Warlock Apprentice

After reaching Sunders’ mansion, Angor immediately started to work in front of a desk.

He already recorded Nausica’s body data in Brute Cavern and created a general blueprint for her arm. Now, he needed to put his ideas together and create several functions that could be used in fights.

It took him about half a day. Now, he had to determine how to assemble and finalize the appearance of it. He didn’t lie to Nausica when mentioning the name of Mithra. He was indeed going to see the old man tomorrow and hopefully receive some advice. Even though Mithra was an Apothecary, but the fact that this city was home to the most crucial machine alchemy knowledge meant that Mithra was bound to be experienced enough.

The night sky was clear. Moon and stars shone brightly across the occasional drifting clouds.

Angor took out Toby from his pocket. It had been half a month since they left Dark Castle, but Toby was still sleeping. However, he sensed something powerful flowing within the bird’s body, which was probably the emotion of “wrath”.

He took out a Soul Orb; Toby opened his beak out of instinct at the smell of soul energy.

Carefully, Angor stroked Toby’s feather and checked his condition. It seemed Toby’s vitals were stable and fine.

After putting Toby back into his pocket, Angor thought about checking on the Krakoks. He wasn’t sure whether he could come out of the garden alive yet.

In order not to disappoint the grand priest, he decided to temporarily place the Krakoks elsewhere.

With a flicker of mind, all Krakoks, as well as their guest, Dodoro, appeared inside Angor’s room.

There was only Dodoro who gave Angor a puzzled look. None of the Krakoks noticed the change of environment because Angor had deployed a mist illusion around their home. It was both to prevent them from wandering off and to block what was going on outside.

“An…” Dodoro’s eyes quickly regained innocent brilliance. He tried to call Angor’s name.

Angor put a finger at his lips.

Dodoro blinked, understood the gesture, and closed his mouth.

Angor was content with Dodoro’s response. It seemed Dodoro was learning the way of civilization just fine with the help of Trusan as well as Papaya’s grandmother.

Dodoro had gone quiet, but his eyes followed Angor’s actions closely.

Next, Angor summoned Papaya from the Krakok building.

The tiny girl looked around the room in curiosity. “Sir, is this the new home you found for us?”

“What, you want to get back to being fairies in the attics again?” Angor chuckled.

According to history, Krakoks used to live inside human houses. Their attics, to be precise.

“We can settle anywhere. Attics are fine, if the other humans treat us as nicely as you, sir.” Papaya didn’t forget to flatter him.

“So, how’s life recently? Everything’s good?”

“Our people are trying to figure out how the ‘skyscraper’ was made, sir. They love it! Our neighbors are free to get together or retreat to their own rooms as they see fit. We have more time to socialize. They say we need to build more of these buildings when we arrive at the new home.”

“I see you’re adapting pretty well. Look, I called you here to tell you something.”

He took Papaya to Number One and asked the machine butler to handle the provision of Krakoks for some time.

Once it was settled, Angor came to Sunders’ study.

The Krakoks might be small, but he still needed his professor’s consent to take in all the extra guests.

“You can.” Sunders nodded upon hearing Angor’s request. He already learned about Angor’s new companions when the boy told his stories. Anyway, these mortals beings weren’t going to take up much space.

Then Angor puffed up his courage and asked Sunders if something could be done about the Krakok’s bloodline problem.

Sunders took a moment to scan Papaya’s body. “You… can lift it, sure.”

Before Angor could ask for further advice, Sunders stopped him. “But not now. Figure out how when you’re at the wizard level, or ask one of your friends who are training the Bloodline art. You have one such friend, right?”

Sunders didn’t see it necessary to help Angor with this problem. The boy was asked to help the creatures, and he should be the one to finish his own end of the deal.

Angor nodded. It meant he had to ask Nausica for help later.

With the Krakoks’ matter dealt with, Angor stayed in front of Sunders and pondered how he should ask the next question.

Sunders watched Angor’s “hey ask me what’s wrong please!” expression and finally decide to end Angor’s embarrassment. “… What do you want?”

“Um, I heard that the purification garden gave wizards invitation cards?”

“That’s right.” Sunders nodded.

“Can I have one?” Angor blinked happily.

Sunders stared at Angor with a poker face until Angor started to tremble.

“You want to get a new title?”

Angor stammered something in a small voice.

Sunders clearly knew what his little student was thinking about. He took out a card and tossed it to Angor while hiding an inconspicuous smile. “Take it. Don’t worry too much about your title. Not many people know who was fighting in the Sky Tower.”

Angor nodded just to be clear to Sunders. Still, he believed anything, ANYTHING, was better than “Baron Milk”.

Once Angor accepted the card, he prepared to head back to his room. Suddenly, Sunders’ sudden question stopped him. “What are you working on recently?”

“Field of Fire,” Angor replied truthfully.

“A Sorcery Array cantrip… good choice. It asks for expertise in alchemy and magic arrays. You can keep on. Just another piece of advice for you. Since you can unleash the sequence of gravity now, try to exploit the power as much as possible. It will be handy in the coming garden challenge.”

Angor nodded again. He didn’t have much chance to practice the sequence of gravity because he couldn’t persist for long once his soul was separated from his body. The gravity power could help him move around faster. He had to get familiarized so that he could stay alive better.

As for how to keep his body safe while his soul was away, he planned to ask Mithra later. There should be some potions for this purpose.

Next, Sunders tossed another object at Angor—Talent Sphere.

The gentleman pointed at Papaya, who had been staying quiet out of fear. “She’s a talented one. Since you have so many people with you, might as well test them out. If you manage to find five talents, you can go accept the recruitment quest and get some reward out of it. At the same time, the talents you find can join Brute Cavern as apprentices. Sometimes, letting people solve their own problems is better than helping them as an outsider, no?”

Angor left Sunders and pondered what he just learned.

Sunders was right; the Krakok could always find their own solution to address their bloodline problem, on condition that some of them stepped onto the path of wizardry and persisted.

But it wasn’t easy to find five new talents.

…

Angor returned to his bedroom and saw Number One waiting at his door.

“Mister Padt, the master asked me to arrange the guest room next to yours for the new guests.”

Sunders said so?

Angor planned to keep the Krakoks in his own room for the moment. Sunders probably did this to grant him space for personal study, and Angor felt grateful for it.

He took Dodoro and the Krakoks to the neighboring room and kept them there.

The talent test wasn’t an urgent matter. He planned to wait until the Krakoks found a new home. One thing at a time.

Even so, he wanted to give Dodoro the test as soon as possible.

When traveling on Gondola with Shadow, Naga mentioned something about Dodoro’s exceptionally high spiritual power indicator, which meant Dodoro was qualified as a talent. The Talent Sphere couldn’t show people the exact nature of one’s talent, but he could always refer to Abelles’ Annual Talent Collection and take a guess.

With that in mind, Angor called Dodoro to sit down in front of him.

Dodoro complied with a friendly smile.

Angor placed the Talent Sphere, a lit oil lamp, and a glass of water on his desk. Fire and water were two of the most commonly seen “changes” during talent tests.

“Put your hand on the sphere later and observe your surroundings carefully. Tell me if you see something abnormal, like something new, something amiss, the fire burning bigger or going dim, or if the water moves… Anything. Stay focused.”

Dodoro grew serious after hearing Angor’s words. “I understand!”

“Then let us begin.”