Warlock Apprentice

Chapter 1547: Section 1548: The Piper in Striped Clothes Chapter 1547: Section 1548: The Piper in Striped Clothes Angel left the Nail Alchemy House not long ago, and soon after, Nail Granny also left, heading towards the Research and Development Institute.

Her visit to the Institute was naturally concerning Ivor.

She had even decided to exercise her authority and forcibly bring out Dean Muse from his retreat because Ivor's whereabouts concerned not just her, but also the Institute.

Originally, Ivor was the most talented Alchemist at the Institute, and there were many voices within the Alchemy Circle suggesting he should take over as Dean; however, he suddenly disappeared, causing the Institute to lose a genius who was on the verge of entering the mysterious realm. How could they not care?

Moreover, despite being hailed as the Alchemy Holy Land of the Southern Domain, the Institute had always had one regret throughout its years: the lack of a Mysterious Alchemist to preside over it.

The Institute's ambitions are not confined to just the Southern Domain; they aspire to be recognized as the Alchemy Holy Land across all four Wizard Worlds and even in the Origin World.

Only by having a Mysterious Alchemist could the Institute truly solidify its claim as the “Alchemy Holy Land;” otherwise, it would merely be the Southern Domain Wizard World closing its doors and playing house.

For this reason, Angel, who had once touched the edge of the mysterious realm, was so readily accepted by the vast majority of the Institute's members.

And the fact that Ivor had created a Mysterious Object was now a sure thing; in the eyes of the Institute's members, Ivor was considered a Mysterious Alchemist.

Thus, finding Ivor has been the relentless goal of the Institute for many years.

Now that Angel has brought news of Ivor, once they confirm this news as true, the Institute will undoubtedly use their full strength to search for Ivor.

It can be said that once the news of Ivor spreads within the Institute, it will definitely set off a tremendous uproar.

Meanwhile, Angel, the man who caused this storm–the source of the tempest–was unaware that a significant commotion was brewing. He, at this moment, was sitting outside the arena, waiting for a competition to start as a special guest judge.

The arena where Angel was now seated was just a regular one, and among the eighteen simultaneously starting arenas, it was the least popular.

The spectator seats were even less than one-sixth full.

It was reported that among the competitions starting at the same time, one was “Ice Edge VS Verdant Porcelain.”

Both competitors were extremely strong potential seeds, but crucially, they were both Witches with distinctive appearances. In a Supernova competition predominantly featuring men, it was rare to see a duel between two beauties, especially in a Supernova matchup, naturally drawing the majority of the audience's attention.

As a result, other competitions were largely ignored.

Moreover, the current competition was not only between two men but also between two who were completely unknown and had never made it onto the potential list.

Those who came to this competition were mostly there out of friendship support or simply because they couldn't buy tickets to more popular matches and had no other choice.

However, what these spectators didn't expect was that upon arriving at the arena, they were surprised to find Angel, who had astounded many during the preliminary rounds of the Supernova competition, appearing in this match?

It was known that aside from the first match where Angel had served as a special guest judge, he had not appeared again.

Unexpectedly, this was his second personal attendance!

Could it be that there was something in this competition deemed worthy by Angel, or might there be a dark horse emerging?

With this thought, the audience, originally indifferent about the competition, suddenly became excited. Besides, even if the contest turned out to be dull, having Angel there was a talking point worth sharing!

While Angel was the center of discussions, he did not pay much attention to the change in the audience's mood.

He didn't know if there would be a dark horse; he was there for a simple reason: the competition lineup was “Gaze into the Abyss VS The Piper in Patched Clothes.”

“Gaze into the Abyss” was David's nickname, and this was his first match in the Supernova race, so it held substantial significance. Naturally, Angel wanted to witness it and incidentally fill in as a special guest judge.

However, what surprised Angel a bit was that he really “blended” in this time.

Because the match started very quickly and ended just as quickly.

While the audience, with the thought of “what exactly brought Angel to this match,” was preparing to earnestly seek the answer in the arena, the match abruptly came to a staggering halt.

Even the judges were caught off guard, discussing in low voices. They were not discussing the victory or defeat of the match as there was no controversy–the victor was The Piper.

Their main discussion was about how to evaluate and rank these two players on the “Supernova Player Leaderboard.”

Eventually, they came to ask Angel for his opinion.

After pondering, Angel responded, “The contingency of this match was significant, The Piper completely overpowered Gaze into the Abyss. Judging their strengths from this one match is difficult. As Gaze into the Abyss couldn't display his strength, his performance is hard to assess, but this Piper…”

“His strength is quite impressive,” Angel confirmed appreciatively.

At least to Angel, this Piper in Patched Clothes could indeed be labeled as a dark horse.

Angel recalled the competition; as soon as David entered the field, he stirred up waves of abuse and disdain from the audience. This guy came to the stage fully armed, from his hair down to his toenails, covered in Alchemy equipment. Even though these pieces of Alchemy equipment were of different colors and David dressed quite modestly, in the eyes of the audience, he was simply dazzling with golden light.

Such fully equipped with Alchemy gear, and all of them being of the entry level, was extremely rare on the field of the Supernova competition. Many people automatically thought of David as someone who “bought his way into the competition.” The mentality of resenting the rich was quite prevalent among the crowd, naturally resulting in a great deal of disdain.

Fortunately, the host's introduction saved David.

The host introduced David as an Alchemist, which calmed the audience down, because Alchemists are generally considered the weakest in combat capability among their peers. They participate in the competition with their own refined equipment, which the audience recognizes as part of their own strength.

However, the other contestant looked a lot shabbier compared to David.

“The Pied Piper” Hamelin. He wore an old set of clothes and a cloak with many patches, looking like a patchwork, and even his flute had cracks.

In comparison, the audience already believed David was bound to win.

However, at the start of the battle, a surprising scene occurred. David initially brought out something resembling a modified long cannon, similar to a Revolver, and furiously shelled the Piper, causing a lot of dust and dense smoke in the arena.

Facing such fierce attacks, the Piper dodged effortlessly, and even drifted in the air, not only unharmed but also with his clothes intact.

While dodging, the Piper didn't sit idle; he played a pleasant and melodious tune on a bone flute.

This music sounded ordinary, sparking no energetic ripples; it was like any regular tune.

However, as the tune continued, from the wide robes of the Piper, suddenly sprouted numerous black dots–upon closer inspection, they were red-eyed rats!

These rats were huge, and it was unclear where exactly he hid them. One could see his robes stir and numerous rats emerge from his sleeves, under his cloak, and inside his pant legs.

There were nearly a thousand of them. From a bird's-eye view, the arena seemed to be covered by a dense mass of black worms, all swarming towards David.

These were not ordinary rats–they were extremely fierce. Their sharp claws could scratch white marks on David's armor, and a single flick of their tails could almost throw David out of the arena by sheer force, and this was just the strength of one rat. Looking across the arena, the multitude of rats doubled the horror.

Whenever the Piper's music rose or fell, the rats would launch corresponding attacks. Everyone now understood that although the tune lacked energetic properties, the Piper could control these rats with his music.

David initially tried to prevent the Piper from playing. However, he later realized that even without the flute, the Piper could still control the rats with just voice and gestures. David then temporarily shifted his focus from the Piper and decided to deal with the rats first.

David came prepared for the Supernova competition, fully equipped with Alchemy gear and also possessing ways to counter Summoning-based attacks, such as a disease-inducing potion.

However, while David focused on dealing with the rats, he didn't notice a change in the Piper's music.

The tone, style, and rhythm remained the same, but there was an extremely subtle fluctuation of energy.

Even the audience and most permanent judges didn't notice this, but Angel, sensitive to these changes, caught it. This energy fluctuation wasn't magical but spiritual!

The spiritual power, flowing melodiously, slowly, and concealed, drifted towards David.

Unprepared, the spiritual power seeped under David's helmet, and immediately, David began to move uncontrollably, as if drunk.

Under the Piper's control, David, in a daze, stripped off his Alchemy equipment and began to dance among the rats.

At this time, the rats also didn't attack David but joyfully partook in the Piper's music, performing various joyful movements.

Furthermore, the rats moved strategically with the music, forming various patterns.

It was like a bizarre yet amusing musical play.

Finally, when David came to his senses, he was dancing his way out of the arena.

The match ended.

This match concluded swiftly, and although it involved joyful dancing, the majority of the audience was baffled. Even the judges struggled to determine the Piper's actual level of strength.

However, as Angel saw it, even without much climax in his performance, the Piper's victory came from his subtle incorporation of energy in his music while David was unguarded.

But on closer examination, the fact that the Piper controlled David using only spiritual power was truly terrifying.

It's known that spiritual power is a hallmark of transcendent Wizards, but for most Apprentices, using spiritual power to lift even a piece of paper isn't easy.

For the Piper to use spiritual power as an offensive tool against someone of his same level was no small feat.

It's likely that the Piper's Mental Power Value had reached a peak.

At least, Angel believed that among the Apprentices he had seen, most probably had a lower Mental Power Value than him, even Isril from the Bauhinia Vessel, who had a high value of 23, might be far below this Piper.

And far too few Apprentices had any defense against spiritual power.

Based on this observation, Angel believed that this Pied Piper could rightfully be called the dark horse of the event.