Warlock Apprentice

The light of dawn was still hidden behind the misty curtain of night.

At such a time when light and shadow swapped places, a pair of ladies wearing silk clothes were kicking the water of a river situated along the edge of the apprentice town.

Dim light traveled through the woods nearby and brightened their sweet smiles.

The lady in white silk seemed about 17 or 18. With her fluffy blond hair that moved along with the morning breeze, she appeared like a fairy that came straight out of a fairytale book.

The one in transparent, golden silk was about the age of 30, and she had distinctive yet charming body features. Her long, dark-brown hair went all the way inside the river water, sometimes wetting her alluring body with every movement.

The other male creatures, who had been keeping their eyes on Angor’s villa, now had their attention fixed on these women while drooling. They only wished they could lunge at the beautiful souls.

Despite their elegant looks, the ladies were talking about absolutely inelegant matters.

Toby kept chirping and tweeting on his shoulder. The bird had been in a super good mood ever since Angor gave him Snowy Feather, and he expressed his happiness by singing and rubbing against Angor’s face.

The bird had a terrible singing voice. However, Angor didn’t mind it, as long as he could witness Toby stepping out of the grimness they went through. Besides, there was no one else on the sky bus.

Angor watched as Toby dance on his shoulder for a while. “Hey, you’re a ‘boy bird’, right? How can you not feel embarrassed in that princess skirt?”

Toby stopped his song and moved his wings around.

“Caw caw caw!”— I look beautiful in it!

“I see. I can’t judge the look of a bird using human senses,” Angor said as he nodded. “But why do you want to look pretty anyway? To attract a wife bird? So you can mate?”

Angor asked that one because he just watched an animal documentary the other day.

Mate my arse!

Toby rolled his tiny eyes. Since he just received a brilliant gift, he held back the urge to kick Angor. He then explained to Angor, about his special habits.

It took a lot of time for Toby to do his explanation using body language this time, and it was pretty complex. Angor kept asking questions until their bus arrived at Tree Spirit Garden, where Angor finally gained a basic idea.

Angor stuffed Toby back into his wizard robe before heading toward The Tributary, all the while thinking about what Toby just told him.

Greya’s Artificial Life was one of the most powerful kinds among all original spells. This particular spell had breached the restriction of Occult Gourmet and created a brand new, unknown field of subject.

By using Artificial Life, Greya had created Section Ephemera, Steam Vortexes, Twisting Protozoa, and similar life forms who possessed amazing powers.

However, none of these creatures was intelligent.

Except for Toby.

As an exception, Toby was the best creation ever made by Greya. Greya broke the rules of the world’s consciousness by bringing something sapient with magic powers into this world.

Toby’s birth was an accident, but it did not fluster Greya in the least.

Any chef would add seasonings to his or her dishes, and a Gourmet Wizard was also considered a chef.

Greya was pretty surprised when she “cooked” Toby out. But as soon as she learned the properties of her new creation, she immediately began giving Toby add-ons as a seasoned chef.

It could already be seen from Barbie’s Restaurant, that Greya had completely different taste compared to ordinary people. Actually, one wouldn’t find many “ordinary people” in the entire Fairytown and Candy House.

The very first “seasoning” Greya gave Toby was “uncanniness”.

Precisely speaking, the uncanniness referred to the bird’s strange aesthetic and maniacal love for all kinds of colorful fabrics.

Angor held his chin while walking.

So, Toby gained his strange “taste” because of Greya’s “spice”? Not because of Greya’s own influence?

“Did Greya give you anything else when cooking you?” Angor asked out of curiosity.

Using his spirit feeler, he saw Toby shaking head behind his robe.

“There were, but you don’t know what exactly? Woah, Artificial Life sounds wonderful. I wonder if everyone who created their own spells without following existing examples would also create such wonders.”

A self-created spell combined personal experience and conviction of knowledge as well as innovation. Rearranging existing spell models wouldn’t produce original spells. There were also Occult spells that couldn’t be rearranged at all.

Angor suddenly got a bold idea. Since he could learn from another completely foreign civilization, could he also use some of their techniques to create his own spells?

…

The Tributary.

Angor stopped in front of a lake with wavering blue water.

He would travel past this lake every time he came to Tree Spirit Garden, and he never paid much attention to it.

He didn’t expect that “The Tributary” referred to this blue lake, which he found out from Vice.

As Vice explained, to enter the other dimension, he simply needed to leap into the lake water while having the name card in his possession.

The Tributary was located at a remote spot from other gathering spots. Angor looked around and didn’t see anyone around. After some consideration, he held the crystal-clear name card in his hand and slowly walked into the water.