Warlock Apprentice

Angor returned to his residence and thought it over.

The “individual with information” mentioned by Magician wasn’t here. It was a powerful and mysterious figure, who shouldn’t be an acquaintance of someone like Magician. According to Magician, ever since he began attending the gathering of supernatural beings two years ago, that mysterious man would show up every time. And each time he spoke, the other guests would learn something new.

Also, the Ring of Illusion that Magician gave Baal also came from that man.

People didn’t use their real names during the meetings. They called that man “Shadow”.

The next supernatural meeting was planned around the beginning of Month of Freezing Earth, which was almost a month away. The spot was set near Water Grasse. Magician agreed to introduce Angor to those people, on condition that Angor could provide something in return; it could either be knowledge or other useful information.

Angor didn’t agree right away. He would think about it.

As a “self-educated supernatural”, Magician also knew the value of knowledge, so he didn’t push Angor. A community gathering was the only way to obtain new knowledge for someone like them.

This was why they usually held such meetings often, which was about twice every year. It helped them to conclude their own learnings and obtain more.

Angor, as an apprentice from a decent organization who owned a lot of books, didn’t need such help from amateurs.

He knew some cheap knowledge that he could use as payment, but he still asked for some time to consider it.

He planned to go to the capital of Zeal Dominion. If he agreed too early, he would have to wait in Water Grasse and delay his plan.

After some careful consideration, he still decided to accept Magician’s offer for now.

It meant he needed to spend some time in Water Grasse.

He didn’t idle his time away. He still continued his studies diligently, day and night. He almost learned everything that he could about nightmare illusions, but there were many more Occultist cantrips that he still needed, such as Voice Transmission, Heal… These were all necessary cantrips for a level-1 apprentice, and he had not looked into them even though he was already level-2.

He enjoyed the coming days. The cuisine in Water Grasse was decent, and the lifestyle was slow and easy, without any potential hostile forces plotting against the country. Angor had not enjoyed such a relaxed life in a while.

Magician would sometimes pay him a visit. And as they interacted more, Angor realized that this figure did not value people’s lives, just like how Baal described.

Magician wouldn’t venture out and slaughter people yet. But Angor noticed that Magician really hated Zeal Dominion for some reason.

Magician even suggested that he would start digging from the base of Zeal Dominion and slowly worked his way up to break down their supporting clans and families. He would then slowly take over the economy points and authorities until he overturned the court as a whole.

Without providing his own opinions, Angor only smiled as he listened to those words. It was probably another poor man who was betrayed by his nation. To Angor, Zeal Dominion was only his temporary touring spot, and he didn’t intend to get involved in anything.

He simply mentioned to Magician that a true wizard should not intervene with the mortal world too much, but Magician only grinned wickedly in response.

Once Magician made sure that Angor wasn’t going to settle down at Zeal Dominion or get acquainted with anyone, he began to visit less.

And Angor was glad that he didn’t have to speak to Magician too much. He always found it difficult to communicate with people who shared different ideas with him.

Compared to showing awkward courtesy, Angor preferred to study in solitude.

His study went slowly. Unlike level-0 cantrips, level-1 cantrips required certain knowledge and expertise to wield.

For example, he had to study sound waves in order to use Voice Transmission. He could receive such teaching from the classes held in Tree Spirit Garden. Now, however, he had to rely on himself.

This was also the reason why a self-educated amateur like Magician couldn’t learn many cantrips. They needed frequent meet-ups to make it up.

Angor only knew sound-wave-related insight from Earth, and he wasn’t sure if things worked the same in the wizarding world. He had to proceed slowly and go over lots of trials and errors.

Days quickly went away as he immersed himself in his experiments.

One week later, he rubbed his aching temples and looked up from his desk.

After working on countless calculations and data demonstrations, he concluded that the subject of acoustic waves was slightly different in the two civilizations. In the wizarding world, where the atmosphere was full of primal mana, wizards could use this energy to change the speed of sound in certain mediums. And this had greatly contradicted the knowledge system of Earth.

However, Jon already mentioned that certain physical constants in this world appeared to be different from those on Earth.

The other basic applications of sound waves were still the same, but they might yield different results.

To learn Voice Transmission, Angor only needed some very basic proficiency in the subject. And he already knew enough.

Next was to look into the foundation of this cantrip.

It needed much time, so Angor planned to put it aside for now. He wished to solve the problems regarding Dodoro and Pocratee first.

He wasn’t going to pursue the history and memories of Dodoro, but he was still concerned about Pocratee. Those rainbow dragonflies seemed to be harmless to him for now. However, they could be a great threat in the future.

Also, the plane passageway in Pocratee had to be connected to the Nightmare Realm as well. According to Sunders, it was hopeless to actually travel to the Nightmare Realm without a coordinate. But… a tunnel like that was like a time bomb.

Angor wanted to search for information about Pocratee, just in case. And he already did it by presenting the serpent mark to Baal while asking the thug to investigate it in his place.

While waiting for Baal, Angor returned his attention to Dodoro again.

How to deal with this guy?

Previously, he thought about dropping him off somewhere in this city. But… Dodoro held too many secrets. How could a mortal survive for a thousand years? Angor hoped he could learn something to help his brother and Jon to achieve the same thing.

He didn’t know how to do it, but back in Brute Cavern, there had to be someone who could do it.

Angor sighed and decided to keep Dodoro for now… unless something forced him to give Dodoro up.

And since he would spend more time with Dodoro, he had to think about something else, such as how to “educate” him.

Dodoro’s mind seemed innocent and empty, like a child. It was up to Angor on how to “shape” Dodoro’s character.

Before all that, however, the least that Dodoro should know was to learn how to communicate with people.

Angor had to find a way to teach Dodoro about basic human senses. He planned to ask Baal whether there were such schools in Water Grasse later.

However, he wasn’t going to let Baal decide on which teacher they should ask. A thug would only find more trouble.

…

Someone knocked on the door at noon.

When Angor opened the door, he was surprised to find someone he didn’t know standing outside.

It was a middle-aged man, who was wearing a neat black robe. The man was obviously trying to remain calm, but his terrified expression gave him out.

“Who are you, and why are you here?” Angor asked first after the visitor remained silent for quite a while.

The visitor tried not to tremble too openly, and while he was still shivering, he spoke in the best manner he could manage.

“Sir-sir, I-I-I am the butler of Count Leonrick. Since he heard that a great wizard has visited Water Grasse, he would like to invite you to join him for a friendly talk.”

With a trembling arm, the butler handed Angor a gold-stamped invitation letter.

Angor raised an eyebrow. “Count? You mean Leonrick?”

Apart from Baal, Magician also mentioned Leonrick multiple times—furiously—and so, Angor knew well about that name.

“Yes,” the butler replied as he lowered his head.

Angor watched the man sweating badly and frowned. Am I so scary?

“I see. You can go now.”

Angor didn’t give the man a definite answer, but the butler was very glad he had finished his delivery unharmed and showed the wizard their sincerity.

After the visitor was gone, Angor opened up the letter.

Leonrick had invited him to a dinner party that was to be held the day after tomorrow. The letter explicitly mentioned that there would be no other guests.

Angor smiled at Leonrick’s smart move.

Compared to Magician, Angor was actually interested in Leonrick. He believed Leonrick to be a capable leader since Water Grasse was such a flourishing and peaceful place.

He decided to accept the invitation.

It wasn’t wise to put all bet on that “Shadow” entity. Leonrick was the leader of the city as well as the master of a clan that held power for centuries. That man had to know a lot of things.