Warlock Apprentice

Before leaving this small paradise of Krakoks, they took a detour toward Seedling Village.

Without bothering the villagers, Angor used a voice transmission to speak to Papaya’s grandmother.

“Your granddaughter will leave for the human world, never to come back. She hopes that you can go with her. If you agree, take your belongings and go to the village entrance in 10 minutes. Otherwise, we’ll leave without you.”

Angor didn’t reveal his name to the old woman.

He did make a promise to Papaya. But when he arrived at the village, he realized that her grandmother seemed iller than expected. The old woman had problems both on her limbs and inside her body.

At best, it would be a blessing for this old Krakok to live through another two seasons. The long trip was definitely not something she could survive. Angor didn’t think she could make it in time at all.

Yet he was once again surprised by the determination of these tiny creatures.

Slowly, Papaya’s grandmother limped away from her room with a small blue sack in her hand. Along her way, she greeted the other villagers with smiles and said that she was going to live with her daughter somewhere far away. She also told the villagers to use her house freely from now on.

Apart from being surprised at the news, the villagers all wished her good luck.

Angor sighed when realizing the great kindness displayed by the Krakok woman. It seemed she never tried to find out if the mysterious message was real or not. She made up her mind the moment she heard her granddaughter’s name.

Secretly, Angor cast a Heal at her. He didn’t know whether this would help, but he did hope that the happy Krakok family could stay together longer.

Papaya already knew the plan. When Angor moved the old Krakok into the bracelet, Papaya was already waiting at the entrance of their skyscraper.

The girl rushed to her grandmother, crying.

Angor quickly stopped looking. Every time he witnessed such a touching sight, he couldn’t help but think of his home and family, who waited for him beyond the horizon.

Shadow grinned devilishly. “Come on, your weakness is getting clearer. Why don’t you at least try to conceal those emotions?”

Shadow’s words obeyed the basic attitudes held by most wizards, but since he spoke to Angor in such a condition, he meant to offer a sincere piece of advice.

Angor only chuckled as a response. He knew he was being too kind to mortals.

However, he didn’t believe this was his “weakness”. He would still offer help to strangers when he was willing to, be them mortals or supernaturals. However, he would only do this when such help was trivial. Anything beyond and he would expect a reward.

As for those that he wasn’t willing to help… well, he would see them die without lifting a finger.

Since they had different moral grounds, Angor didn’t intend to argue about this matter with Shadow.

And Shadow could only shrug it off.

They left the Sorcerer’s Garden and returned under the dome barrier of Midworld.

The moment they left the portal, Angor felt a familiar and terrifying sense covering his skin. He looked up, and as he expected, that giant eyeball that showed nothing more than cruelty and blood-thirst was staring right at them.

“Oh sh*t, how unfortunate can you get? You ran into Sesaybelles twice in a row.” Shadow gulped. “Well, I guess you dragged me into your mess too.”

“You blaming me now? Wait, is anything going to happen when it sees us?” Angor noticed a small detail in Shadow’s words. The man didn’t say anything particular last time because the monster only saw Angor back then. Now that both of them were being observed, Shadow kind of added something to his speech.

“… It’s looking at you so that it can remember your looks. It’ll be fine as long as you don’t go bother it for real.”

Angor gave Shadow a doubtful glance.

When Sesaybelles closed its eye again, they quickly headed toward the “Deadmen’s Dent” in Midworld.

Shadow scratched his head when he realized Angor was being TOO quiet. “I didn’t tell you anything because I think you’d never leave the dome. You’re going to get out of Fairy World, no?”

“Didn’t you tell me Silent Hill is right inside Midworld?”

“Yeah, but we’re not traveling in Midworld, hell no. It’s too dangerous.” Shadow began to tell Angor about the different monsters that lurked in Midworld besides Sesaybelles, Magic Giants, and Magma Birds. When he noticed that Angor wasn’t paying attention at all, he said, “Ahem! So, the safest route is in Real World.”

“Where are your Krakok brothers?”

“I told them to wait in Real World.”

“Speaking of them… Is their ‘door’ a space-related spell?”

“I told you it’s a bloodline talent they received from Lady Isabelle, right? But they can only use that thing in Fairy World.”

Shadow suddenly crept closer and whispered, “Lady Isabelle could do something like this because she was once the real leader of this entire plane. She went really close to the very law of Fairy World plane before.

“But after she left, someone else took her position, and I think something big’s going to happen around here since she’s back again. Or at least her soul is.”

Inside Deadmen’s Dent, a group of “puppet-fied” apprentices including Magician was still standing in front of the portal array motionlessly. They had been like this for nearly half a month, and their bodies were getting weaker.

They’d have been dead due to starvation if not for their supernatural bodies.

Still, Shadow couldn’t care less about how his puppets were doing. He simply asked them to take positions again. “We’re going home!” The man then made a thumbs-up gesture toward Angor.

A bright flash of light carried their bodies away.

…

Two hours ago, on the first floor of Dark Castle, Greya was talking about Angor again.

Felicia was enjoying her wine when Greya decided to try out Angor’s little gift. Upon triggering the illusion, they saw their vision blocked by a flock of white feathers.

As they were covered by Angor’s illusion, Greya felt her heart pounding madly; it even attracted Felicia’s attention.

“What’s wrong?”

Greya shook her head and frowned. “There’s something in this illusion… I’m getting nervous.”

Felicia failed to sense anything. “Did that kid put some kind of trap in here?”

“No.” Greya looked at the shifting scenery.

Sun, beach, and sand.

They were standing on a soft, golden sand field. Sea waves would occasionally bring their gifts ashore, decorating the entire shoreline with colorful seashells.

Behind them were clusters of palm trees.

The sky was clear.

Groups of seabirds chased each other among the snow-white clouds.

A particular gray feather suddenly landed in front of them. They both looked up to see a strange bird in a sailor uniform.

“Toby.”

“Wine Thief!”

Toby was enjoying his cruise slowly. The blue sky and sea waves in the illusion made them feel extremely relaxed. Time seemed to be slowing down.

“How do you feel?” Felicia asked her friend.

“My heart is fine. I think… it was nothing?” Greya seemed confused.

Toby suddenly changed course and flew toward the inland area. Greya tried to follow him, but she wasn’t really going to move her body—she was surprised when her view followed her mind as if she were walking for real inside the illusion.

Felicia stayed where she was and sipped her wine under the beautiful scenery. She had better things to do than minding that wine thief.

A while later, Felicia noticed that the sunlight was getting dim. A thick mist began to gather on the sea.

“It changes? Interesting.”

Felicia thought the flying Wine Thief was everything the illusion had to offer. She totally wasn’t expecting to see new stuff when “Toby” already went away.

The mist was getting so thick that she could no longer see very far into the ocean.

Next, she heard a ship horn being sounded in the distance, followed by a giant, black silhouette, that slowly emerged from the misty barrier.

She watched with great curiosity as the shadow drew nearer.

The shadow was now close enough for Felicia to see its details. It was a broken, wooden cruiser. The statue of a peeing child stood at the ship’s nose, while the sailcloth had holes all over… In other words, it was a ghost ship.

“Ohh, this is nice. That kid placed TWO stories in one illusion?”

Getting interested, Felicia floated toward the “ghost ship”.