Warlock Apprentice

Chapter 2539: Chapter 2540: Cha Cha

Although it’s a rabbit hole, the area here is not only large but also well-equipped with various facilities. At a glance, everything from food and drink to entertainment is available, and there’s even accommodation. For instance, not far from the cave wall, there are several slide entrances resembling teapot spouts. According to Angel’s introduction, these teapot slide entrances lead to deeper parts of the rabbit hole, where there are dormitories of different specifications.

"This is clearly like a small town. Did you create this in one night? Or is it all illusions? True illusions?" Dox looked incredulous.

Angel: "There are parts that are illusions, and parts where things went awry."

"You keep mentioning things went awry, but where exactly did they go wrong?" Dox asked, puzzled.

Angel sighed lightly, without responding, and slowly walked toward the center of the rabbit hole.

In the center of this rabbit hole, there’s a teapot shaped like a chair, or rather, it’s actually a chair made to look like a teapot.

And apart from them, the only "living being" in the rabbit hole was sitting on this teapot chair.

It was a small bunny wearing a black felt hat, dressed in a finely tailored checkered tailcoat, and holding a carrot-shaped cane.

At first glance, it’s just an adorable creature.

But this adorable creature, though it heard the footsteps of Angel and Dox, pretended to turn its head away, ignoring them.

"Is it Cha Cha? I can’t sense its vitality, yet its expression and eyes are lively." Dox questioned: "Is it alive, or an illusion?"

Before Angel could answer, Cha Cha turned its head, speaking in a soft, tender voice: "How rude, probing me upon arrival. You’re to be punished!"

As soon as it finished speaking, Cha Cha waved its carrot wand, and with a flash, a green hat fell from the sky, landing on Dox’s head.

Dox, wearing the green hat, looked utterly shocked. He could clearly feel the vitality within him becoming more active than before.

If he were injured, wearing this green hat would accelerate his healing process severalfold.

Is this a hat that speeds up recovery? What kind of punishment is that?

Dox looked at Angel in confusion and opened his mouth: "Aba aba aba..."

As soon as Dox spoke, he was stunned and quickly grabbed Angel’s sleeve: "Aba, aba aba!"

Angel patted Dox’s shoulder: "Stop with the aba aba. It’s just a minor side effect. When you take off the hat, you’ll be fine, but you can’t take it off now. The hat must be worn for at least ten minutes."

Dox attempted to forcibly remove the hat, but as Angel said, it seemed glued to his scalp and wouldn’t come off.

He tried to use a spell technique to remove negative effects, but found that the green hat wasn’t a negative effect at all. Its essence was still to recover injuries, which is a positive effect...

Having no choice, Dox took a deep breath. Since the hat had to be worn for at least ten minutes, he decided to wait it out.

Dox stopped speaking, but the rabbit Cha Cha clapped its hands happily: "Finally quiet. If the cheater wasn’t here, it would be even better."

The cheater himself, Angel, didn’t mind at all and sat directly across from Cha Cha.

"Come on, show me the footage of others passing the challenges. I’ve already prepared the snacks, just waiting for a live broadcast." Angel took out a big chunk of magic marrow meat from his bracelet and a cup of Toby’s secret stash of frozen juice.

Cha Cha: "Cheater, shameless, I’m not talking to you."

Angel: "If you don’t do it, I’ll do it myself."

After Angel spoke, he stood up and walked toward Cha Cha.

Cha Cha quickly assumed a resistant posture: "Don’t come over! The rules you set, you can’t break them yourself!"

"It’s true I set the rules, and not breaking them is fine, but I can modify them." Angel wore a cheeky grin.

Standing behind Angel, Dox kept indicating with gestures to Cha Cha, pointing at the hat and then at Angel—it couldn’t be clearer.

He took a green hat, you should give Angel one too.

Cha Cha ignored Dox, but Angel seemed to have eyes in the back of his head and turned to Dox: "This place was designed by me. Even if something went wrong, I wouldn’t sabotage myself."

"Aba aba aba." Dox pointed at himself: So you set me up instead.

Angel: "I didn’t set you up. Didn’t you offend the cute little Cha Cha?"

Cha Cha: "Calling me cute won’t help. We have to follow the rules. I can’t show you the footage of others."

"I already said I’d do it myself." Angel replied, already taking out an engraving pen, parchment, and magic pattern fixing platform from his bracelet...

Angel chuckled as he took one step at a time toward Cha Cha.

After going through resistance, helplessness, and resentment, Cha Cha eventually conceded: "Follow the rules, give me the passing reward, and I’ll agree."

Angel put away the various items, smiling: "That’s more like it."

Then he turned to Dox: "Throw the item to it."

At first, Dox didn’t understand what Angel meant by item, but after a while, he remembered he received a reward from the Red Tea Duke, what Angel called the Bitter Stone.

Dox took out the stone of indiscernible purpose and tossed it to Cha Cha opposite him.

Cha Cha looked at the Bitter Stone with some distaste: "I hate bitter tea the most."

Despite saying so, Cha Cha still tossed the Bitter Stone into the teapot in front of it, pouring itself a steaming cup of tea.

Watching this scene, Dox turned to Angel: Are those rewards for this rabbit to brew tea?

Even though Dox didn’t speak, Angel understood his meaning and casually said: "Yes, if the tea turns out well, Cha Cha will give rewards."

"Balabala?" What rewards? When it comes to rewards, Dox got interested.

Angel: "Probably... a more spacious and luxurious room. Don’t look at me like that. This was intended as a temporary refuge for Old Porter and the others. What kind of high-end reward are you expecting?"

Dox understood that what Angel said was true, but... a temporary refuge, made by Angel to be so grandiose, and yet the reward was so mediocre, the contrast was truly stark.

After drinking the bitter tea, Cha Cha finally, albeit reluctantly, displayed all the challengers’ footage in mid-air.

Initially, Dox didn’t comprehend why Angel was so interested in these images, but after watching for a while, he found them quite entertaining.

Unlike the two of them, who cheated their way through, these challengers had to answer questions correctly to earn rewards for moving to the next zodiac palace.

But if they got the answers wrong more than three times, they failed the challenge.

After failing the challenge, they would go through a "difficult trial" in the respective zodiac palace, and only after this trial could they proceed to the next zodiac palace.

At this moment, in the midair images appearing, those truly answering questions are few and far between, and the rest are... failing and undergoing trials.

The question-answering scenes aren’t much to watch, but these trial scenes are quite interesting.

For instance, there are three Talented Ones simultaneously undergoing the trial of the Fresh Milk Constellation Palace. These three Talented Ones are Siber, Bruiser, and a fat man.

The trial of the Fresh Milk Constellation Palace is divided into several stages: the first stage is the pursuit by the Cheese Soldiers, the second stage is the Butter Bombardment, and the third stage is the Fresh Milk Waterfall.

The Cheese Soldiers chasing them down involve soldiers made of cheese hunting the Talented Ones. Because the grounds of the Constellation Palace are complicated, if you use the terrain advantage reasonably, you can hold them off until the Cheese Soldiers disappear.

Siber managed to hold them off with her agility.

But Bruiser was different; he ambushed a Cheese Soldier, snatched a spear, and then began laughing wildly: "You rookie soldiers, even without unsealing my right hand, I can still defeat you completely!"

Then Bruiser charged forward.

The result was Bruiser being beaten thoroughly instead.

As for the fat man, let’s not mention him. He just laid flat from the start, letting them do as they pleased. Although the Cheese Soldiers wouldn’t kill him, he ended up with bruises all over.

The second stage, the Butter Bombardment, entails butter bombs raining down from the sky. When the bombs fall, shadows on the ground provide warnings, so you just need to avoid them. But as it progresses, the frequency of butter bombs increases, with shadows all over the ground, testing the sequence of dodging.

Siber again performed the best, only being hit by butter bombs twice. However, Bruiser and the fat man were covered in butter, indicating how touching their performance was.

The final stage, the Fresh Milk Waterfall. As the name suggests, a torrent of fresh milk falls from the sky, completely flooding the Constellation Palace. The only exit is the skylight at the very top of the Constellation Palace.

Which means, no matter what, the fresh milk has to fill every space in the Constellation Palace, or else you can’t reach that skylight.

The three had different strategies. Bruiser somehow found a shield, used it as a small boat, and the spear he grabbed before became an oar to paddle on the milk. Although he occasionally capsized, he tenaciously reached the skylight.

The fat man reused his strategy from the first stage: laying flat and letting himself be toyed with. Surprisingly, his luck was quite good, as laying flat actually allowed him to float up and successfully escape the trial.

Siber, who performed the best in the previous two stages, suffered a harsh setback.

Siber clung to a column in the Constellation Palace, breathing non-stop, continuously suggesting to herself: This is an illusion, this is an illusion, this is an illusion...

Just like back in the Princess Castle, as long as she could escape the illusion, everything would disappear.

Siber’s idea was good because these trials are indeed illusions. As long as she could crack the illusion, the issue would be resolved from the root.

But Siber underestimated the strength of the Constellation Palace’s illusion; this was not the trash illusions from the Rainbow House in the Princess Castle.

The illusion arranged by Angel, very few in the Southern Domain could break it. Now, this illusion was paired with a Magical Energy Array and had some "minor hiccups."

In such a case, even Sanders might have a chance of defeat. For a Talented One like Siber to rely on breaking the illusion to pass this stage was simply naive.

In the end, Siber was "drowned."

Of course, this "death" was fake, but for Siber, it was real beyond measure, possibly becoming a shadow over her for a long time.

Though experiencing death, Siber barely counts as having passed the trial. Now, facing her is a new Constellation Palace, new questions, and new... trials.

...

"Ahahaha, look at Siber, her legs are trembling, yet she still needs to walk to the next Constellation Palace. That expression, those pitiful little eyes, it’s so amusing!"

Dox, who had regained his ability to speak normally, laughed and slapped his leg, snacking on the treats on the table.

"No wonder you said at first that the body wouldn’t be injured. I reckon Siber’s mind has definitely taken a serious hit. It might take months or even years to recover."

Listening to the chattering Dox, Angel silently threw a glance at Cha Cha the rabbit.

Cha Cha immediately understood, and another green hat fell onto Dox’s head.

"Arba Arba Arba?!" Dox slammed the table, shocked, pointing at Angel and Cha Cha.

Angel: "Here, Cha Cha is the rule, and it doesn’t like noise. So, better keep your voice down. Let’s talk in ten minutes."

Dox angrily dipped some tea and wrote on the table: "You were quite loud when you spoke before too!"

Angel: "Who’s the maker here?"

Dox: "...You’re ruthless!"

...

Putting aside the painful experiences of the Talented Ones, the performance of Old Porter and Mrs. Melo truly impressed Angel.

They too initially entered trials due to incorrect answers. But they quickly adjusted their mindset, starting from the details, piecing together the general silhouette of the "civilization" from the questions asked by each examiner.

Once they had an idea in mind, answering became relatively easier thereafter. Despite occasional blunders, they could handle them with ease because they are pinnacle apprentices.

Their answering styles were also very distinct. Old Porter emphasized analysis more, while Mrs. Melo was similar to Dox, weighing more on spiritual perception.

No judgments on which is better, but their progress was nearly at the same pace. At this time, they both arrived at the tenth Constellation Palace.

Among the challengers present, besides Old Porter and Mrs. Melo, there was another Advanced Apprentice, which was Abulei.

Her performance was rather mediocre.

She got all the answers wrong, even the multiple-choice ones, not a single correct pick. However, she managed herself quite well in the various trials being a Wizard Apprentice after all.

Though this was just her performance in the first half of the journey.

When Abulei reached the sixth Constellation Palace, her Summoned Creature awoke.

The Crowned Parrot, although incomparable to Angel’s cheat-like existence, had analytical and observational skills far surpassing Old Porter. After inquiring about Abulei’s previous questions, the Crowned Parrot embarked on a "path to godhood."

Smoothly sailing all the way.

Though not every question was answered correctly, starting from the sixth Constellation Palace, the basic rewards of each Constellation Palace were obtained. Clearly, the Crowned Parrot was quite a significant asset.

If only the Crowned Parrot could tone down its snide remarks and foul language a bit, it would be even better.

Basically, that’s the status of the three Wizard Apprentices, barring any accidents, Abulei will probably reach the end first with the Crowned Parrot.

As for the Talented Ones, there are noteworthy points too.

Among them, Little Tom’s performance was very eye-catching.