Warlock Apprentice

The sudden change on the screen confused all onlookers. They all wondered what Lawson was up to.

First, they saw the forefather of the Duons sitting still inside its cave, while a bow-carrying apprentice sat at its feet while writing something.

“That big dude is the main sacrificial material, right?” The other wizards discussed. They could sense the creature’s deadly aura even though it wasn’t moving or intentionally displaying it.

Some of the wizards from Floating Mech City explained the origin of the forefather of the Duons.

“Hey… that one looks familiar. Isn’t he the little boy from Feinwerder Family?” A wizard pointed to the apprentice sitting under the Duon Forefather.

“That’s him. He got guts… Is he writing an essay while the forefather is around?”

The city wizards described why the Altar of Demise was activated ahead of schedule, while the others began to regard the apprentice shown on the screen with different looks as they realized this Feinwerder inheritor was the one who caused a change in plan.

Kayaso was still indulged in his diary, and he never realized that both the apprentices and wizards outside the garden considered him a culprit.

For a brief moment, Kayaso felt his heart shivering a little. He then shrugged it off.

Lawson looked around more and found no abnormalities in the forefather’s chamber. He then switched the display to where Erdus was dwelling.

The sky was dark. Thunderclouds and tornadoes wreaked havoc on the sea, sending their deadly momentum in all directions.

“Yup. Something happened to Erdus,” said Lawson as he frowned again. “Nothing serious. The sacrifice is approaching the end and it’ll die anyway.”

“But who killed it and how?” Muse was confused.

The display headed to the depth of the sea, when all the observers exclaimed in awe—What a gigantic mussel!

“Another wizard-level monster? But… it’s dead. Did you send wizards in there again?”

The city guards shook their heads to deny. Lawson was the only wizard who once entered the purification garden. He went inside to deal with the Lord of Tentacles, which conveniently saved the lives of a group of apprentices.

Erdus’ death had nothing to do with Lawson.

Soon, the wizards wondered if an apprentice was behind this.

But an apprentice killed a wizard-level monster? Seriously?

The display shifted again while it moved through Erdus’ shell. But before the “camera” could enter Erdus’ body, they saw a lot of corpses floating just above Erdus’ skin.

Telling from the bite marks, they were killed by the monsters in the sea.

But those fish aren’t exactly powerful… at least these apprentices should not die without putting up a fight.

They finally understood what happened when someone explained that Erdus was talented in creating illusions. This meant the apprentices could well get eaten alive while trapped in various deceptions.

They were confused again when a city guard told them that Erdus should be sleeping right now.

“Maybe they detected Meraid’s Swords inside Erdus, so they went inside the deadly trap by themselves,” a guard said as he took a guess.

It was not the exact truth, but it was close enough.

Lawson switched the display to Erdus’ heart and was surprised by what he saw.

“That’s… Angor?”

Inside the display, Angor, who was in pretty bad shape, was standing in front of three other women and an otherworldly slave.

Erdus’ heart wasn’t there, although people could tell what happened to it since the room was still raining flesh and blood.

There was no doubt that the boy standing in the middle of the display just destroyed the heart.

“Who’s that? He killed Erdus?” A wizard asked.

“You’ll know him if you have read the newest edition of Precision Sky,” a witch commented.

“Oh pff. That gossiping paperwork just wastes your time. I heard they let mortals take part in their editing works? Then I’d say most of the magazine is about lies.”

“Still, it told you about who the boy is, and we all know it isn’t a lie.” The witch noticed that more people were directing attention to her so she kept explaining, “Just think about what happened at Elixir Hut half a month ago.”

“You mean Sunders fought with Bogula?” someone muttered. He then exclaimed in a louder voice, “That boy was why Sunders went for Bogula in the first place!”

Bogula’s twisted obsession regarding blond hair and blue eyes was not a secret among people. The man would go after ANY creatures with similar features.

They checked the screen again. The boy in the display had really short hair for some reason, but they could still see the bright blond color as well as those pair of deep-blue eyes… Angor still looked immature in many aspects, yet he was undeniably a perfect “prey” in Bogula’s eyes.

As for why Sunders wanted to take the boy away from Bogula…

“I see it now. He’s Angor Padt, Sunders’ newly adopted student. People said that Sunders make many exceptions by doing so. And he’s an alchemist who once reached out to Mystery items or something?”

“Oh, don’t make me laugh. Mystery power at such an age? Well, I’d admit he used some pretty tricks to kill Erdus. That makes him pretty strong in his rank. Do you think someone like that has time to study alchemy?”

“So whatever made Sunders so interested in him?”

While the other wizards talked to each other, Lawson silently appreciated Angor’s effort.

This boy contributed to the death of the Lord of Tentacles, albeit indirectly. But now, Angor killed Erdus with his own hands… Nice. Now I see why Sunders wants him so much.

But I’m afraid his life ends here.

Lawson felt it a great pity that the boy wouldn’t make it out alive again. After killing Erdus, there were still Erdus’ illusions to deal with. And it was no easy task.

“He has 30 minutes to break all these wizard-level illusions. Even if Erdus is dead, an apprentice like him won’t make it,” a wizard also saw the situation and spoke to everyone. The wizard added, “I think I need at least an hour if I’m in the same situation.”

“An hour, huh? I’ll give you a full day and see if you can live up to your words.”

“Such a waste of talent… dead inside Erdus’ belly.”

“A dead talent is of no use to anyone, however good he is.”

“Let’s check the altar already. There’s no point looking at those who’ll die soon.”

The discussion ended as the wizards concluded on Angor’s fate—a flash in the pan, to be forgotten overnight.

Not everyone would forget about him. A number of wizards were interested in Angor’s brilliant display of strength, and they would keep his particularly handsome young face and name in mind.

While everyone had their attention on Angor, Kanter immediately noticed Keely inside the screen.

And he was extremely shocked when he noticed that by telling Keely to “look after Angor”, the outcome came out reversed.

But it didn’t really matter since Kanter was really anxious about Keely’s condition. She’s going to die at this rate!

With a swift move, Kanter flashed away and joined Mithra.

“Mithra! Is there a way to rescue them out of there?” Kanter directly cut to the point.

Mithra’s expression looked as grim as Kanter. He valued Angor’s alchemy skills and even introduced Angor to Muse. But something went wrong in the end. It always did.

Mithra looked at Lawson and Muse instead of answering.

The others also noticed Kanter’s movement. Kanter was the strongest wizards here apart from Lawson and Muse, and the others knew what Kanter was trying to do when they saw Keely on the screen.

They wondered how Lawson would react to this. Rather than expecting an answer, they merely considered the incident fun to watch.

Muse saw Mithra looking his way and sent a Voice Transmission to Lawson, “Guess we should get those two out of there. Keely is Kanter’s only student, and Angor’s a promising pupil. I already gave him the gate card to our Research Department. Don’t let it go to waste.”

Lawson gave Muse a surprised look as he didn’t think Muse would treasure the boy that much.

“… No. You know well that any wizard that goes inside now will cause interference to the final stage of the garden’s evolution. Also, with so many wizards watching, we cannot afford to do so just for personal matters.”

Muse sighed and put away his filming stone. He also accepted the fact that Angor would perish this day.

And that was the response everyone was waiting for.

The other wizards shook their heads as they missed a chance to witness a fun drama, while Kanter’s face went pale.

Muse glanced at Kanter again. “Well, Lilith’s Clan is the only organization that cares about their students so much. Oh right, Sunders didn’t come today, did he?”

Lawson was thinking about the same thing just now.

While it was true that comprehending a natural law was harder than finding a needle in the ocean, but it was something worth trying nevertheless. Why would Sunders disregard such an opportunity?

Also, how Sunders reacted against Bogula at Elixir Hut suggested that the gentleman really liked his student.

Lawson glanced at another direction. His sight penetrated concrete and steel until he saw a certain mansion surrounded by flower gardens.

At the same time, Sunders also looked up from his desk and accepted Lawson’s distant gaze.

Lawson grinned and looked away.

“Heh. That man looks fine, but he can’t fool me…” Lawson squinted his eyes. “He’s not doing very well.”

Lawson would not look into Sunders’ thoughts. There was no point offending the gentleman now.

“Hey, Mister Lawson, why are we looking at a bunch of dead apprentices? I want to see if Jolene has reached the altar,” a witch named Spade came to Lawson and asked to check on her own student.

Since they all believed that those inside Erdus would eventually embrace their end, Lawson decided not to pay them unnecessary attention and switched the display back to the Altar of Demise.