Warlock Apprentice

Angor’s group arrived at a church not far from the city’s south gate.

“Do you know how to get out?” Nausica asked while smoking a silver pipe. Her voice sounded rather tired and unfocused after what she had been through.

“To be frank, no. We need this guy to bring us luck again.” Angor shrugged and glanced at the spotted puppy. “By the way, did you get a new pipe? Never saw this one before.”

Nausica exhaled some pale-white smoke, which smelled rather pleasant, and pointed to the church. “Found it from there. My old one is lost somewhere. Whoever left this got Silvery Rose inside… It’s usually too costly for me. You know, at least ten crystals for a roll. Glad I enjoyed it for free.”

“You’re smoking a stranger’s pipe? You should at least clean it first.”

“I did. Create Water, you taught me this one, remember? Trust me, I never slack off on my training.”

Shan heard their conversation and perked up. “So the entire city is kinda dead now, we can take everything we want!”

“Valuables will always have some means of protection.” Angor glanced at a bookstore at the other end of the road. “You’re free to try. I won’t stop you.”

Angor put on a grim look. “We certainly can. But the outside is not exactly safe. There are possessed people, parasites, and I just saw Rak’sel, who would have gotten to me if I were to move a little bit slower.”

Nausica considered Angor’s words.

“You’re right. You’re the only one who showed up from the outer city, and Rak’sel saw you. They must have already placed many lookouts to keep an eye on you right now. It’s… not a good choice for us to leave at this moment.”

Shan nodded to agree. Despite her looks, she was in fact older than Nausica, which meant she had more experience dealing with people. “Let’s wait. I don’t think the wizards out there will harm us, but we can’t expect anything good from them either. They are looking to get their hands on the Mystery treasure. If we become the first ones to escape, we’ll get caught in a serious conflict.”

“Agreed. Let’s wait for my professor to find us, by which time we can leave this place more safely,” said Angor.

“Geez. I hope I’m a wizard too so that I can come and go whenever I want!” Shan moaned.

“Work hard then. I hope you look as cute as you are now after a hundred years,” said Nausica.

“You sound as if you can succeed and live that long!” Shan glanced at her. “I fully trust Angor. As for you… meh.”

“Heh. I will become a wizard. I must.” Nausica looked determined.

“Yeah, right. How convincing.”

Angor watched their interaction and was not sure how to interpret their friendship. Or were they friends at all?

…

Earlier, after Angor briefly emerged from the dark mist, Rak’sel revealed what she saw to everyone, though unwillingly.

At first, she planned to capture Angor and learn how to travel through the dark barrier as well as the situation in the outer city so that she could plot something accordingly and hopefully go look for the treasure herself. But then she noticed that there was a Wizard Eye placed nearby. She didn’t know which wizard had their vision here or how much they had seen. She believed she should reveal the message just so that she could earn a favor from Sleepless City, while at the same time, avoiding suspicions.

Inside Monsoon Sector, all wizards had started quarreling over Rak’sel’s discovery.

“Plucker of Strings” Doctor Anglo took great risk to monitor the condition in the outer city and managed to confirm that it was Angor who created that large-scale energy storm. The storm was likely to dispel the darkness if it went on, yet Sunders stopped it from happening.

And the same apprentice surprised them again by leaving the forbidden zone when a good number of powerful wizards had been trapped in the darkness.

How did he create so many wonders?

The discussing wizards all assumed that the boy possessed a powerful alchemy item.