The Wizard World - Filtering (1)
Filtering (1)
Angele soon noticed — as he walked closer to them — that they were not living beings.
The attendants’ mouths looked similar to the ones wooden puppets commonly had, and not the hint of the existence of a soul was there in their eyes.
Wait… It’s not that they look like wooden puppets, they are wooden puppets, Angele thought of this as he focused his gaze on the attendants’ body. He discovered to himself that their skin seemed to be as hard as wood while having the color of human flesh.
The attendant nearest at the front noticed that Angele was walking toward her, so she slightly moved her neck and rolled her soulless eyes, staring at Angele.
“Welcome to Sky City. I’m ‘No. 241’, at your service. Please follow me,” the attendant who was wearing a long white dress had a monotonous voice.
Angele was about to return the greeting, but the attendant had already turned away and walked to a small building in the city. The entrance of this particular building was wide open, but inside was dark.
Only one of the puppets conversed with Angele, while the rest of them remained standing in their respective place as they awaited the arrival of the next guest. Another wooden puppet attendant walked out of a different building and took the place of the attendant formerly assigned there.
Angele turned to glance at Bismarck — the man was waving at him while smiling. Bismarck, too, was signing the contract.
Angele no longer bothered himself with the man, as he accompanied the wooden puppet attendant through the door on the left.
It was dark inside, though there were sun rays passing through the gaps between the window. The place was peculiarly hushed.
“Is this the new teleportation gateway? Is there anything you can tell me about this location?” Angele tried to ask the wooden puppet attendant leading the way.
Despite so, the wooden puppet attendant continued her way ahead, almost as if she did not hear his query.
“Sky City has gathered you here because we want to search for the elite of the elites among you. Since we are the administrator of this area, we are allowed to use any resource within our sovereignty. Not only that, we also can ask for the immediate presence of the organization’s members if we do so please,” the puppet attendant replied in a monotonous tone.
“Huh?” Angele felt intrigued, “How is it possible for you to ask the elites of the area to come here? It sounds like the organizational structure is quite simple.”
“It isn’t about the organizational structure. You must pay for the benefits we are providing you with, or else, you shall be exiled, and your memory shall be erased,” the puppet attendant explained.
“Erase my memory? Ha,” Angele sneered, but he did not say anything else.
The pair walked slowly through the dark, wooden building. Angele could not see anything around him. To him, it felt like walking into the endless abyss.
The wooden puppet then suddenly carried on with an explanation before Angele even asked any other question.
“The competition will be held across the five major divisions with one sole purpose — to find the elite of the elites. And you can kill your own opponent if you wish.”
“I can kill my opponent?” Angele’s eyes squinted, “What are you implying, then? That the organization thinks the benefits it provides to its elite members are good enough for them to fight to the death?”
“The winner shall become one of the division generals, and the top three participants shall be awarded with the magic circle legacy. Be reminded though, that, in reality, the participants will not die and lose their physical forms. The winner shall withal gain the right to participate in the secret meetings of the organization. I’m sure you will not be disappointed if you ever win in the competition,” the wooden puppet attendant stopped her explanation right after.
Angele was a bit surprised.
Just the magic circle legacy alone would be an attractive reward. Certainly, Vivian’s magic circle legacy was truly powerful, but she would not bequeath it to Angele unless she was about to die.
Angele knew that magic circle legacies could transform a weak wizard into a high-rank wizard. Fighting and winning against a possessor of a magic circle legacy was nigh impossible. After all, the power difference was too great.
Although he could only inherit one magic circle legacy, having one would still aid him significantly during crucial times in battles.
Angele no longer asked anything else after listening to her explanations. Dark Wizard Tower’s reward would surely make any wizard that possessed no magic circle legacy fight to the death.
“The magic circle legacy was built by the Dark Wizard Tower, and there are two versions of it. The first version used an infusion model and the second used the semi-inheritance model. If you have another original magic circle legacy you need, you can just infuse it into the one you will win in the competition and alter it into a magic circle legacy set,” the wooden puppet attendant added.
“A magic circle legacy set…” Angele was becoming thrilled. A magic circle legacy set was developed to aid wizards to surpass their limit in order to activate more than one legacy circle. The legacy set was much more difficult to build compared to the magic circle legacy itself. It too would require a vast amount of resources, but the result of gaining the ability to possess two magic circle legacies was well worth its price.
A legacy set required too many resources that the top brass of mid-sized organizations had no capability of building one. However, it could mainly assist a wizard to activate the infusion model or the semi-inheritance model while also keeping the possibility of acquiring yet another magic circle legacy, which was the reason Angele was excited.
Angele remained with the wooden puppet attendant as they slowly walked along, but he did not speak of anything else.
The darkness surrounding them slowly disappeared from their sight.
The tiny building made out of wood was no longer there. Instead, Angele could now once again see the blue sky, white clouds, and vibrant grass. The clouds were slowly passing across the endless sky.
Angele soon realized that the attendant had disappeared, and he was now standing on an empty ground located beside a waterfall.
His current location was surrounded by mountains. A green lake lay before him.
There was a twin waterfall from one of the mountains, separated by rocks halfway in the air. They looked like numerous white ribbons descending onto the river.
The noise created by the waterfall spread out across the valley.
Angele stood by the river and overlooked the other side. He saw that there were two wizards standing next to each other; they seemed to be friends.
The one on the left was adorned with a white cloak that completely did not expose his skin.
The other, seemingly a male too, was wearing a golden armor with luxurious design. He had short, blue hair, and half of his face was covered by blue fish scales. He carried a high-quality silver bow on his back.
The two immediately noticed Angele’s presence when the latter looked at them. They became vigilant upon seeing Angele’s behavior.
But Angele did not mind that. He took out a small green bottle from one of his pouches and opened it. Immediately, a ball of green smoke drifted out of it.
The green smoke formed into a hazy, human-like shadow, but it dissipated before it could solidify. It soon transformed into green particles that surrounded Angele’s body.
Angele could feel himself becoming lighter and he slowly flew into the air.
He could now view the environment within and around valley clearly as his flight increased in altitude.
Outside the valley, there were rivers and mountains. The mountains were filled with vibrant, green plant life; the entire place was filled with vitality.
Angele’s flight altitude continued to increase. He wanted to get a better look at the surroundings.
Yet at this moment, a deep, hoarse male voice echoed in his ears.
“There are five cores for the five divisions of the Sky City. You will only be able to leave the world rift if you can obtain a complete core. The number of core fragments you can obtain depends on your performance. That is how we award you. Please note that you only have three days left in the world rift.”
World rift?!
Angele’s expression changed. He did not expect the area he was in right now to be a collapsing fissure of the world.
No matter how powerful a wizard was, they would not be able to leave this place without knowing the teleportation coordinates.
At once, he took a glance at the pair of wizards on the ground. They looked surprised, and obviously, they should have heard the voice as well.
The voice spoke again, “Watch out for the cores.”
A vibratory noise slowly resounded in the sky. That made him feel like the heaven and earth started to shake.
Angele quickly raised his head.
Five black stars soared through the endless blue sky and began their descent.
At the same time, he saw powerful wizards, varying in forms, appearing on the mountains on the far side. Just like him, those wizards were spectating the descent of these black stars.
The five stars that were surrounded by dark flames would soon strike the land.
Angele did not rush toward the closest star. Instead, he took out some tiny, colorful stones from one of his pouches while blue light flashed in his eyes. He ground the stones until it turned into powder and scattered them into the air.
The colorful powder was blown away by the wind. As Angele continued to watch, his expression became grim.
They really did not lie. This is really a world rift. I didn’t expect for Dark Wizard Tower to find a place like this… Wait… Five places like this… Damn. Angele took a deep breath.
I must go after the cores, or else, I won’t be able to leave the rift. He glanced at the two wizards near the river again and discovered that they, too, were looking at him. The three of them seemed to be having similar thoughts.
Angele turned around and directed the wind element to take him to the closest star.
The five stars were becoming closer and closer to the ground.
Boom!
The earth started shaking for a while.
The closest star descended onto a long river that was not so far away from Angele. He could even see the mud splashing into the air.
Angele remained floating in the air. He could see wizards jump out of the mountains and make a beeline for the star as fast as they could muster.
The scene looked like dozens of colorful ants moving toward an enormous black hole. Meanwhile, some of them were flying toward the star just like Angele.
Angele stopped wasting his time. As he headed straight for the star, he saw a ray of black light flash in the deep crater it created.
Chi! Chi! Chi!
Within the deep crater, a black light-ball exploded, turning into numerous pieces that flew toward all angles like raindrops.
The black cores turned into countless black fragments that were drawing strings in the air.
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