Warlock Apprentice

The next morning, Angor departed toward the Phantom Island.

When he was on a sky bus, the sky abruptly turned dark. Soon, it began to drizzle.

“So the mirror world has rainy weathers too?” Through the tiny space between the giant leaves, Angor could see dark clouds gathering in the sky. Judging from their thickness, this would be a long rain.

Ever since he came to Brute Cavern, Angor would often wonder what kind of world this was. Previously, he believed this was a giant cave of some sort, the kind that you could find in novels. But looking at those naturally-occurred rain clouds, Angor denied this idea.

Morning breeze brought raindrops into the bus. The cold water splashed on Angor’s face, preventing his further train of thought. He took out his handkerchief to wipe himself.

Angor was worried that he had to go to Phantom Island under the rain. But it was not the case.

The rain didn’t stop. Rather, the bus took him above the rain clouds. Last time when he looked down from the Falling Cloud Stop, he would see green fields, tiny buildings and even tinier people walking among them. But now, there was only endless, dark clouds, and the booming sound of rainwater.

Angor was still a little embarrassed at how Sunders revealed his little ego. Now that they were finished, Angor planned to leave right away.

But before that, he remembered his brief encounter with Balba in the caves.

He had no relationship with Balba. But somehow, Balba gave him a friendly feeling. That was why Angor did not reject Balba’s request.

“Professor, may I ask another question, if it’s okay?”

“Why are you being all careful? Go ahead.”

Angor took a moment to arrange his words and told Sunders about Balba.

“I’m wondering if I can go and ask Miss Flora about Balba, will she get mad at me?” Angor said.

“Oh, Balba?” Sunders chuckled. He said, “Mad? No. But I can tell you what’s going on regarding that matter. Will you listen to me?”

“You know? Wonderful!” Angor would avoid bothering Flora too. The young witch still made him uncomfortable. Yet on the other hand, Angor somewhat wanted to see Little Red again.

Sunders explained slowly, “There are two reasons why Flora is disregarding Balba. One, she has been busy recently. There’s a large-scale blood dissolve epidemic inside a tribe on Parmigi Highlands which was probably caused by a certain pathogen, and she has been working on the incident. The second reason lies in Balba himself.”

“What’s wrong with Balba?”

Sunders revealed a disdainful grin. “Because he is not human.”

“He’s not human?!” Angor imagined Balba’s appearance in his mind. The man looked… just fine.

“He’s a half-blood between a human and an otherworldly brute,” said Sunders. He revealed the answer right away. “When he’s agitated, he’ll show blue totems on his skin, and his eyes with slit pupils will become golden. Those characteristics belong to a brute tribe in another world called the Silver Wolves. He should have a tail too, but the human blood must have interfered and hidden it from his blood.

“There’s an unspoken rule among wizards, that we cannot teach the way of wizardry to anyone who doesn’t belong to this world. Balba might only be a simple half-blood, but we can’t guarantee that a powerful being from another world didn’t implant some kind of trick inside his blood. You see, wizardry is famous across thousands of worlds beyond, so there are many who thirst for our knowledge.”

“So a part of his blood is from another world… I see why Balba didn’t receive any professor posters.”

“Correct. No wizard wants to get his or her hands dirty because of a half-blood. However, they’re fully willing to capture the subject and use him in their biology experiments.”

“Then why did Brute Cavern take him here?” Angor did not understand. If a mighty being from another world could use Balba to steal wizardry knowledge, why not just keep him outside?