Warlock Apprentice

Sunders was right when he said the garden was completing. Standing near the garden, Angor could clearly see the white mist covering the garden slowly disappearing, revealing a rippled barrier which divided the very space.

The barrier shrank rapidly. At the same time, the land and vegetations inside vanished along with it, leaving a giant hole behind.

The wind stopped when raindrops came pouring down.

“The world’s consciousness is here.”

Sunders’ voice barely ended when a strange feeling climbed onto everyone’s heart, an ancient and primal feeling, that caused them to bow down and surrender.

Angor felt like a scrap of dirt in the middle of endless land, drifting aimlessly under the effect of the mighty aura.

He did not find any will to resist at all. His mind followed the feeling on itself.

“It’s injecting the law!” Sunders’ words were heard.

Everyone on the scene, including wizards, all looked at the Sorcerer’s Garden in a serious attitude.

Butler Goode once mentioned to Angor that when the world’s consciousness injected a law into the newly-built Sorcerer’s Garden where destiny laid within, a mysterious rhyme which represented the law would come along.

Angor had no idea how to seize the said destiny. When everyone was paying their full attention, Angor was still completely lost. In order not to look too out of place, Angor pretended to be staring at the Sorcerer’s Garden in all seriousness. However, he learned nothing from his action.

When his attention traveled around random things, Angor saw Toby hopping on his shoulder, and quickly told the bird to quiet. “Destiny is coming, stay focused.”

Toby stopped its movement and stared at the Sorcerer’s Garden along with Angor. Neither of them knew what was going on.

Suddenly, a strange rhyme came spreading out.

Everyone within an area of dozens of square kilometers centered around the Phantom Island became silent. They all sensed the rhyme carefully.

When the rhyme came about, Angor also closed his eyes unintentionally and listened to it in a state he never experienced before.

It was a strange state. It was not meditation or tranquility of mind, but he still felt calmer than ever. His mind now looked like a borderless grassland which welcomed any wind or cloud to travel through. Even occasional horse herds galloping through did not disrupt the quiet space inside his mind.

Angor fully enjoyed the comfortable state.

At this moment, he could feel everything happening in this world as if the mysterious rhyme materialized in front of his eyes and bestowed knowledge without holding anything back.

…

The rhyme danced like musical notes, creating a concert of spirit in the eyes of its audiences.

The music had a quiet prelude, like a small drop of water on the surface of calm lake water. The ripples it created only further calmed people’s minds.

The prelude did not last long. When Angor was still indulged in the melodic ripples, faint drumbeats replaced everything and stepped onto the stage.

He never heard such drumbeats before. Each beat pulled on his organs and dragged them downward, giving him an uncomfortable feeling.

The third beat already caused Angor to fall on the ground, rendering him unable to move. Toby also lay beside him with its limbs spread out, as if the bird just found its life totally hopeless.

“The melody… the melody of gravity?!” A wizard muttered.

“You’re right. It is a gravity rhyme,” Wallace spoke. He was previously standing among the wizards, but the strange force caused him to hunker on the ground instead.

“So Sunders created a garden of gravity?”

“Did you smell something? Some flowers in the garden?”

Angor sprawled on the dirt when the strange drumbeats kept tingling his body. His mind was still strangely sensitive like a moment ago, with every sense amplified several times stronger. Each beat caused him severe pain.

Still, he was in better condition. Even if he could not bear the pressure brought by gravity, he could still lie on the ground.

The apprentices flying outside, on the other hand, all met their terrible fate. When the rhyme turned from an enjoyable melody to merciless pressure, they were all pulled down before they could react. People fell from the air, screaming like mad.

When the drum brought the tenth beat, Angor felt something changing.

He sensed a flaw in his tranquil mind. There was no wind, cloud or horses on the grassland now. Everything was replaced by a strange rhyme, the same one released by the Sorcerer’s Garden.

Angor was still unsure of what was going on when he found himself waking up.

Once awake, the pressure of gravity brought by the drumbeats appeared more bearable to him. The feeling was moderate, compared to when Angor was still immersed in his tranquil mental state.

Half a minute later, the rhyme slowly disappeared when the drumbeats finally stopped.

Now, the Sorcerer’s Garden began to shine a golden light and was shrinking ten times faster than before. The garden quickly became smaller than a finger ring and dropped into the hole on the ground.

Sunders waved a hand and the golden spot came flying into his palm.

No one prevented him from doing so. Still, all wizards showed jealousy in their eyes. That was a Sorcerer’s Garden, a valuable and tactical resource that could be carried around easily.

A Sorcerer’s Garden was enough to provide support for a middle-sized wizard organization. Now someone just possessed a private one…

It was a good thing that Sunders belonged to Brute Cavern. It would not be too hard for them to use Sorcerer’s Garden in the future.

“The world’s consciousness is leaving.”

“Yes. So it must be a garden of gravity this time.”

“This law is only a mid-tier one, but it’s still useful. Bloodline wizards can train their bodies inside.”

“Pity. I didn’t sense the sequence of gravity.”

“I wonder what kind of gravity level the garden can offer? If it can strengthen it to a hundred times, all bloodline wizards in the south will want to come here and receive baptism.”

“Looks like we Brute Cavern will become a paradise for Bloodline Art.”

“Grass Snail, you shameless fool. This is Sunders’ personal garden. Don’t place the organization on high moral grounds already.”

“Come on. I’m just mentioning a possible idea.”

“Once the information gets out, those from Gravity Forest will surely get furious about this. If I remembered right, Sunders scammed the fragment of eternity from ‘Dryad’ Boko, a Gravity Forest wizard.”

“Scam? That’s a legit business!”

Since the Sorcerer’s Garden was completed, the once serious wizards all began to chat.

After listening to their conversation, Angor now had a basic idea about the garden.

The wizards called it the “garden of gravity” probably because gravity was its law. Angor felt a bit disappointed. If the garden received the law of purification, he no longer had to worry about challenging Sky Tower.

The law of gravity was of little use to him. As the wizards said, this garden was most effective when used by bloodline wizards to train their bodies. However, Angor was an Occultist.

Even so, the garden could be used by many, since bloodline wizards were not the only ones who studied bloodline. In order to strengthen their physical performance, most wizards from three major arts would choose to fuse a bloodline into their bodies.

Sunders floated down slowly.

Using his sharp perception, Angor quickly noticed that Sunders was wearing a golden ear nail on his right ear. The garden of gravity was probably fixed on this piece of accessory.

The wizards all stopped talking and looked at Sunders.

“I checked. The law of gravity in the garden was still in its initial state. It can provide 3.17 times gravity at his current condition. With my calculation, when the law energy completely fills the garden, the center of the garden should have a gravity of 93 times,” Sunders slowly explained.

Ninety-third times gravity!

It was absolutely good news for bloodline wizards. A bloodline apprentice could receive a good baptism under the gravity of 10 times while a bloodline wizard would need a gravity of 30 to 100 times. A gravity beyond 100 times would be constantly effective for level-2 wizards.

There were many different types of gravity gardens too, and a garden useful to wizards was extremely valuable.

Sunders’ garden of gravity was probably a middle-leveled one or something a little weaker, but it was still a lot more useful than the garden in Floating Mech City.

…

Angor poked at Toby and asked if the bird found anything.

He never expected Toby to actually gain anything, so he was just idling his time away with the bird. However, Toby nodded in a serious manner which caused Angor to widen his eyes.

“You found something? Well, I didn’t find any,” said Angor. He revealed a sad look. “You’re not pulling my leg, um?”

Toby shook its head and kept a serious expression.

Sunders just left the crowd and approached Angor. When he heard Angor’s words, the man also looked at Toby with a curious look.

“You gained something in the process?”

Toby lifted its head proudly.

Everyone knew that the construction of a Sorcerer’s Garden could bring good destiny. People could follow the rhyme created by the world’s consciousness when it injected a law into the garden, and try to comprehend the law from it. This was not limited to high-level wizards. Apprentices had their own chances of learning something as well.

Someone with great talent could even learn the law of gravity straight away. But it was only theoretically. Possible by rules, but impossible to achieve in reality.

Someone might catch something about the basic sequence of the law at best. Most people would not achieve anything at all. Like this time, none of the wizards sensed the sequence of gravity. Not even Sunders.

Sunders stared at Toby with squinted eyes. The curiosity grew stronger.

“Let’s see how well you comprehended the sequence of gravity.”