Warlock Apprentice

Mithra and his muscular companion flew away from Bogula’s base. They were heading to Mithra’s House, the Elixir Hut, which was located at the lower side of the city.

“Are you trying to protect that apprentice, professor?” the bulky man asked.

“He has great talent and has obtained decent alchemy legacy,” Mithra said as he held his chin. “Such talented young men are already scarce. We should not let them go extinct in this world.”

The bulky figure nodded uncertainly. “If you want to keep the root of alchemy going, professor, you can simply extract his memory.”

“His talent goes well with his legacy but does not fit with my theories. It’ll be pointless for me to acquire something I cannot use. Let’s not destroy a promising genius like this.”

The giant man nodded. He found it a good thing that he got to know a “future” master alchemist. He could always ask for Angor’s help in crafting items later, which was even better if Angor really became a Mystery alchemist somehow.

But the man still got more questions in his mind.

“Hey, Sabot. Where are you going?” Mithra landed at his destination and watched as his student flew farther.

The man name “Sabot” halted and then returned with an embarrassed smile.

“What’s troubling your mind?” Mithra asked while walking to his hut.

The “Elixir Hut” lived up to its name since it was just a simple wooden cottage. A chimney on the house was releasing smoke into the environment, which meant a fire was burning inside.

From the glass window of the hut, people could see the cozy interior glowing with gentle, orange firelight.

“Still thinking about that apprentice,” Sabot replied as he rubbed his temples. “I believe I saw him from somewhere but I can’t find it in my memory.”

Most wizards possessed superior memorization abilities. Certain wizards with exceptionally high spiritual power indicator could even do something similar to “hyperthymesia”. However, this was not the case for “Mad Bear” Sabot, who majored in Bloodline Art. The man only had an indicator of 12.

He could still remember a lot of things in his life, but it wasn’t so easy for him to recall the details.

“Did you really?” Mithra opened the door to the hut. There were no expansion runes used here. The inside of the hut looked as small as it appeared to be. A pudgy-looking woman was making bread using an iron box on a desk. When she saw Mithra entering, she wiped her hands on her apron and quickly addressed the old man.

“Good evening, Mistress Yeliya.” Sabot bowed politely to the woman. Yeliya was Mithra’s wife, as well as his lifelong partner. They had been together ever since they were apprentices.

“Come, Sabot. Try some of my potato toast!” Yeliya took out some of her baked bread. “You too, old lad. You both went to meet up with the alchemist that Diablo told us about. So, how was it?”

“He’s a brilliant child,” Mithra answered, “I just invited him to come here some time.”

“I see you really like him. Sabot, did you see Toya today? How’s the kid?”

“He says he misses you after spending his time in Silent Hill for three years. He’ll come to visit you tomorrow.” Sabot nodded.

Yeliya’s wrinkled face revealed a kind smile. “Good. Then I shall prepare something nice to eat. The little imp’s going to make a mess in the house, no doubt.”

Despite her jokes, everyone knew Yeliya really loved Toya. She had been regarding the boy as her own child.

“He went to Bogula last year, right? So what’s in him that interested you so much?” Mithra asked as he smiled at his wife. “Last time I thought about teaching him something in my lab, you asked him to sit by and ‘monitor’ my work. Then I had to give him something precious instead. Aren’t you going to spoil him like this?”

“Precious? It’s just several glasses of Glowing Velvet.”

While the old couple “argued” with each other, Sabot thought about something else in his mind.

Toya joined Bogula last year… Last year?

“I got it!” Sabot suddenly yelled.

“What is it?” Mithra and Yeliya both looked at the man who interrupted their quarrel.

“That apprentice, Angor… I knew I saw him before. Last year, I took a mission where I had to protect The Redbud. I agreed to the mission because I thought I could have some change of scenery for once. Three wizard organizations sent their guides to recruit, and Angor was one of the talents found by White Coral Floating Island Academy.”

“You mean, Angor is the academy’s student?” Mithra tried and failed to recall any famous alchemist who originated from there.

“No, he didn’t go to the academy.” Sabot frowned and showed a strange expression. “I think… Mister Bogula might get himself in big trouble.”

“Are you saying Angor belonged to someone special?”

Sabot nodded. “If nothing went wrong after the incident, Angor was accepted by none other than the killing machine from the south, Mister Phantom Master.”

Sunders?!

Those words shocked Mithra and Yeliya both. They quickly believed Bogula’s assumption that Bogula would run into something really bad.

“You sure about it?”

Sabot nodded again and described what happened in Barbie’s Restaurant.

It took them a moment to digest what they learned.

Yeliya broke the silence first. “If this is the case… I don’t think Mister Phantom will do anything. Just think about what happened to Blood Witch.”

“This is different,” Mithra said as he shook his head, “and not only because of Angor’s alchemy talent. Bogula shouldn’t have a good reason to harm Angor in the first place.”

“Bogula…” Yeliya sighed in distress. “Gods know what’s gotten into his mind, going after blond people like crazy. But maybe we can do something before it’s too late. You just said you invited the boy to come, right? Let’s ask him to stay here so that Bogula can’t do anything if that man goes mad again.”

Sabot agreed with Yeliya. He still remembered how he felt like a helpless insect when faced with Sunders’ might. It was so true that Bogula was in deep trouble.

Mithra frowned. “Speaking of too late… When I was at Crystal Palace yesterday, I heard that Sunders already arrived at Floating Mech City. Sabot, find Bogula and tell him what’s happening. I’m going to fetch Angor right now.”

With that, Mithra quickly left the hut.

“Remember to bring Toya along with you,” Yeliya added.

…

This was an eventful night.

There was a long street in the main city district; it didn’t have as many shops as the trading section, yet this place was a famous consumer’s heaven as well.

There were all types of entertainment facilities. Pleasure House alone had set up multiple of their stores here. Along this street named “Beinzweinz”, people could find proper places for both men and women or someone in between.

A short, fat man rushed into Beinzweinz Street and entered a small building while covered in sweat.

Judging from his clothes and physical condition, he was undeniably an ordinary mortal. Even so, most mortals living inside Floating Mech City all shared family relations with supernaturals.

This man was called Pride. Both his father and twin brother were apprentices.

Using their help, Pride won himself a job in this small building that was related to supernaturals.

The first thing he saw in the building were piles of papers flying about as if someone were tossing them around. However, there was no one carrying them. The papers headed toward designated locations on their own as if they possessed intelligence.

There were a desk and a chair to Pride’s right side, but their owner was currently somewhere else—at a bar stand drinking and chatting with someone.

The absence of an owner didn’t prevent the quill and notes from working on their own as they drafted beautiful handwritings.

Pride knew that this was done by using something called “Spiritual Power”. He saw similar stuff in his father’s study.

He was envious of such power, but he only had a spiritual power indicator of 9, which prevented him from becoming a talent.

He didn’t give up yet. Also with the help of his family, he learned that there was a special potion called Potion of Austere Night, which could increase his indicator by 2 points, thus granting him a chance of becoming a talent.

The potion was costly. He almost earned enough money. If his exclusive magazine kept selling well, he’d soon get enough salary to buy a glass of the potion from an Apothecary alchemist.

When thinking about this, Pride calmed his excited mood.

There was a mortal girl with well-developed breasts sitting behind a desk to his left. Pride had been pursuing this girl named Jolene for a while now, both in reality and in his dreams. However, the lady kept her distance.

Jolene was now reviewing all kinds of articles that they received from different parts of the world. Each article would be checked three times. She was responsible for the first one.

Pride’s working place was a magazine intended for wizards; it was called “Precision Sky” and the place published an edition each month.

Now was the 555th year since Precision Sky was established. This month’s edition would be their 6666th volume in total. A memorable number, both to the magazine office and to Pride.

The magazine office just began to hire mortals to manage the publishing works, and they wanted to see the outcome of it.

Since Pride was the main editor for Precision Sky this month, this was a perfect chance for him to gain a raise in salary or post.

“Pride, I got the sample for you. Personally, I think this one should be as good as the last one, if not better,” Jolene said as she handed Pride a moderate-sized book.

Just to select better articles, they had been working together without sleeping for three full days. Pride already reached his mortal limit.

“I trust your capability,” Pride flattered his “future wife” without looking at the book. “If we release a good edition and help wizards kill time, then Mister Vonsman will make me a permanent chief editor. Then we can—”

“Oh, stop it.” Jolene chuckled and said, “Check out the sample, pretty please.”