her white dress and looked around. She waited until all noises disappeared before she once again opened her mouth.
"I am honored to host this awarding ceremony. My name is Sando. I think some of you have already heard about my name while the rest have not, but it's fine." She released the grip from her dress and conjured a platinum wand in her hand.
She waved the short wand in the air, which released a white beam. It landed behind them, on the wall of the platform, and materialized into a large, egg-shaped screen of light.
The scenes of the wizards fighting steadily revealed in it.
There were barbarians and archers, ranged spells and summoning spells, and even a showdown of basic spells.
Without making any noise, the audience was watching the moving visual images on the screen.
Angele sat on his seat while looking at it and saw the most intense moment in the fight between him and the woman clad in white armor.
'He' 1 charged out of the white light with wounds all over his body, but even that could not hide the madness in his eyes.
Aside from that, many fights between other wizards that had happened were also recorded.
The moving images slowly stopped, pausing at the scene where a barbarian was lifting up a horned helmet in the air.
There was an emerald in the middle of the man's chest, which was sending green energy into his body then transfusing it to the green vines twisting around his body.
"So, the one who wins the title of Beyond the Rift is…" Sando took out a blank paper and began reading, "Uramon! Please come here and accept the award!"
A man about two meters tall stood up from his respective seat.
Thud! Thud!
With loud footsteps, he walked straight to the platform.
He looked exactly like the barbarian in the video highlight. Angele could sense the excitement from the man's emotionless face.
Sando pointed towards the man when he arrived at the platform. Blue light flickered around the barbarian for several seconds.
That must be the mark for the reward.
Angele heard people whispering near him.
"Only two people will be awarded this time, and they will be invited to the platform. The rest of us have to stay in our own seats, but I don't know who the other one is."
"First is Uramon. There is another one who obtained a lot of cores but failed to move across the rifts."
Angele maintained a calm demeanor as he listened to others gossip.
"Next, the one who obtained the greatest number of cores in his respective rift but failed to travel across it!" The highlight shifted again and stopped right at the moment when Angele charged out of the light-cylinder. " Angele 2 , from the City of Sky!"
Angele stood up as soon as Sando finished speaking. He noticed that the wizards near him stopped chattering instantly and multiple people were scowling at him. Such a thing was an unpleasant experience.
He left his seat and walked to the platform from the left side.
The three people on the platform seemed kind of different. They were looking at Angele with gentle faces, seemingly as if they were just here to see him.
Sando waited until Angele walked to the front and pointed at him with the short wand.
A white beam landed on his body and disappeared before he could feel anything.
"Wizard Angele, is this your first time visiting Dark Wizard Tower's headquarters?" Count Hosla pursed his lips to a gentle smile.
Angele nodded, "Yes, it's my first time here."
"Would you like to join the department of change?" Sando asked curiously.
Angele could see Sando not jesting, and the young girl's eyes also fell on him. Both of them were waiting for an answer.
Count Hosla did not say anything else, only observing the situation with a smile on his face.
"I'm sorry, but… what exactly is the 'department of change'? Thank you for the offer, but I need more information," he responded politely, thinking that it was impossible for him to join a department he only knew the name of.
"No worries," Sando nodded in satisfaction. "To be honest, the director of the wizard department wants to take you in as his student, but Descartes is not here at the moment. Using a projection too isn't a good idea, that's why I'm asking if you want to join my department.
People started murmuring after they heard the wizard department's head's name be mentioned. There seemed to be something special about the spell department.
Besides that, Angele noticed the change in Count Hosla's expression as soon as he heard the name.
"All right, go accept your reward. You can pick a location to set up the circle, but the location can't be changed once it's built," Sando advised.
"Thank you, master," Angele nodded.
"I'll speak a bit more since this is your first time here. I have already placed the mark of permission on you. Someone will assist you in selecting one of the magic circle inheritances prepared for the winners, and if you decide to build the circle in the energy pool of Dark Wizard Tower, its safety is guaranteed. One more thing, you're now allowed access to the truly rare resources provided by the organization," she added.
"Thank you again, master."
Angele placed his right hand on his chest and bowed slightly and then stepped off the platform.
He saw a tall guard in a black steel suit waiting for him as he left the platform.
"Please follow me, master Angele." The guard spoke meaningfully, "It's your first time here, so please stay inside the heart of the tree. The outside world is completely different. Please be careful."
"Completely different?" Angele was kind of astonished but noticed how the guard was withholding what he knew from him. "Is this a world rift, too? Is the outside world somewhere in a different realm? Or are you just telling me that the outside world is dangerous?"
But the guard did not reply. He turned to his left and moved up the flight of spiral staircase.
Even though Angele didn't get what he wanted to know, he wasn't mad at him. He only continued to walk behind the guard.
While walking on the stairs, Angele watched as Sando awarded the other winners and saw someone familiar to him. It was the woman in white armor, the woman who had been torn apart by him.
She stood at the front of the audience's seats, along with the other winners, and received a tree-shaped badge from Sando. But then, she turned her head and saw Angele walking up the stairs. Her face changed, now as though she was planning on taking revenge. The outcome of their final battle was disgraceful to her.
Angele returned the woman's glare. Both of them knew how intense the battle at that time and how cruel it ended. Accepting her loss so easily was nearly impossible for her. She should have been the one to obtain a magic circle inheritance if Angele hadn't been in the rift she last invaded.
Angele moved his gaze away and instead followed the guard to a tiny door on the right.
Behind the door was a dark hall, which had walls that seemed to have been built with boiling mud, and the air stank.
The wet mud underneath Angele was roasted dry by the fire energy he exuded.
The guard before him didn't seem to care about the environment they were in; he just stepped on it.
They quickly reached the end of the hallway and found a small door before them.
The guard pushed the door open and invited Angele in.
Angele discovered an unusual thing when they left the hallway. It had only taken them about 10 seconds to reach the end, but when he turned around, he couldn't find the first door he saw. The only thing he could see was pure darkness.
A spacious hall was behind the small door.
The floor was built with black marbles as smooth as mirrors. The ceiling was embellished with black and white, checkered pattern. Meanwhile, the candle stands hanging on the walls looked like the heads of random monsters.
The dim light from the lighted candles was flashing.
They walked for about half an hour to reach the wall.
Angele and the guard stood in front of the marble wall. The guard took out a black quill and a small bottle containing red ink and dipped the quill into it and then drew an arched door on the wall.
Creak!
Accompanied by the noise, it opened and revealed a wooden staircase leading upward.
"Please, the master is waiting for you," the guard turned to him and said.
Angele nodded and stepped into the door.
He noticed the guard stopping by the door as if the man would not move until Angele finished his business.
Angele stepped onto the stairs.
Ka-ta! Ka-ta! Ka-ta!
Several minutes later, Angele finally reached the end of the staircase and saw a wooden door that was half-open.
Two lit-up torches were placed in the holders on the wall. The noise it generated was akin to boiling fat.
Angele lifted up his hand, about to knock on the door.
"Come in," a voice from behind the door came. It was spoken by an old man and in Metia language, the common tongue of the central continent.
"Excuse me." Angele opened the door and let himself in.
The room was an average-sized study. He could smell the scent of the leather-bound books in the atmosphere in the room.
Amid the dim light, he could see a wooden table painted red and surrounded by unorganized bookshelves.
A wrinkly-faced old man was sitting beside the table. He had a beard more than three meters long, placed over his left shoulder.
"Nice to meet you. I'm the vice director of the wizard department." The old man was searching around the table and found his pair of glasses under the books. Finally, he could see Angele's face clearly.
"The director is busy and doesn't have time to meet you here. So, I'll be the one handing the reward, and you'll become his student." The old man stood up and walked to Angele. "I'll be honest, the director has high expectations for you. Your battle skills have impressed the directors of numerous departments. They are thinking that the talent you possess is related to the ancient metal race."
"Metal race?" Angele had no idea what the metal race was. He was certain he was a human being.
"Yes, those of the metal race had terrifyingly high magic resistance—able to resist damage dealt by the majority of spells and bodies that can heal from injuries at an insane rate. The problem was, the food they relied on to survive was scarce, so the entire race became extinct due to starvation…." The old man took out a magnifier and put it over Angele's face and quickly checked Angele's entire body.
Goosebumps arose from Angele's skin.
"Master… can you tell me where my reward is?" He retreated one step.
"The reward is right here, don't worry." The old man returned to the table and put down the magnifier, then took out something black from the drawer.
"Put this on." He threw the black item to Angele.
Angele carefully caught it and saw that it was a shoulder armor piece. It looked just like the last reward he got, but this one had double the size.
He wore the armor on his left shoulder.
Clink!