Warlock Apprentice

Angor was brought to Elixir Hut before sunrise.

At first, he felt uneasy since he didn’t know what Mithra wanted… until they started discussing alchemy knowledge in a really relaxed mood. Mithra was an Apothecary alchemist who also knew a little about Tooling. In fact, Angor realized the old man’s “subfield” was already way more cultured than him.

Gradually, Angor forgot about his precious concerns and grew indulged in the discussion. It was basically Mithra who did all the talking since Angor’s enchantment knowledge was quite useless to Mithra.

Angor found himself greatly enlightened after receiving all kinds of Tooling advice from Mithra. When the sun appeared on the horizon, Mithra suddenly asked a question, “Are you interested in studying Apothecary?”

Angor was definitely interested. He had a full collection of Apothecary textbooks saved inside his tablet. However, the subject required great time and effort in which Angor couldn’t spare any. He was planning to fulfill his promise and save Jon first before attempting more subjects. Wizards all had extended lives. Angor thought enchantment was enough to cover his expenses as an apprentice.

When Mithra saw Angor nodding, he smiled. “You don’t have to pick it up now. But since we have a lot of time, I’ll talk about the general idea of Apothecary.”

A lot of time?

Angor felt something strange about those words, but he didn’t think much since he was going to learn something new.

As a master Apothecary, Mithra filled his lesson with comprehensive intelligence and interesting insights. Soon, Angor established his own frame of the subject in his mind like a growing tree.

Just like Tooling, Apothecary also came in different branches. However, it came with unique “school” systems.

There was the Van Der Waals School that classified materials according to the ways they worked, such as monomeric materials, mixed materials, and extraction ones.

The Gypsy School arranged potions according to properties including potions which exerted smells, Witch Stews, and water-soluble potions.

The Reformer School split potions into three basic forms—gaseous, liquid, and solid.

There were also other strange schools that might allocate potions by their effects, their superclass, or their drawbacks. Some even regarded the colors and their places of origin to be important factors.

Just like Tooling, the different schools of Apothecary all contributed their own ideas and thoughts to the general subject. However, the different schools of Tooling mostly agreed on one basic rule, where there were generally two paths for Tooling—Enchantment and Synthesis. For this reason, Tooling alchemists wouldn’t usually consider their differences when talking.

But Apothecary was different. Apothecary schools tend to regard the others as “lesser, incompetent ones”. People all clung to their home school. In fact, the potions they produced all had similar effects. Before Apothecaries started talking to each other, they usually had to ascertain which school everyone came from and base their further conversations on it. Otherwise, a spar of words would soon follow.

Mithra belonged to Reformers who only divided potions according to their physical states. Anything that fell outside the three basic forms would be considered “others”.

While explaining the ideas of Reformers, Mithra also mentioned things worth learning or avoiding, which was related to most of the known schools. Angor was glad to receive the extensive lessons.

Apart from bloodshed and bodily assaults, wizards also waged wars in the field of academics.

“My book collection contained detailed knowledge about potions, so I’ll not trouble you here. Head to my library when you have time. I’ll let you in for free.”

Again, Angor felt strange when receiving Mithra’s generosity.

Mithra wasn’t any ordinary wizard; he was a master alchemist who was respected by many. Therefore, when he started to treat Angor like an old friend, Angor felt concerned by it.

All the while, Mithra acted in a way like a friendly mortal old man who would tell stories to kids rather than an experienced wizard who had seen enough of this world.

This is strange… Angor thought in his mind. Knowledge is priceless to wizards. Why would he let me in his personal library just like this?

Mithra managed to read Angor’s mind. Since he couldn’t explain it, the old man could only reveal a bitter smile.

It was only a matter of time for Sunders to meet up with Angor. As Bogula’s former teacher, Mithra was trying his best to soothe the boy’s mood before something serious happened.

But in truth, Mithra was overreacting. It was true that Bogula “imprisoned” Angor in his base for several days. However, the days weren’t as terrible as what he thought.

The old man saw Angor still doubting something and decided to change the topic. “You once reached out to Mystery energy, right? Take a look at this potion.”

From his dimensional storage, Mithra took out an oval-shaped glass sphere.

Instantly, Angor sensed something familiar from it. His attention was fully attracted by the particular object, and all his concerns were gone.

Any mortal or wizard would see the sphere as a common object, but in Angor’s eyes, the object was glowing, and at the same time, grasping his attention like a magnet.

“This is Mystery energy…” Angor mumbled. It was the same thing he felt when he crafted Prelude to Rebirth in Dark Castle.

Through the sphere, he could see faint water ripples flowing inside while releasing insignificant blue light.

“As I expected, you noticed the Mystery trace before I trigger it.” Mithra sighed and added, “I failed to notice the trace when I set my eyes on it for the first time. It is true that you once connected with Mystery energy.”

Mithra seemed envious as he continued, “It’s extreme luck bestowed by the gods or something alike. Since you already recognized Mystery energy, it won’t take long for you to find it again.”

Angor scratched his head at the sudden complimentary words.

“Mister Mithra, are there Mystery Potions too?”

“Yes. Potions are products of alchemy as well. This sphere contained a Mystery Potion called ‘Gaze of the Wise’.”

“Can we drink this stuff?”

“Remember, all potions are for consuming, yet we have different ways for that. You can sniff at something to consume it or wrap your spirit feelers around something. Of course, drinking is one basic way.

“Of course you can consume a Mystery Potion. Sometimes you don’t have to exhaust the potion to consume it. Such is the case for ‘Gaze of the Wise’. You may look at it to use the potion. It will never go away as long as you don’t break the container,” Mithra explained.

“I can… consume the potion by looking at it?” Angor widened his eyes in shock. Then he tried to see how it felt like by consuming something with his eyesight.

Mithra chuckled. “You can’t do it without me activating the potion first. Besides, it doesn’t benefit you. This potion bestows a special effect on someone’s eyes for a short time. You don’t have what it takes to endure the powerful effect right now.”

Angor scratched his head again.

“So it works like using an eye-related spell?”

Mithra chuckled again. “Do you think a common spell can compete with Mystery properties?”

“But there are ‘useless’ Mystery Items, right?”

“Useless, maybe. But they are still Mystery Items. I once found some notes that belonged to a deceased Mystery alchemist. They said that every Mystery Item existed for a reason. People find something useless because they failed to learn how to properly use it.” Mithra shrugged and said, “Such is the reason why certain Mystery Items sit in someone’s cabinet to collect dust.”

Angor wondered if, from now on, he should simply grab any Mystery Item he ran into regardless of their effect.

“And it’s no easy task to let a disregarded item shine again,” Mithra continued. “Maybe the item isn’t meant for humans but an unknown creature living thousands of planes apart. In that case, you may as well consider the item useless since you’ll never ascertain its true value.”

Slowly, Angor began to learn a lot about “Mystery” from Mithra as well.

When the bright sunlight brightened the cozy room, Yeliya interrupted their speech and brought Toya inside. “Now now, you’ve been talking for an entire night. Have some of my milk sandwich bread.”

The bread slices were all made in the shape of a kitten face. This was obviously to entertain Toya.

As a milk lover, Angor tried very hard to maintain his “serious persona”. After a bit of pretended courtesy, he slowly picked up his share.

However, something else happened before he could enjoy the snack. Someone pushed the room door open.

Against the strong sunlight outside, Angor could only see a handsome figure, who was shrouded in a golden rim, standing at the door.