Chapter 498: Dangerous Operation (5)
Translator: _Leo_ Editor: Kurisu
The wizards did what they could to stop the Residents of Ash; however, three wizards were captured and teleported to an unknown realm.
Angele could hear the wizards breathing heavily, it seemed like they used a lot of mentality.
"Have some rest, everyone. I'm certain that our teammates won't die easily even if they were teleported to an unknown location." Fiona's expression turned serious. She created a chair using stones and sat down. She started meditating after closing her eyes.
Anchura glared at Simon and sat down with his legs crossed; he started meditating as well. Simon was not concerned, he walked around the team and checked the remains of the Residents of Ash.
Angele, Justin, Becky, and Monteria were sitting together. The formed a small group, Angele's eyes were still open, he was observing the wizards.
The wizards were staying with the people they knew. Some were meditating with defensive barriers around their bodies and some were having conversations. Angele noticed that one of the groups was quite eye-catching. They were wearing long gray robes, staying at the edge of the team.
There were three wizards on the ground and Anchura was right beside them. They blurred their faces using special techniques and were wearing long wizard hats.
Angele glanced at the group without being noticed and recorded the energy waves they were releasing. He thought that something was a bit off with that group; however, Fiona and Simon did not pay any attention to them.
"When will you release me?" Becky's voice came from the right. "You know how strong I was. I can offer you more help than the other wizards."
Angele looked at Becky. The woman was sitting on the ground, playing with black sand with her fingers.
"I didn't force you to stay with me. It's the power in your body that makes you follow me," Angele responded in a deep tone.
"Whatever!" Becky was a bit anxious. "You're right that my damn power is forcing me to follow you."
She looked at Angele and suddenly changed the topic. "What's the thing you asked me to eat?"
"Take a guess." Angele smiled. "It won't do anything bad to you."
"It won't do anything good to me, either." Becky snorted.
Angele was not concerned; although he could control Becky's body, the woman still had the concept gear, and she could say whatever she wanted. Angele just wanted to make sure that Becky could still activate the concept gear when necessary.
The woman sounded like she did not care, but she feared death with Angele's bloodline in her body and she would not say anything that might get her killed.
After about half an hour, the team started moving again. There were 17 wizards left.
They did not encounter any other problems, but it took them around two hours to reach the vine. It seemed like the road was longer than Angele had expected.
"Let me see if there's any trap." Fiona jumped to a large stone and opened her mouth several minutes later. "Make sure that we can observe the vine from different angles. I'll go to the front side, anyone else?" She looked at the wizards.
Simon stepped forward. "I'll go with you."
Two more wizards stepped forward and joined Fiona's group.
Anchura shook his head. "I'll take a different angle, who wants to join me?"
Four wizards stepped forward—three of them were gray robes, and two more wizards also joined Anchura after them. Anchura's group was the biggest, there were seven wizards in his team.
Angele, Justin, Becky, Monteria, and two more wizards had not expressed their opinion yet.
The two wizards Angele had never talked to were both female and they stepped forward when Angele was hesitating.
"We'll take the opposite side. It's fine, right?" The woman that talked was around 20 years old, wearing a long white robe with a belt on the waist. Her outfit was different from other female wizards' and Angele noticed that she was wearing tight silver armor inside the robe.
Her skin was elastic and it looked like she was from a noble family based on the way she talked.
Also, the woman braided her blond hair, which trailed over her shoulders. She had a pair of blue eyes and looked elegant with the long silky gloves she was wearing.
Justin and Monteria exchanged eye contact, they decided to join the woman's team.
Angele smiled and decided to join the woman's team as well.
The other woman was chubby and there was a pair of metal hammers on her back. It seemed like this woman respected the woman that was talking.
Fiona glanced at the six wizards. "Alright, we'll separate into three groups and check the vine using spells. Any questions? If not, let's start moving!"
Anchura snorted, it seemed like he did not like the fact that Simon joined Fiona's group. He walked to the left side of the vine with his group members.
"Let's go!"
Anchura's group disappeared by the edge of the vine.
"Let's get moving," Simon suggested. Fiona nodded and walked to the front side of the vine. "We'll take care of this area."
One of the male wizards in Fiona's team hesitated for a second and walked to Angele.
He was staring at the noble woman.
"Aria, I thought you would…" He tried to ask a question.
"I changed my mind," the woman named Aria interrupted. "Do you want to join my group of Fiona's group?"
"Aria, we had a plan, right? You said that…" The man noticed that Aria was getting impatient before finishing speaking.
"Fine… I'll join your group." There was a bitter smile on his face. "I'll do anything for you."
"No one forced you to join my group."
The man followed Aria, but kept a distance from her.
The man also dressed like he was from a noble family, it seemed like he knew Aria.
"Carol and the other wizard were teleported by Residents of Ash, but she had a one-time portal and they can teleport back to us. It'll take her around half a day to prepare the portal so we should probably wait for them," the man spoke in a low voice; however, it seemed like he was not trying to hide the contents of the conversation.
"A one-time portal? That's a rare item." Justin stepped forward and joined the conversation.
"You can only find the portal in the Golden Flower Empire of the east. Are you from Golden Flower Empire? Oh, sorry, I'm not trying to interrupt your conversation."
He clapped his hands and leaned to the left. It seemed like he was trying to show his respect.
The man and the two female wizards did the same thing.
"You're right. We're the royal wizards of the Golden Flower Empire."
"Let me introduce ourselves. My name is Miray and this is Aria, we're both nobles of the Golden Flower Empire." The man smiled, but he did not introduce the other female wizard to Justin.
Justin introduced himself and Monteria.
"This is Master Green from Elemental Hand." He then pointed at Angele.
"You can just call me Green." Angele smiled and stepped forward. "This is my servant." He pointed at Becky.
There was a polite and gentle smile on Miray's face. "Alright, it's great to meet you. We need to wait for our friends, but I'm not sure if…"
"I'm fine with that." Angele shrugged. "The mission will be easier if we have more people in the group."
"That's right. We don't mind waiting for a bit." Justin nodded after he talked to Monteria. "But we can go to the vine and check the situation first."
"Fine…" Aria was impatient. She started moving to the vine right away.
The vine was more than 30 meters wide and its body was completely green. Fiona and Anchura's groups already disappeared. It seemed like they activated a stealth technique and started climbing the vine.
Aria walked to the right side of the vine and grabbed a leaf.
"Huh?"
"What happened?" The rest of the group approached the vine as well.
Miray walked to Aria and whispered something to her ear. It seemed like they were excited about something they found.
Angele, Justin, Becky, and Monteria kept a distance from Aria and Miray.
"Let's go take a look too," Justin suggested.
Angele nodded, but he did not say anything. He walked to the vine with Becky, Monteria, and Justin.
He grabbed a green leaf carefully as well.
The leaf was hard and inelastic.
Blue light dots flashed in front of Angele's eyes and his brow furrowed. He released the leaf and tried to burn it using some dark-red flames.
However, nothing happened.
Angele waved his hand slightly and the color of the flames changed from dark-red to gold gradually.
The temperature of the flames was so high that Angele's body almost blurred.
Justin and Monteria were testing the leaves and the branches using their own methods. They were surprised by the golden flames released by Angele and stepped away.
Miray looked at Angele and said, "It's weaker than the Void Flame but the strength of his flame was incredible,"
Angele did not say anything, the flames slowly disappeared from his hand and he stared at the leaf with his brow furrowed.
The leaf and the branch that connected to it were not damaged at all. He could not even find any burnt mark on the leaf.