Warlock Apprentice

Shadow asked a question when he saw Angor coming back, “Hey, that’s not your… pet? I thought you have a fetish or something, since he’s so stupid and all.”

Angor gave him a side-glance. For some reason, Shadow really loved talking dirty jokes.

“What’s so special about that mortal?” Shadow looked toward the small room. Everything in there was hidden behind a curtain, but he could hear someone talking. Using spirit feelers, he saw the small wooden building used by Krakoks standing in the room.

The mortal named Dodoro was crouching in front of the building while listening to an old Krakok woman telling stories.

“Is that Papaya’s grandmother?” Shadow noticed the woman’s identity. On closer inspection, he realized the woman was teaching Dodoro how to read.

“Tsk. Like I said, an illiterate retard.”

Angor didn’t want to talk about Dodoro’s particular background; he simply pretended to be asleep. However, this wouldn’t prevent Shadow from guessing.

And the man was giving really weird answers now. From Angor’s pet to Angor’s unknown relative. He even thought Dodoro was Angor’s bastard son in the end.

Of course, Shadow was only trying to annoy Angor into giving him the answer. Yet the only thing he received from Angor was an “are you nuts?” glimpse.

Shadow suddenly turned to Naga, who had been silently resting. “Hey Naga, is that mortal a talent in any way?”

Shadow was still an apprentice like Angor, so he would either need a Talent Sphere to determine someone’s talent or forcefully breach someone’s spirit defense. Obviously, he could do neither, so he asked Naga instead.

Wizards didn’t need items to help check a mortal’s talent, but they could only tell someone’s spiritual power indicator in this way. It still required a specific test to judge the exact nature of one’s talent.

Shadow wasn’t sure whether Naga could do this even though Naga was as strong as a wizard. He asked the question out of boredom.

Angor was interested though. With his eyes closed, he secretly pricked up his ears.

Naga glanced at Dodoro’s direction. “High spiritual power detected. Higher than both of you. He’s a talent.”

Angor slowly nodded. To be frank, with so many mysterious elements, it would be weird if Dodoro was NOT a talent.

Shadow, on the other hand, grew very surprised at something else. “Wait, you can actually see that? Why didn’t you tell me? I should’ve stayed in Hippocrotee so that I can find more talents to bring back to Floating Mech City.”

“You never asked, Master,” Naga replied.

Shadow slumped down in frustration, but this man was never troubled by emotions for too long. Soon enough, he began poking around Dodoro’s secrets again. He was extremely curious since Dodoro was the only companion that Angor decided to bring. And everything about Angor was interesting as well.

Like always, Angor’s lips were tight. Shadow never got himself satisfied.

A night had passed.

Gondola was fast. As Shadow previously estimated, they needed two to three days to reach their destination. It proved that he was right when they entered the territory of Silent Hill the next morning.

As far as they could see, the ground was covered in woods, mountains, and wilderness. There was no human presence.

“Silent Hill is located in Midworld. We need to find the entrance.” Shadow took out a piece of paper and began writing on the desk. “The entrance changes periodically. We just need to consider the positions of the sun and moon, apply them here, and work on this formula…”

Shadow did his calculation while explaining the basic idea to Angor.

Soon enough, Shadow reached a conclusion.

They reached the final coordinate. Just in case, Angor retracted his Gondola and the passengers in the small room into his bracelet.

They were now standing at the bottom of a valley. Three directions were blocked by more mountains, while a small river sat not far from them.

Following Shadow, they entered a small forest in the center of the valley. Shadow suddenly pointed at a vicious-looking man-eater flower ahead and said, “That thing’s mouth is our entrance.”

“You sure about that?” Angor asked while gazing at all the sharp teeth covered in red.

“Yeah.” Shadow stepped up and threw himself into the flower’s opened trap first, and the flower gladly opened its mouth larger as if it were expecting food.

Next, Shadow’s figure twisted and disappeared, leaving the flower confused. If it could talk, it would question why fresh meat suddenly vanished.

Since Shadow showed him a good example, Angor followed suit and “disappointed” the monstrous flower again.

The flower shook its petals and set its “gaze” on the last individual—a mature-looking lady with blond hair and blue eyes. It then opened its mouth wide and beckoned at her using its petals as if saying “Come on! In here!”

Naga sneered and stomped the flower to the ground before her body vanished as well. As a wizard-level presence, she could open up a portal toward Midworld anytime.

…

Angor sensed his body shaking and shifting. When he opened his eyes, he saw something completely different from before.

The woods had turned into bare ground, and the dirt was dry and lifeless. It was morning, yet the sky was of a dark and grayish color as if the world were ending.

Such was what one would normally see inside Midworld.

“This way,” Shadow said as he moved ahead while introducing the environment. “Silent Hill may not be a big place like your Brute Cavern, but it’s famous. Outsiders can’t get in easily.”

Also, the man kept emphasizing the importance of his guidance. “Nothing will go wrong as long as you follow closely behind me. Floating Mech City and Silent Hill are long-term trade partners. They’ll let us in without a question once they hear my name.”

He took Angor in front of a dim-looking mountain ridge with absolutely no vegetation growing on it. “Here we are.”

Angor looked at the mountain carefully and sensed illusion ripples. He wouldn’t actually try to reach for the illusion recklessly.

“Hidden behind an illusion. You’ll see once we’re in there. Not bright and shiny like Floating Mech City, but it should satisfy your taste.”

They stepped onto a small path leading upward. It wasn’t long when they were stopped by a giant boulder.

The boulder showed a strange human face that was divided into two halves. One side had its eye opened and had a white eyebrow as well as a young, smiling look, while the other half had its eye closed and had a black eyebrow as well as an aged, calm look.

It was like mixing two individuals with completely different ages and temperaments inside a rock.

“Looky here, who do we have?”

“Oh, our little Diablo.”

“This amazing puppet is little Diablo’s new companion?”

“Yup, looks like it.”

“Worth celebrating!”

“Yes indeed.”

“Then who’s this young lad?”

“Let me check. I smelled something familiar…”

The stone was talking to itself in two different voices; it was like an old man was chatting with a youngster.

“Mister Talos, I need to enter Silent Hill!” Shadow said.

“Oh, geez, I hear ya! You’re hurting my ears!”

“Hey, you should stop scamming kids. They don’t have anything anyway.”

“Oh really? I smelled treasures.”

“Oh, you’re right! Hey kid, give me your bracelet and I’ll let you in.”

“That bracelet is bound to him, fool! Get his hat!”

“Oh yeah! You hear? Quickly, give me your hat!”

Two slim, black limbs suddenly emerged from the boulder and gestured at Angor aggressively.

Angor wasn’t sure how to react. The stone monster seemed to be the gatekeeper of Silent Hill. It possessed a deep aura and actually displayed their scamming attempt so boldly… He didn’t know how to evaluate this thing’s strength.

Shadow moved in front of him. “Mister Talos, this is my friend. Can you let him pass? Hey, look at his hair and blue eyes! Such a nice standard, you know?”

“Talos” sized Angor up and down. Considering the particular taste of Diablo’s teacher and how that man was almost a “truth finder” wizard, it decided to play safe.

“Right. Get in there, and remember I did this just because of your teacher.”

The boulder monster split up and revealed a narrow entrance in the middle.

Across the entrance, Angor could see fine buildings in the distance.