Warlock Apprentice

It was a young lady whose body was covered under a water curtain that had starry reflections of light on it.

Angor couldn't see her face across the water barrier, but he noticed the lady's extremely well-shaped body and long, blue hair.

Also, the lady was gazing at him across the water. Angor didn't know who that was, but he did not sense hostility from her.

The lady noticed Angor looking at her and moved to talk to another wizard as if nothing happened.

Apart from these, Angor also noticed a small stream of energy coming off her body, which went into somewhere unknown. He didn't intend to inspect the witch for any longer as this might be considered offensive.

He looked outside the window again, sending his thoughts wild.

…

Douglas explained what he learned until now.

"What do you think, Mister Phantom?" He looked at Sunders with a look that was both serious and respectful.

Sunders glanced at the sand table. "My opinion doesn't matter now. The point is, what are you going to do, should the darkness expand further until it reaches the inner city?"

Douglas exchanged a worried look with the other wizards.

"… We've taken that into consideration as well. We spoke to Doctor Anglo earlier, and according to him…"

Douglas looked at the lady behind water, who nodded in return and stepped up.

"Doctor Anglo is still gathering data to analyze the composition of the darkness. He has not reached a definite answer yet, but he can tell that the darkness only exists on top of 'eternal radiance' magic array. It becomes unstable and will dissipate if it goes beyond the range."

"Which means the current darkness will not grow anymore?" said Sunders.

"Yes. Even if it reaches out, it won't be hard to erase the excessive darkness by simple means."

"Compared to unproven theories, I'd believe his 'plucking' more," Sunders commented. "Anglo is called the 'Plucker of Strings' after all, not an analyst."

"Doctor Anglo is planning to do so," Douglas continued, "but he needs more time to collect information. He's been doing this since he arrived the day before yesterday. I assume it won't take much longer."

"Before his 'plucking' happens, there's not much point assuming things and looking at a sand table," said Sunders.

The other wizards didn't look pleased upon hearing Sunders' comment.

"I heard that Anglo can tell the 'general conditions' of wizards who already went inside the outer city. Care to tell me?" Sunders asked.

When speaking of the fate of other wizards, Douglas put up a serious look that went well with his heroic look.

"There is some casualty. Doctor Anglo cannot tell the conditions of wizards from other organizations because they are not willing to provide the blood of their people. I can only tell you that Sleepless City sent six wizards. One died. It's Lady Debnam…" Douglas visible became sad when mentioning a dead colleague.

He then stuck a small flag on the sand table. "Initial estimations suggested that she died right here."

Sunders checked the map. "Is that the teleport station?"

"Yes. We assumed that Lady Debnam wished to escape from there. She was either killed by the rupturing dimension energy, or someone attacked her there. It's likely the former since the other five people with her are still alive."

It was completely possible for unstable dimension energy to kill wizards. However, wizards were wise enough to foretell such danger before commencing teleportation.

Unless she was forced to. In other words, she either took the risk or died due to something else.

But what was it that endangered her life? The fox and frog? Or the third, unknown monster?

While Sunders pondered over the situation, the witch in the water suddenly asked, "Did you come here at such a moment because of Angor, Mister Phantom?"

"What do you mean by that?"

"As we all know, your student once worked on a Mystery item in Dark Castle but failed due to Lady Isabelle's interference. Even so, he's been considered a future master alchemist by most alchemists in the league."

She made her words sound like a compliment, yet she did not fully hide her jealousy. "It's possible that a new Mystery item is brought to Sleepless City. Didn't you take him here so that he can observe the miracle and make another attempt later?"

The other wizards all glanced at Angor, who was still standing in front of a window.

Naturally, everybody knew that having someone who could create Mystery items was a lot more valuable than finding such an item. Unfortunately, they did not have such a brilliant genius. Should anyone's apprentice display the tiniest chance of becoming a master alchemist, their professor would probably laugh out in their dreams.

There were less than ten alchemists in the southern region who currently deserved the title of a master alchemist, and most of them stayed at Floating Mech City. Even as one of the strongest organizations in the south, Brute Cavern only had one ordinary alchemist, which was "Rose Crown" Leona.

For lesser organizations, it was already a miraculous blessing to have an ordinary alchemist, let alone a master.

"So this is the prevailing young alchemist called Angor? You've been a brilliant teacher, Mister Phantom," Douglas flattered.

Sunders didn't say anything.

What the witch said was not his intention at all. He took Angor here because of a completely different reason—Shava.

He knew that the red fox would refer to Angor as "Your Highness", which meant Angor's "second identity" might prove to be useful. Unlike when exploring the Nightmare Realm, Sunders was confident that he could keep Angor safe here. If something went out of control, he'd just toss Angor into his gravity garden.

As for letting Angor observe the Mystery item… No. Sunders never planned to do that.

He wasn't going to reveal his idea to the others.

"Are you perhaps still troubled by the incident two years ago, Miss Heroline?" Sunders gave the witch a neutral smile.

Heroline humphed, which was her answer.

The others did not understand what happened between Heroline and Sunders. Why would a level-1 wizard hate a level-2 truth-finder?

Their confusion grew bigger when they saw Sunders smiling wider as if his evil plot had been achieved.

Sunders looked away and spoke to Douglas, "Why are you so sure that there's really a Mystery item in there?"

"Your meaning, Mister Phantom?"

"The unstable space is probably caused by a plane passageway. Of course, it could be a Mystery item that possesses space-related properties."

Without minding their opinions, Sunders moved away and used Spirit Bond to tell Angor what he heard.

Angor took a moment to understand the situation.

"Are you going inside, sir?"

"Let's wait for now. Anglo is still working on a conclusion. We'll wait for his 'plucking'."

Anglo? Plucking?

As Angor wondered what those things meant, Sunders offered to explain.

"Plucker of Strings" Anglo was the prophet invited by Douglas. "Plucking" referred to a special art that Anglo used for fortune telling. By using this move, he could judge unknown outcomes in the future by fiddling with the strings of this world.

Angor noticed that Sunders did not mention Anglo's organization for some reason.

"Um…" Angor looked at Toby, who was anxiously looking at the darkness outside. "What are we here for, professor? Do we kill the said monsters or are we helping Lady Greya?"

Angor followed Sunders here just to save Greya for the sake of Toby, but he realized now that the condition was more severe than expected.

He had no idea what to expect if they were to go inside the outer city. It seemed to be a very difficult job to look for Greya while his own life might be in trouble at any moment.

Angor didn't believe that Sunders came here just to get Greya out. There had to be something else.

"I initially planned to acquire that harp and rescue Greya while at it. However…" Sunders cast a grim glimpse at the darkness in the distance. "Things might have changed."

Angor did not ask what had changed exactly since Sunders probably wouldn't tell him.

Ever since Greya's visit back at Floating Mech City, Angor thought that Greya and Sunders established some kind of agreement that required Sunders to keep her alive. He was glad that he wouldn't be disappointing Toby this time.

Angor looked at the window again. Now that he was INSIDE a turmoil that troubled so many mighty wizards, the feeling of being helpless burdened his mind more than ever.

He somehow understood why wizards considered apprentices as insignificant insects or even expendable test subjects.

Because in this world, even wizards might have trouble keeping themselves alive.