"Can you take a look at this for me, sir?"
Sunders looked at Angor.
He reached out a hand and tapped the table with his long fingers. Next, a thin ripple spread out from his fingertip.
As the ripple spread, a piece of parchment appeared under his fingertip.
Sunders took the parchment and held it in his hand. It was soft and light, and it felt cold to the touch.
"Star … Frost," Sunders read the only two words on the parchment in a soft voice. The words were restrained, solemn, and cautious.
Sunders' eyes glinted as if he had thought of something.
He opened his hand and ran the back of his hand across the surface of the parchment. A faint light flashed on the parchment, and countless complicated and elegant patterns spread out along the word "Star Frost".
This strange pattern was covered with pale white dots, and it was emitting a faint light, like the dust and frost of the warm sun after a snowfall in the middle of winter.
Cold and beautiful.
"This is a wizard code." "Where did you get this parchment?" Sunders looked up at Angor and asked, "Where did you get this?"
"Wardell gave it to me. I heard it belonged to 'Sin City Walker' Pusio," Angor briefly explained what happened.
Sunders raised an eyebrow when he heard that the item came from Pusio.
"What do you think it is?"
Angor considered for a moment. "Star Frost reminds me of many things. Star Frost Potion, Star Frost Spell, Star Frost Magic Materials … you name it. However, I can only think of one 'Star Frost' that is most closely related to the Moon Frost Alliance. "
"Star Frost Meditation!"
Sunders nodded. "If this is Pusio's item, then it's very likely to be the famous Star Frost Meditation. But we still need to crack the code on it. "
"I've dabbled in wizarding cryptography before, but I'm not an expert. I don't think I can crack the code. But I can recommend someone for you. "
…
A moment later, Angor and Sunders arrived at The Tributary.
Not long after he entered, he heard a series of clanging sounds. Furthermore, the sound was still far away at the beginning, but it was getting closer and closer at an extremely fast speed.
Angor looked up when the sound almost reached his ear.
From the other side of the hill, a black shadow suddenly jumped out. Like a jumping spider, it jumped into the air with great momentum and merged with the clouds. Then, with the sound of the wind and the whistle of a train, the black shadow fell heavily from the sky and landed in front of them, stirring up a cloud of dust.
This was a double-storey tin house with legs. There were many patches on the outside of the house. The clanging sound was made by the patches knocking against the wall. There was a chimney on the roof of the tin house, from which smoke rose in spirals.
This was the Iron Fortress.
The Iron Fortress stopped in front of them. The door was opened, and a ladder dropped down.
"Let's go. Apart from the Elder of Books, Iron Granny is the most proficient wizard in cryptography in Brute Cavern."
The Elder of Books rarely met outsiders, so Iron Granny was the only one who could crack the code.
Inside the Iron Fortress, beautiful music was playing in the room. The silver-haired Iron Granny was sitting in the middle of a steam machine and a steaming teacup in her hand.
"Oh, Angor. Come, have a seat." Iron Granny greeted Angor with a bright smile. "You're here too?" Sunders nodded. "Oh, I see.
"I haven't seen you in a long time, Granny."
"I'll believe it if Angor says so. As for you … "Iron Granny sounded a little annoyed." You're just like Sumesh. I don't believe you'll come here for no reason. "
Iron Granny then looked at Angor. "Don't be like them."
Angor nodded confidently. "No, I won't." Angor did not hesitate to expose Sunders' plan.
Iron Granny smiled and poured a cup of hot tea for Angor.
Iron Granny didn't move at all when Sunders took his seat. The teacup and teapot were placed in front of him, but Iron Granny didn't move at all.
Sunders picked up the teapot and poured himself a cup without showing any expression.
Iron Granny sipped her tea and glanced at Angor and Sunders from head to toe.
In the end, she fixed her gaze on Sunders. "So, what do you want from me?"
Sunders asked Angor to take out the parchment. When Iron Granny took the parchment, Sunders told her what he wanted.
"To crack the code." Iron Granny touched the parchment and saw the patterns on it. "This is a typical combination code. It doesn't have a self-destruct mechanism. It shouldn't be hard to crack it."
"There are two solutions. The first is to crack it slowly, which should take about two to three months. The second is to break the code by brute force. I can do it for you now. The only downside is that the parchment will crumble quickly. But I can promise you that you'll have several seconds to read the parchment before it collapses. "
Sunders didn't say anything. It seemed he wanted Angor to make the decision.
Angor fell into deep thought. Both solutions had their pros and cons. The brute force approach had many disadvantages. The only advantage was that it was fast enough. On the other hand, the slow approach had no disadvantages. It was just slower than brute force.
Which one should he choose?
Angor considered for a moment and decided to use brute force.
Brute force did have many disadvantages, but it was fast enough. After all, he couldn't stay in Brute Cavern for several months. Besides, as a wizard, as long as he could see the content of the parchment, even if it was only for a split second, he would find a way to record it. So, it didn't matter whether he wanted the parchment or not.
Iron Granny didn't comment on Angor's choice. She only smiled. "It's easy if you use brute force."
Iron Granny really meant it when she said "easy".
A red light flashed in her hand. She pressed her hand on the parchment. When the light touched the parchment, it turned into a flame and began to burn along the strange patterns on the parchment.
In an instant, the patterns on the parchment were all burned away.
When the patterns were all gone, Iron Granny spoke again. "The code is cracked. The parchment will crumble in two seconds."
Not long after Iron Granny finished her sentence, the parchment turned into a puff of smoke and disappeared.
Angor had finished recording before the parchment disappeared. Of course, he couldn't instantly memorize the parchment with his current ability. But he could use his transmitter to record images.
Angor began to check the images he left on the transmitter.
When he saw the words on the screen, his eyes widened. It's a meditation technique! And it's the complete version!
Sunders didn't record any images, but Angor knew it was a meditation technique without a doubt.
A meditation technique with a minimum value of 9 points. If it were in the outside world, this Star Frost Meditation Technique would probably shock many pairs of eyes out, but in the Iron Fortress, no one was surprised.
Sunders didn't care because he already had Singularity Dispersive Meditation. A minimum value of 9 points was nothing to him.
Iron Granny didn't mind either. She had seen too many things in her life. If a simple meditation technique could shake her heart, she would have lived her life in vain.
Iron Granny wasn't interested in the meditation technique, but she could tell that it came from the Abyss Plane. Perhaps it belonged to one of the dead wizards Rasudran mentioned in the Tree Spirit Palace.
Still, she was surprised that Angor was able to take the channeling method from Monkey's hands.
Angor let out a sigh of relief and thanked Iron Granny for her help. He wanted to take out a gift, but Iron Granny refused. "Come and chat with me when you're free. That's more than enough for me."
Angor nodded.
Next, he told Iron Granny about what happened in the Abyss Plane and thanked her for the "life-saving potion" she gave him.
After some small talk, they prepared to leave.
Before leaving the Iron Fortress, Iron Granny handed a certificate to Angor.
It read "The Tributary" on one side, and the number "13" on the other side.
"This is the certificate of ownership of Xeno Lab No. 13. As long as you're alive, the lab will belong to you forever. In other words, your previous rental card is useless now."
Angor was a little surprised. As he recalled, only wizards were allowed to have access to xeno labs.
"Normally speaking, wizards are the only ones allowed to have access to xeno labs. However, there is no conflict between the rules and exceptions. Since Mister Rein personally appointed you as one of the core members, you've become an exception. "
Xeno labs were a benefit given to wizards by Brute Cavern. Many wizards were not core members yet. Since Angor was now a core member of the organization and an alchemist, it was only natural that he was given a well-equipped alchemy lab.
He didn't expect to receive such great gifts on his first trip to The Tributary.
He was still a little dizzy when he left.
…
On their way back to Phantom Island, Sunders mentioned Star Frost Meditation.
"Star Frost Meditation isn't the best channeling method, but it still belongs to Moonfrost Union. If you give it to someone else, you must be careful. Don't let them know about it. Otherwise, it'll cause a lot of trouble. "
Angor nodded. Of course, he understood.
Meditation techniques were related to the core of a wizard organization. They could not be ignored.
However, as long as one did not invade someone's mind space, one would not be able to tell which meditation technique one was learning.
This was why Angor dared to give the meditation technique to his brother.
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