Warlock Apprentice

When Freud was looking, Angor took out their magical pact and applied an addendum to it.

Their agreement mentioned a special clause that either of them could add more requests to the deal accordingly, should any unexpected “force majeure event” impede a successful fulfillment. While drafting the covenant, both Angor and Freud swore in the name of the world’s consciousness, and now was the time to put this special clause to use.

“If I’m to use extra labor to retrieve the item, then you’ll automatically owe me a favor. In the future, I can ask you to fulfill this favor on condition that I do not endanger your personal safety, your freedom, or ask for anything beyond your power.”

Freud pondered and had no problem agreeing since the request seemed easy enough. He knew he was of little use in Angor’s view, which meant the “favor” wouldn’t be anything too hard.

After settling their new agreement, Angor moved to one side of the room to give Freud some time to talk with Sunny and Alda.

He had no idea what to ask from Freud yet. He made the extra condition just because he could, plus that he didn’t feel pleased when Freud’s promise didn’t go as planned.

As of now, Freud could neither help him fight or work for him as his assistant because they didn’t fully trust each other.

In the end, Angor shook his head to get rid of this concern. He’d like to get the Dream Whelk first before tending to other matters.

In his view, the building was now hidden behind a thick mist, and he could hear the childish giggles of many children coming from it. He was sure that anyone unfortunate to wander inside that place would end up in a ghost-haunted nightmare instead of the usual orphanage.

Also, as he observed, some of the “Easter eggs” left by Angor weren’t helpful. Instead, they were deadly traps.

“Are you sure about this, Mister Padt?”

“No biggie. As you said, Sunny will not actually go for his life.” Angor shrugged.

The illusion was both a “lesson” for Tulu as well as a test to show whether such games could be used in place of other recruitment tests such as Sunders’ deathmatches.

Freud didn’t ask further. He knew Angor meant to train Tulu’s mentality, which was essential for Tulu to stay at the wizarding world.

But that game…

Freud shook his head and sighed. He wasn’t sure if he could endure that kind of mental stress if he were in Tulu’s boots.

Angor summoned Gondola. He then called Freud over and began heading to the capital city of the Central Empire, Saint Sem.

Like everyone else who saw the amazing vehicle for the first time, Freud expressed his utmost appreciation about the ingenious design, and when he saw no response from Angor, he changed the subject.

“Mister Padt, as I said in my theories, you can create a ‘dream world’ using the Dream Whelk together with an illusion like that one, which we can use as a long-lasting testing ground for new recruits, like games they can join and quit at any time.”

As he listened, Angor wondered if he accidentally gave Freud any fictions from Earth that were about “virtual reality games”. But as far as he could remember, he only placed simple “crossover novels” and traditional literature in Freud’s room. There wasn’t anything that could have told Freud about these ideas that highly resembled a certain technology from Earth.

“VR games… tsk. This is getting advanced pretty fast.”

“Pardon me, Mister Padt?”

“It’s nothing. Again, I think your idea sounds fascinating. But it all relies upon whether we can actually combine illusions and the effect of Dream Whelk, which is… unlikely, I’m afraid. Above all, we have to get the whelk back first.”

“You’re right…” Freud sat back and gazed at the flourishing Saint Sem City in the distance. “I know the whelk is still there. I can feel it.”