Warlock Apprentice

Chapter 2697: Chapter 2698: The Test of the Teacup

When the Wise Sovereign was surprised by the Luxury Nightmare Realm, the Black Earl was unfazed. Although he did not know the principle behind the Nightmare Realm, he had seen Sanders release the Black Tower Nightmare Realm.

The Luxury Nightmare Realm released by Angel felt completely akin to the Black Tower Nightmare Realm.

Countless people had studied Sanders’ Black Tower Nightmare Realm, including the Black Earl himself, but all ended without any conclusive results, ultimately considering it a unique illusion technique from Illusion Demon Island.

Currently, the only ones still researching the Black Tower Nightmare Realm are probably those wild Wizards of the Rat Ant Underground Association. They considered themselves arch-enemies of Sanders, naturally wanting to thoroughly study Sanders’ abilities, though Sanders had never even glanced at them.

As for studying the Nightmare Realm? Back in the day, the Black Earl secretly lured Sumishe to the Noah clan lands, trying to secretly study his Abyss of Magic Nightmare Realm, and almost got dragged into an unknown abyss by shadows from the Abyss of Magic.

Later, the Black Earl inquired about the Nightmare Realm with his old friend Rhein, and Rhein did not answer directly but provided a clear message: Only people from Illusion Demon Island know about it. Moreover, currently, only Sanders can perfectly use the Nightmare Realm, and others’ Nightmare Realms are basically cut out pieces by Sanders.

Back then, Angel wasn’t born yet, so Rhein’s statement was not wrong. But now, the answer is naturally different.

Speaking of which, after querying Rhein, the Black Earl became uninterested in researching the Nightmare Realm.

Now, when he looks at the Nightmare Realm, he still observes all around, but does not delve into the underlying logic. Instead, he speculates about the effects of the Nightmare Realm.

Sanders’ Black Tower Nightmare Realm integrates suppression, imprisonment, and blood moon amplification.

Sumishe’s Abyss of Magic Nightmare Realm is offensive in nature, fighting through magical shadows.

As for Angel’s Nightmare Realm, the Black Earl has yet to see any effect, as it resembles a normal noble hall. With a lavish main hall, meeting areas separated by drapes, a bar for entertainment, and even a piano section illuminated by lights.

If the Black Earl wasn’t so familiar with the aura of the Nightmare Realm, he would really think this was merely an ordinary Illusionary Realm.

"Is this Angel’s Nightmare Realm?" the Black Earl thought inwardly, pondering it was neither controlling nor offensive in nature, so what could it be?

As the Black Earl mused, his gaze inadvertently landed on a solitary long table in the corner.

The wall candle illuminated a pile of manuscripts on the long table. The ink bottle beside it was already empty, and even the feather pen inserted in the ink bottle was missing some quills.

"Could this be where Angel conducts his research?"

The Black Earl thought for a moment, feeling that this answer might truly be close to the truth. Angel is an Academy Faction Wizard, who cares more about research than fighting. And a scholar, during research, pays the most attention to the research environment.

Admittedly, this place serves well as a research environment.

Thinking of this, the Black Earl chuckled lightly in his heart. The people of Illusion Demon Island are indeed interesting. Sanders likes to suppress people within the Black Tower, Sumishe summons a swarm of Demon Ghostly Shadows at the slightest disagreement, while Flora raises a Rouge Skeleton inside her Nightmare Realm.

By comparison, Angel seems much more normal.

After confirming this Nightmare Realm has no special effect, the Black Earl leisurely landed on Vay’s shoulder, indicating for him to find a seat at the neighboring long table.

"Aren’t we in the Earth’s Circumference Barrier? Will this cause us to leave it?" Vay was a bit worried.

"It’s different, your state can be both illusionary and real. When attacked, you are an illusionary guise; but when safe, you are fully corporeal here," the Black Earl replied.

In essence, under Angel’s manipulation, their current state was a duality of reality and illusion.

As long as Angel wished it, they could transform from their true bodies into an illusion, returning inside the Earth’s Circumference Barrier.

This actually is Angel’s application of illusion techniques: True and False Transformation, unrestrained mind.

However, this only applies to Vay, Kaier, and others, as they are isolated by the Earth’s Circumference Barrier with safety concerns in mind, Angel thus lets them be in a state where they can voluntarily leave the Nightmare Realm and return to reality.

As for Angel, the Black Earl, and the Wise Sovereign, their true bodies are completely covered by the Nightmare Realm. To leave, either Angel must lift the Nightmare Realm, or it must be destroyed.

From this perspective, the Black Earl highly regards Angel. He considered everything thoroughly, allowing people within the Earth’s Circumference Barrier not to be completely unaware of their conversation, while also isolating them to prevent direct contact with the Wise Sovereign. In current terms, this is the most perfect balanced approach. If it were someone else, even if they managed this strategy, they likely wouldn’t take the time to consider others’ opinions.

Vay, hearing that they could leave at any time without safety concerns, breathed a sigh of relief.

Then, following the Black Earl’s suggestion, he went behind the drapes.

The meeting long table already had people seated, with Angel and the Wise Sovereign at opposite ends, exchanging distant glances. Others sat on the sides, with a space left at Angel’s left hand.

Undoubtedly, this was reserved for the Black Earl. But since he rested on Vay’s shoulder... Vay could only bite the bullet and sit down in the empty seat.

As Vay sank into the slightly soft chair, he heard the plucking of strings nearby.

Looking up, Vay saw a light gold dotted teacup with a lyre handle, wobbling over to his side.

The light gold spotted teacup not only extended its slender porcelain-like hands to play the harp but also obediently placed itself in Vay’s hand, indicating for him to savor the tea shimmering with golden light.

Feeling a bit at a loss, Vay looked toward Angel.

Angel: "Drink, it’s their intention."

"Their", "intention"? Vay didn’t quite understand, but Angel’s words made him slightly elated.

Am I being treated specially?

However, his excitement didn’t last long. He looked around to realize everyone had a teacup playing music placed before them, filled with steaming tea.

Vay felt slightly dejected, thinking he was being treated specially by an idol...

But quickly, he regained his spirits, noticing another detail.

Except for the light golden tea cup playing the lyre in front of him, all other teacups had quirky temperaments.

For instance, the teacup before Dox was a pink one holding a conductor’s baton. Dox was already dissatisfied with the delicate pink tea cup, clashing with his tough image, and was further disgruntled by the teacup not letting him drink when he tried, instead hitting Dox repeatedly with its baton.

Furthermore, the teacup before Kaier was a hand drum teacup, which didn’t hit Kaier but was focused solely on drumming, ignoring Kaier altogether.

The teacup before the Wise Sovereign was even more peculiar; a lyre teacup, the only one with a mouth.

The lyre teacup recited incomprehensible words while playing its strings loudly.

The Wise Sovereign made no attempt to touch the lyre teacup. Although the tea inside, an emerald green, smelled pleasant, it wasn’t enticing enough for him.

As for the Black Earl... without a mouth, no teacup came to serve.

Vay considered himself fairly fortunate? At least he could drink tea?

With such thoughts, he took a sip of the golden sparkling tea from the teacup.

Overall, the taste was slightly bitter, not particularly good. It was just ordinary tea, good for quenching thirst, but not something that needed to be tried.

Yet even so, Vay’s upbringing made him finish all the tea and instinctively say a word of thanks. After realizing it, he remembered it was just a teacup, making thanks seemingly pointless.

As Vay was in a daze, the light gold lyre teacup played a beautiful tune for him, then gracefully retreated.

"How does the Golden Night Flower Tea taste?" At this moment, Angel walked over to Vay and asked.

Vay humbly replied, "It tastes pretty good."

Angel smiled, giving Vay a meaningful look, "You’re quite lucky."

After speaking, Angel didn’t explain but turned his head to look at Dox from a distance.

Because Dox was already getting restless, complaining about the pain while asking Angel, "Can I smash this teacup? This is too much! Not only does it refuse to give me water, but it even dares to hit me!"

Angel: "Do as you please, you can do whatever you want. However, if something happens, don’t blame me."

"Something happens? What will happen?" Dox wondered.

Angel didn’t explain, just smiled at Dox with a mysterious grin.

Dox felt a chill down his spine from Angel’s gaze. Angel usually doesn’t say such things, and if he does, it might really be dangerous.

Thinking of this, Dox swore a few times but ultimately didn’t dare to touch those teacups. He could only cast a defense spell on himself and brood on the sofa.

Vay watched Dox’s miserable state, feeling joyful inside. If it were in their previous adventures, Vay would have definitely gone over to mock him, but now, with both his master and idol present, he restrained himself.

Vay: "Master, what’s up with these teacups? They’re quite cute."

Dox: "Cute?! Cute?! Say that again, cute! Say it looking at my teacup and tell me it’s cute!"

Dox tried to push his teacup towards Vay, but the pink teacup seemed to have chosen Dox, stubbornly refusing to move.

At this moment, Angel spoke, "These teacups are attracted by your traits. The pink one fancies you. No matter whom you give it to, it will come back to you."

"My traits? What do you mean?" Dox asked, puzzled.

Angel shrugged, "I can’t say for sure. I brought them out from some mysterious place. Usually, they’d play music and dance, but if they meet someone with matching traits, they willingly serve tea."

"By the way, you’d better send them away when you leave here, or some bad things might happen."

Angel said it rather mysteriously.

Dox didn’t care, but Vay, being a little fanboy, naturally took everything Angel said to heart, "Why? What bad things could happen?"

Angel: "I’m not sure what exactly would happen. Perhaps your combat abilities get stripped, or maybe you’d have a streak of bad luck, or they might just cling to you..."

Angel made it sound mystical, but actually, he was exaggerating.

These few members of the Teacup Band, after some nourishment, indeed had some magical attributes. But they weren’t nearly as powerful as Angel made them out to be.

The so-called stripping of abilities exists, but it only makes your hands weak for a minute, preventing weapon use for combat—it’s withdrawing combat ability, right?

Having a streak of bad luck includes secretly collaborating with other instruments to pour a basin of cream over your head when you’re not looking—still, bad luck, right?

Clinging exists; aren’t they clinging right now?

So Angel was purely having a mischievous moment.

Listening to Angel’s "fearmongering," Dox was somewhat skeptical, but he had no evidence to prove Angel was lying.

At this point, Vay asked again, "What do you mean by sending them away? Did I just send away that Lyre Teacup?"

For the enthusiastic Vay, Angel wasn’t stingy with a few more words, "Yes, sending away means drinking the tea they offer."

Vay: "That seems simple."

Angel smiled mysteriously, "It is simple, but I can tell you a secret—the Lyre Teacup brews the worst tea. If you had said it tasted bad or spat it out, you might have ended up being used as strings for the lyre. So, your luck’s good, or at least your etiquette’s in good practice."

Vay had said it tasted good and drank it all in one go out of courtesy—essentially a polite façade. But the Lyre Teacup bought it, so Vay safely passed the test.

After sighing in relief, Vay looked at Kaier and Dox.

He also wanted to see how they would send away their teacups.

Dox was still skeptical and didn’t move. Kaier, however, trusted Angel quite a bit... or even if he didn’t believe Angel’s words, he dared not show it.

However, according to Angel, to send away the teacup, you just needed to drink the tea in it. But how was he supposed to do that?

In front of Kaier, the Drum Teacup was focused on drumming, showing no intention of offering tea.

While Kaier was at a loss, everyone saw the Wise Sovereign sitting opposite Angel say something quickly to the Lyre Teacup. The Lyre Teacup brought itself to the Wise Sovereign’s lips, poured the tea, and swiftly departed.

What just happened with the Wise Sovereign?

Everyone looked at the Wise Sovereign in confusion.

Others trying to drink tea could at least follow some clues, but the Lyre Teacup by the Wise Sovereign’s side kept muttering unknown phrases, yet the Wise Sovereign drank the tea even earlier than the rest?

What was going on?

Facing everyone’s questions, the Wise Sovereign remained silent, but the Black Earl explained:

"The Lyre Teacup seemed to be talking nonsense, but it was actually a simple language association test. Ultimately, as you saw, the Wise Sovereign answered it correctly."

The Black Earl paused and continued, "Gold previously mentioned that these teacups are attracted by your traits. So think of a way to drink the tea based on your traits."

Angel nodded repeatedly; the Black Earl indeed deserved his reputation, quickly seeing through the trick.

The Wise Sovereign’s trait was "wisdom," so the Lyre Teacup wanted to test it, but it clearly overestimated itself. In the end, outsmarted, the Lyre Teacup almost fled.

As for why Vay’s challenge involved etiquette, Angel didn’t know. Perhaps the Lyre Teacup realized that Vay was the only one likely to compliment its tea...

With the Black Earl’s hint, Dox and Kaier soon managed to drink their tea.

Kaier’s task was the simplest; his trait was focus. The Drum Teacup ignored Kaier because it was focused on drumming. Given focus means no distractions, Kaier didn’t bother with the drumming and drank from the back of the teacup in one go.

Dox’s task was also simple; to solve the Conductor’s Baton Teacup’s riddle, he just needed to follow the baton’s trajectory and sing along. The Conductor’s Baton Teacup wasn’t really demanding; as long as he hit the right pitch, he’d pass.

Dox noticed the clue, but his pride kept him from singing aloud.

But thinking about Angel’s words regarding the teacups’ danger, even if it seemed debatable, if there was any chance of truth, then he’d regret missing it.

So finally, Dox gritted his teeth and mumbled a few lines to get it over with.

The entire tea-drinking process took less than three minutes. Yet it significantly warmed up the atmosphere on site.