Chapter 2256: Chapter 2257: Forging a New Body

However, Angel’s thoughts were unknown to the others. They just felt that perhaps Angel was repulsed by Dumatin’s aggressive approach due to his own inherent kindness.

Dumatin himself thought so.

The first time he met Angel, Angel was still an apprentice who came with the Ironclad Granny to his residence, praying for Baruba. At that time, when Angel saw those living puppets about to be injected with the Parachute Fungus Insect bloodline, he showed obvious disgust.

At that moment, Dumatin had already classified Angel as a White Wizard.

Moreover, a White Wizard from the lawful good alignment.

Dumatin always regarded such White Wizards as hypocritical and looked down on them.

But he also understood the necessity of the existence of White Wizards. Especially within the strictly hierarchical Witcher Organization, there are some roles that are best served by White Wizards as the operational pivot.

As a member of the Research and Development Institute, if Angel, who developed the Wilderness of Dreams, was an unscrupulous Black Wizard, it would truly be disastrous. In contrast, being a White Wizard makes people unconsciously trust him.

Even though Dumatin was biased against White Wizards, he sincerely hoped that Angel would remain in the White Wizard state.

When faced with Angel’s request, Dumatin pondered for a moment and eventually nodded in agreement.

The study of Elemental Creatures didn’t necessarily require excessively cruel or extreme measures, at least not brutal ones like "craniotomy" as defined by the general populace.

To Dumatin, the only thing unpleasant about Angel’s request was the need to solicit consent from the Elemental Creatures... Since Angel didn’t specify how to ask, he might just use some unconventional methods.

"Since it’s your request, I will naturally comply. Besides, they can self-detonate as Elementals—if I want to study their bodies, I can’t proceed without their consent," Dumatin said.

Dumatin’s words were quite sincere; Angel gave him a deep look and said nothing more.

The others had no objections either; Dumatin’s research talent was unquestionable.

Angel withdrew his gaze and looked at the small fire frog in his hand, which, due to the sealing, struggled but couldn’t move, finally giving up in a daze, with a look of sadness and grievance.

"Do you remember what happened?" Angel asked the small fire frog slowly.

Perhaps because of what had happened before, the small fire frog showed obvious wariness toward humans and completely ignored Angel’s inquiry, remaining despondent and self-pitying.

"I know you’re the Traveling Frog, who had a fierce battle with that water system bobcat before,"

Angel continued. Perhaps because he mentioned two key pieces of information in a row, the small fire frog’s body noticeably stiffened, but it still didn’t turn to look at Angel.

"Aren’t you curious about why you’re here? Why you’ve transformed into an Elf form? And don’t you care about your opponent, that bobcat’s situation?"𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

The sequence of three questions happened to coincide with the small fire frog’s own doubts.

For a frog that had never interacted with humans before and had no concept of human deceit, at this moment, curiosity finally overcame its caution, and it turned to look at Angel. Under Angel’s gaze, it finally opened its tightly shut mouth.

"Croak——"

Angel: "... Have you lost the ability to speak?"

The Traveling Frog also found it strange that it was making "croak croak" sounds. Filled with doubt, it continued to make sounds, but what came out was still "croak croak."

At this point, Angel realized that the Traveling Frog hadn’t just reverted to its Elf form; even some of its physical traits followed the Elf phase rules.

"But you should be able to understand me, right? If you understand, just nod." Angel said.

This time, the Traveling Frog nodded.

Though it couldn’t speak, making interactions somewhat troublesome, at least it could understand human language, which could facilitate communication in the future.

Angel inquired about its physical condition, and through the Traveling Frog’s nods and shakes, he basically confirmed a few facts.

Its condition was likely due to insufficient energy when forming its body, causing it to regress into an Elemental Sprite form. But its intelligent thinking hadn’t regressed to an ignorant state, and its memory was intact.

Overall, it was the fault of the Elf phase body.

If it could return to a mature form, it should be able to communicate normally.

Thinking of this, Angel recalled another presence, the water system bobcat, which had patterns involving the Law in its composition. Its maturity surpassed the Elf phase, so it might be able to speak.

With this in mind, Angel turned his gaze toward the intense rain.

Then, he met a pair of bright blue eyes.

Sometime unnoticed, the water system bobcat had already absorbed the remnants of the Law pattern and awakened from its coma. It lay quietly on the grass, observing the situation over here.

Meeting Angel’s gaze caused a flash of panic in its eyes, but it quickly regained composure.

Its entire body emitted a blue glow, gradually becoming transparent. Invisible vapor evaporated from its body, drifting towards the sky clouds.

Obviously, it intended to transform into vapor and meld with the rain, attempting to escape the place.

What it didn’t anticipate was that just as its form vanished into the rain, the densely packed black clouds in the sky suddenly disappeared without a trace.

Directly, decisively, and irrationally dispersed.

The oppressive rain clouds vanished, and the rain ceased, exposing the water system bobcat in mid-air without the rain’s concealment, causing it to plummet from a height of dozens of meters.

Luckily, being composed of water, it sustained no injury from the fall. With a roll after landing, it prepared to flee.

However, Angel was already prepared. With a wave of his hand, wind and sand rose up, enveloping the bobcat entirely. Wind served as propulsion, and sand as a cage, securely confining the bobcat.

A surge, and the bobcat trapped in wind and sand was blown to the crowd’s front.

The series of operations didn’t surprise anyone else, as they could perform better than Angel in reality. However, the Traveling Frog in Angel’s hands looked utterly shocked.

It was amazed not only by Angel’s effortless command of various elements but also by the fact that its enemy had appeared here and was easily subdued by Angel.

"Planning to leave after benefiting?" Angel looked at the raccoon cat.

The raccoon cat’s eyes flashed, but it put on a charmingly naive appearance, "What benefits are you talking about? I have no idea?"

The raccoon cat’s response made Angel raise an eyebrow. Not only could it speak, but it also had a good mindset and could change its expression to adapt, which was much smarter than the Traveling Frog. The Traveling Frog’s straightforward innocence was so transparent.

"Your expressions are quite entertaining, you have a talent for being a circus performer," Angel praised, then changed the topic, "However, the correct reaction would be to question who I am and why I’m capturing you, not focus on the benefits I mentioned."

"At least you should have said something like ’I didn’t try to escape’ as a diversion," Angel said. "Your answer indirectly confirms you’ve gained a significant benefit, doesn’t it?"

Since the raccoon cat could feign weakness, it indicated it wasn’t stupid. Angel pointing this out made it realize its answer was flawed.

It couldn’t be blamed; as a Water System creature, it knew how tremendous the benefits of the residual pattern had been. From Angel’s tone, it seemed like the benefits were given by him. Not knowing how to repay, it automatically focused on the benefits and overlooked other details.

Moreover, although the raccoon cat had some small smarts, as an elemental creature never exposed to the outside world, it was inferior in cunning compared to humans by a wide margin.

"I don’t know what you’re talking about," even when pointed out, the raccoon cat didn’t dare to admit it and still displayed an evasive attitude.

"Alright, let’s put this aside and talk about something else," Angel didn’t continue to provoke the raccoon cat but changed the topic, "Are you from the Malaya Ice Mountain?"

The raccoon cat didn’t speak, but Angel could tell from its eyes that it wasn’t a Water System creature from the Malaya Ice Mountain.

Angel didn’t continue to ask where the raccoon cat came from. He raised the question just to tell the raccoon cat he knew of the "Malaya Ice Mountain."

Because, in the next sentence, he dropped a bombshell.

"You are not in your original world right now."

The raccoon cat and the Traveling Frog both looked at Angel, eyes filled with disbelief and suspicion.

Angel gently patted the Traveling Frog’s head, then looked at the raccoon cat, "You should recognize this Traveling Frog, right?"

Before this, after absorbing the residual pattern, the raccoon cat had already noticed the Traveling Frog when it secretly observed Angel. After careful observation of the trademark fiery red maple sack on the Traveling Frog’s back, it could conclude that this was the same pesky guy.

What made the raccoon cat curious was that the Traveling Frog it knew was a mature one. Why was this one an Elemental Sprite? Moreover, its body seemed much smaller too.

"I recognize it," the raccoon cat said bitterly, "This guy came to my doorstep to steal gems and got caught by me, yet it still wanted to escape!"

"Ribbit ribbit——" The Traveling Frog anxiously tried to argue something, but all it could utter was ribbits.

The raccoon cat, seeing this scene, said, "I know you want to say the gems were just lying on the shore, and you picked them up. But think about it, have the gems you picked up outside ever been polished? All my gems have been ground smooth, obviously not something you find casually."

Listening to the raccoon cat scolding and the Traveling Frog ribbiting, Angel somewhat understood why these two were fighting in the valley. The Traveling Frog loved collecting gems from various places and ended up taking the gems the raccoon cat laid outside. Upon discovery, it sparked a grand confrontation.

From the Traveling Frog’s aggrieved expression, Angel could tell it was likely unintentional.

The raccoon cat could precisely guess the Traveling Frog’s mindset and probably had thought the same thing. The subsequent fierce battle, Angel guessed, might have involved other water and fire disputes intermixed.

However, these aren’t particularly significant concerning the current situation.

Angel forcefully intervened in their quarrel, "Who’s right or wrong, you can argue later. Right now, I want to tell you that, as you’ve also noticed, your bodies are different from before."

The raccoon cat and the Traveling Frog simultaneously paused, each looking at their current bodies with varying degrees of complexity.

"Why are your bodies different? I’ve already mentioned this earlier; this is another world, which you can think of as a world of dreams. In the dream world, your bodies have been reshaped."

The raccoon cat still didn’t believe in the so-called dream world but didn’t hold onto this issue. Instead, it asked about the actual situation, "If this is a dream world, what happened to my real-world body?"

Angel: "If you still have memories, you should know... what happened to your real-world body."

The raccoon cat and the Traveling Frog remained silent; they did remember a few things but didn’t want to dwell on them. Because if their memories were correct, they might have... died.

"Judging by your expressions, you should still remember," Angel said, "Your memories are real; your real-world bodies indeed suffered nearly irreversible damage—"

"Your elemental cores have cracks."

The answer had already surfaced in the raccoon cat and the Traveling Frog’s hearts, ignored because they didn’t want to recall it.

Seeing the sadness on their faces, Angel continued, "However, it’s only nearly irreversible. I used some methods to prevent your elemental cores from shattering immediately, allowing your vitality to persist for a while."

"Moreover, in the real world, I’m carrying your bodies, trying to find ways to heal them. And how to heal them, you should know."

Because Angel talked about their bodies’ conditions, the raccoon cat also started believing his words. It didn’t want to die either, so it immediately said, "I come from the Rain Forest, our..."

Before the raccoon cat could finish, Angel said, "I know Mr. Magu and Mr. Akimo, so even without going to the Rain Forest, I can heal your wounds."

The raccoon cat and the Traveling Frog had naturally heard of Magu and Akimo’s names, who were The Sages of the Region of Fire and Malaya Ice Mountain, respectively. If Angel knew these two, he would indeed be able to heal them easily.

Angel: "First of all, I need to tell you that I’m a human. In the human world, the Law of equivalent exchange is followed. Naturally, I won’t heal you for free. More so, I’ve given you two bodies in the dream."

The raccoon cat pondered, "What do you want?"

Angel curled his lips, "In the dream world you are in now, currently, only you two are elemental creatures from reality. To explore further the performance of elemental creatures here, I need to obtain your detailed data."

"Our data? What do you mean by that?" The raccoon cat did not understand.

Angel smiled and said, "You’ll soon find out; rest assured, it won’t harm you."

At the same time, Angel silently added in his heart: Even if it really goes wrong, it won’t affect your real bodies...

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