Warlock Apprentice

The Tree of Eternity was the first one to actually get affected by the dark cloud as the cloud had already engulfed some of its lower branches.

On a giant leaf outside Tree Spirit Palace, the Tree Spirit ended its sunbath and due to the sudden abnormality, he removed his sunglasses. With only a piece of leaf covering his private part, he looked down at the dark cloud underneath.

Spells shined in his eyes, and he immediately registered the yard at the center of the area as well as the person inside the yard.

“Ha. It’s you, little one.” He revealed a surprised expression, which was rare for someone like him. “Let me see… He hadn’t been in Brute Cavern for even a year yet, and he’s already an intermediate apprentice alchemist now? My my. What a young genius.

“Of course, we should share such fun with others…”

He took out his transmitter and contacted Sunders, only to find the gentleman was not inside Brute Cavern at the moment.

Tree Spirit thought for a moment and took out a maple leaf which shined a green aura. The leaf spun in the air for a moment before Tree Spirit nodded. “You’ve gone to Twilight Well?”

…

Sunders was sitting inside a hall in the depth of Twilight Auction House.

Red curtains covered all directions of the hall. Sunders sat on the main seat on a long conference table. Both sides of the table were occupied by wizards—about twenty wizards from the three clans behind Twilight Well.

“The auction has been postponed for two days. Many sellers can’t wait anymore and took back their items. It caused us both financial loss and discredit. I call for a pledge of responsibility!” Twilight spoke loud and clear while looking at all the wizards. All except Sunders.

“I agree!” A witch from Enthralling Aroma, Kagura, seconded Twilight because her friend, Lion Princess, died in the incident.

The other wizards did not say anything. They looked at Sunders and waited for the gentleman’s opinion.

The clan master of Amber Dragonwing, Hannibal Bacca, spoke up next. The man had a strange-looking totem blinking between his eyebrows. “Shouldn’t we do something to get rid of the problem now… before getting to something else? You kept asking for responsibility and all that. Is that more important than solving the situation?”

Twilight stood up and looked at Hannibal in the eyes. “The aura of Yonk has vanished. That’s the second wizard we lost this time. You’re not worried because you didn’t lose anyone of your own.”

Hannibal spoke again in his calm tone, “Vanishing doesn’t mean death. Maybe he escaped into a plane passageway.”

“Enough!” Devildare exerted his aura over the hall. “It’s not the time to yell at each other. Mister Hannibal is right, we need a solution right now.”

Devildare looked at Sunders next. They invited the gentleman here so as to get rid of whatever was inside the auction hall.

Sunders spoke in his composed tone, “I checked. There’s a special energy field inside the hall, and it’s not from the wizarding world. The energy itself is only something from level-2 wizards, but whoever released it is at least a legendary.”

The other wizards exchanged fearful looks with each other upon hearing the word “legendary”.

“If a legendary creature did descend here, you should be thankful, for it didn’t start a bloodbath on its own. As for those who died… they dug their own graves,” said Sunders as he looked at Twilight in a mocking way. “And responsibility? Are you saying that my student, a level-1 apprentice, who was a mortal just half a year ago, summoned a legendary creature inside Twilight Auction House and ordered the creature to kill Lion Princess and Yonk? Really now?”

Sunders looked around and whoever met his gaze looked away. Even Devildare closed his eyes.

“Although I’m not sure if it’s a legendary yet… According to the transmission sent by Yonk before he disappeared, he saw a fox, a frog, and a card with a clown picture. I know them, and they are no legendary monsters. They deployed the energy field using the strength they borrowed from something. Any details will have to wait until I get in there and check-”

Before Sunders could finish, something shined from under his clothes, and a green maple leaf suddenly appeared from his pocket.

Under everyone’s gaze, the image of a bare-bodied handsome man showed up on the leaf.

“Hey, Sunders!”

Sunders was not the first one to respond. It was Devildare, who stood up first and bowed politely to the image. “Mister Tree Spirit.”

The image glanced back. “Oh, it’s you, lion cub? It’s been some time. I see your hairstyle is better than mine now.”

Devildare remained silent. His hair was a messy lump of fluff right now.

“Oh my, what’s going on with all of you? Waiting for your meals? Wait, don’t answer, I don’t care. I need Sunders.”

“Mister Tree Spirit,” Sunders replied, “something important must have happened, I assume? Since you used such long-range transmission?”

“Important? Nah-uh. I haven’t seen important stuff over ten millenniums. Now I think about it, I do hope to see one soon.”

“So what’s the matter, Mister Tree Spirit?”

“Hehehe. I saw something fun, so I thought I should share it with you.”

Sharing “something fun” at the cost of a great amount of mana by using a long-range transmission? Across two protective barriers? The remaining wizards all complained in their minds. However, they had to admit that Tree Spirit could totally do this since this being was the one providing all the energy that supported the entire mirror world.

“Look for yourself.” The image floated higher and revealed a black cloud under him.

“This is… an alchemy omen?” Devildare spoke. He was very experienced in handling alchemy items, and he immediately recognized the cloud.

Sunders did not speak. An alchemy omen was only relatively rare in Brute Cavern—it happened several times over each year. And something like this was completely common in Floating Mech City.

Apart from Devildare’s comment as a courtesy, none of the other wizards provided their opinion.

Although they were still curious about who created the mid-tiered alchemy item. Such an object would sell for at least thousands of magic crystals. They might contact the creator of it so that they could have one more lot for the Grand Auction at the end of this year.

“So, is it interesting? Are you interested?” The image of Tree Spirit moved closer to Sunders, smirking.

Sunders was calm as ever. “If you want to watch an alchemy omen, Mister Tree Spirit, Leona is coming back to Brute Cavern soon. You can ask her to create one for you right inside your palace.”

The Tree Spirit smiled big. “You still didn’t figure out what I meant? Look more closely. At the center of the black cloud.”

He simply displayed Angor’s yard on his image, which finally brought a smile to Sunders’ face.

“It’s Angor who’s performing alchemy?”

“I know, right? Look at him. A mortal half a year ago, an intermediate apprentice alchemist today. Hey, Sunders, a tiny suggestion for ya… Since Angor is so talented at alchemy, you should put him under my care and I’ll teach him. Besides, my little friends adored him quite a lot…”

“Teach him? Alchemy?” Sunders already knew what Tree Spirit wanted. Angor possessed enough potential to become a master alchemist in the future, and Tree Spirit simply wanted to earn himself the title of “The Teacher of a Master Alchemist”, which sounded awesome.

“What? There’s a lot I can teach him. Enjoying the sun, tending and watering flowers, playing games…”

Sunders snickered and cut the connection to stop Tree Spirit from telling them any more of his daily laziness.

But the gentleman was still smiling.

Devildare congratulated him just to be polite, “Wonderful. He became an intermediate at such a young age, such… talent.”

He failed to hold back adding something to his comment, “Abnormal talent”.

A mortal turned into an intermediate apprentice alchemist in half a year? It was abnormal. None of the wizards here was at that level yet. Devildare himself once tried and realized that neither his Tooling or Apothecary potential was acceptable. He spent several decades becoming someone who found the path of truth, and his alchemy skills were still elementary.

“The boy is only lucky,” Sunders smiled.

His smile hid much more emotions behind— Angor’s great alchemy talent was not the only thing. The boy was also talented in illusions. He already fused his Nightmare Domain! Now, how about that!

Among everyone, Twilight was the most surprised individual when she heard the information.

The eternal being, Tree Spirit, actually asked to take over Angor from Sunders… Could she kill the boy from now on? The woman had regretted many times, for not killing Angor when she had the chance during the auction.

The intense negative emotion was seeping away from Twilight, and Sunders immediately noticed it.

“Now I think about it,” Sunders scoffed. “Angor became an intermediate so quickly all thanks to Lady Twilight.”

Twilight looked up suddenly.

“Just think about his debt to you, the one hundred thousand magic crystals. That damned boy would never work so hard considering how he kept slacking off on me. Thank you, really.”

Of course Angor never “slacked off”. Sunders said that both to emphasize his superior teaching skills and Angor’s diligence while mocking Twilight at the same time. Three birds with one stone.

Once again, Twilight scowled hard which almost gave her permanent wrinkles. Yet she still could not oppose Sunders.

“I… see. It’s my pleasure.”