Warlock Apprentice

Angor walked into Sunders’ study and saw his professor fiddling something in his hands.

Before Angor could comment on how their gentleman costumes looked so alike, his attention was attracted by the item Sunders was checking—his secret alchemy weapon.

A golden revolver carved with glyphs.

That was his last secret trick in his tower challenge, apart from Trigger Crossbow and Toby.

The revolver itself, as well as all of the six bullets in its wheel, were enchanted with different runes. It was his strongest weapon for now.

Since Sunders found his revolver… where was his Trigger Crossbow?

Angor moved closer and quickly noticed it on Sunders’ desk.

“You’re here,” said Sunders. He kept his attention on the revolver without looking up.

Angor responded with a “yes” in a small voice and did not know what to say next. He decided to thank Sunders in the end. “Butler Goode told me. If not for professor’s help, I’d have… I’m really sorry for the trouble, sir.”

Sunders glanced at him. “I only helped you repress the Green Velvet in you. It was a young salesman from the alchemy shop who saved you from the angry mobs.”

Young salesman… it must be Dave.

So, Angor’s memory was right. Also, he believed he saw Prome helping him as well.

While Angor thought about the whole matter, Sunders lifted the strange handgun and spoke, “This is quite an interesting design. Which alchemy shop provided this?”

Angor shook his head, a little embarrassingly. “It’s called a ‘revolver’. I made it.”

Despite his expression, Angor actually felt proud. He was waiting for Sunders to mention his Trigger Crossbow last time so he could show his professor his alchemy talent, but Sunders never did.

Sunders raised an eyebrow and looked doubtful. “You… created this?”

“Yes, professor.” If Angor had a tail, it should be wagging now.

Sunders looked at Angor up and down in surprise. Then he pulled a piece of Blood Bronze from his earring and tossed it to Angor.

“Try melting it.”

Angor noticed that this was another type of Blood Bronze called Blood of Demon Falcon. It was something a lot better than the Earth Fiend Bronze he used before.

To Angor, Sunders’ request appeared as if the gentleman thought he was lying. Angor was a bit irritated by it.

Angor did not show it though. He accepted the material without a second thought and began to cast Thaw right in front of Sunders.

Common alchemists needed to be really careful when using Thaw so that they would not mess up their mana output. However, Angor had the Axes of the Universe to help him, and he was very used to this spell now, so he did a quick and handy job when handling the block of bronze.

Sunders’ surprise grew bigger upon discovering the alchemy talent of his little student. Such a talent was always an extremely valuable asset to anyone. Sunders himself once tried to study alchemy. He had spent several decades on it without gaining much progress in the end. The man really regretted it especially since he was so skilled at other subjects.

Thaw was only a level-0 cantrip. However, it was the foremost challenge in learning alchemy and was difficult to master. Such precise control of mana flow displayed by Angor was only possible for Sunders when he nearly became a formal wizard. Meanwhile, Angor had only entered the wizarding world for half a year…

Sunders only asked Angor to melt the material down. However, Angor was still discontent at how his professor distrusted him, so he proceeded to shape the bronze block using Hand of Spell.

Sunders shook his head when seeing Angor’s attempt. Kids… so easily triggered. Without supplementary materials, what could he do with just a block of raw material?

Angor never intended to craft any significant items. He was only shaping the material to show Sunders what he could do. However, without proper tools, his Hand of Spell worked a little too slow.

Sunders noticed the problem and handed Angor a utility knife. The gentleman was also curious about what Angor could do now.

Angor accepted his professor’s tool and worked harder. He tried to make a small statue of a Demon Falcon since he was very familiar with one during his days on the cloud whale. Soon, the figure of a soaring Demon Falcon appeared in Angor’s spell.

Before using Condense to fix the shape, Angor suddenly thought about a new idea.

He had been working on how to fuse Acoustic Illusions into his music box. He did not know how yet, but he had enough knowledge on how to fix the illusions inside a simpler item.

A basic illusion deceived people’s senses by putting mana into several important nodes in the atmosphere, and Angor was already good at deploying a basic illusion in a large area.

But he had never tried putting a basic illusion in a small space. The fundamental was still the same—he just needed to shrink a large-scale illusion into a smaller range while obeying a fixed ratio.

Before the shape of the Demon Falcon statue was determined, Angor must find the correct nodes to place his miniature illusion.

And this was only his first time attempting it.

He was not afraid of failure. He had already satisfied Sunders’ order, and he was now free to try something else.

Placing a small illusion while maintaining the forging process required great patience and attention, and Angor had them both. Angor carefully analyzed the coordinates for the nodes while keeping a stable mana output.

Sunders had been observing Angor’s work carefully. When he noticed that Angor began to inject more mana into the statue instead of using Condense to finish the job, the gentleman revealed a surprised smile.

As the strongest illusionist in the south, he immediately realized what Angor was trying to do. Most illusionists were adept at using illusions in the macroscopic world and never paid much attention to micro levels. As a master of illusions, Sunders knew that micro illusions were no weaker than full-scale ones. Sometimes, they might be even stronger.

Sunders was planning to tell Angor about it when the boy hit level-2. Yet… Angor learned it on his own!

“That’s my student!” Sunders praised in his mind.

Angor struggled a little when creating his first micro illusion. He did not intend to try anything too hard. Making the statue looked a bit “strange” was the only thing on his mind, so Angor only needed to find out a few critical nodes.

About a quarter of an hour later, he successfully found the last node.

Angor quickly used Condense to cool down the statue. This was also an important step, and he did not let his guard down.

When the statue was finished, Angor looked around and found no cracks on it. He was excited when he sensed a small trace of mana coming from the statue.

It was a success!

…

After checking that the statue was fine, Angor looked at his professor.

Sunders crossed his fingers and observed Angor’s creation with a smile of approval.

Angor sighed in relief. He placed the Demon Falcon statue on Sunders’ desk.

It looked so alive, like a real falcon hovering in the vast sky.

The carving technique was average. Any skilled sculptor could do it easily. Because of Angor’s experience during which he always watched the falcons patrolling the sky, he did a really good job at recreating the overall physique of the creature, especially the vibrant eyes.

Sunders lifted a finger and injected a tiny mana stream into the statue.

Upon receiving the energy, the Demon Falcon became “alive”. The faint shadow of the animal emerged from the statue, spread its wings wide, and launched itself into the sky through the room’s window.

However, the shadow only persisted for several seconds.

If judged using the standard of other illusionists, this one was neither logical or deceiving enough. It was not a useful illusion at all.

But it made a fine decoration. At least Angor believed so.

“Decent work. It’s flawed, but I’m glad you learned how to apply illusions to real life and in micro scales.”

Despite his plain tone, Sunders felt really satisfied deep inside. What Angor just did prove that the boy had well-balanced talent in both alchemy and illusion, as well as the ability to find great innovations.

Still, it was a rare sight that the stern gentleman smiled so much.

“Your alchemy skill is promising as well. Too bad I’m not so good at alchemy myself, so I can’t provide you much,” said Sunders as he handed the Trigger Crossbow and revolver to Angor. “These two weapons showed me enough of your creative ideas. Maybe we Brute Cavern will finally witness our own master alchemist one day.”

Angor blushed a little. Both the Trigger Crossbow and the revolver were created by following the blueprints left in Jon’s tablet. Angor did not really put much of his own ideas in them.

This was why Angor felt a little ashamed by Sunders’ compliment.

…

After returning Angor’s alchemy weapons, Sunders told Angor something else about illusions.

Upon giving Angor enough advice, the gentleman suddenly changed their conversation.

“I sensed the Nightmare Realm the day before yesterday.”

“Nightmare Realm?” Angor was surprised at the sudden topic.

“Yes. It was weak, but it came from you. That was why I went to the underground market and found out about your condition, and brought you back to Phantom Island to treat you. Otherwise, the Green Velvet spores in your body would have already destroyed your flesh.”

“Green Velvet spore?” Angor realized that Sunders was talking about the green pollens used by Parasite Queen.

“I saw your fight against Parasite Queen that day. I still have questions though. Tell me what exactly happened on that day, and how did you trigger something from the Nightmare Realm.”