Warlock Apprentice

Sunders didn’t say anything about Angor’s decision to take a group of Krakoks away. To Sunders, the Krakoks, as well as Dodoro, were only talents who weren’t so different from common mortals. Back then, he brought about a hundred talents to the cloud whale. Nine out of ten died in the deathmatches, and the gentleman didn’t feel a thing about it.

After talking about Dark Castle and Isabella, Sunders mentioned Angor’s own training again.

Angor said he could train and meditate many times faster when wandering inside the plane passageway. It took him less than 10 days to break through, and after that, he became a level-2 apprentice.

Sunders tried to find the reason for it.

The previous test told him that Angor built his strength nicely and stably without being too hasty. This meant Angor’s training inside the plane passageway was “legit” training.

But Sunders never heard of such a case where an apprentice could train faster all of a sudden. The plane passageway had primal mana in the environment, but it was too poor for proper training, let alone enhancing someone.

Is it because of Angor’s second talent?

The Tree Spirit once mentioned that Angor had another talent orientation, but Tree Spirit couldn’t ascertain what it was without breaking Angor’s spirit defense. He only said it was an Occult talent too.

“Maybe Angor’s talented in another dimension-related art?” Sunders pondered. That would explain the boy’s strengthened training speed in a plane passageway where dimension energy was more active.

With this idea, Sunders took Angor out of the Gravity Garden and began to construct a stable plane passageway by using his own mana.

Sunders’ frown suggested that creating such a passage wasn’t easy for him.

Then, Sunders dragged Angor into the dark place and whispered, “Close your eyes and try to meditate now.”

Unlike last time, Angor felt safe with his professor around. This passage had no noises and interferences. Soon, Angor entered the state of meditation.

It took him quite some time to complete a session. When he reopened his eyes, he saw Sunders lost in thought not far from him.

“How’s the training this time?” Sunders asked.

“It’s not good, sir. There’s little primal mana in the air, and I can only wait for the mana pool to regenerate on itself. This is a lot slower than meditating outside.”

Sunders nodded and brought Angor out without saying anything.

Sunders had been keeping his eye of the mana flow in the passage. The prima mana in there was extremely stagnant. It wouldn’t move at all if Angor wasn’t there to pull them. It was only natural that Angor couldn’t meditate well.

As a wizard, Sunders was sensitive to dimensional energy as well. He didn’t feel anything triggered by Angor, which meant his previous assumption was incorrect.

That left only one other explanation—Angor’s hastened meditation was caused by nightmare energy.

“Good for you. Once you gain enough experience, you don’t have to actually go to Nightmare Realm to train faster. That plane passageway will do.” Sunders believed that the particular plane passageway would help Angor with his training just like using potions, if not better. People might develop tolerance after overdosing potions but probably not by using the energy inside a plane passageway.

It was also good news for Sunders. They were both Nightmare Forms. Sunders “discarded” some of his nightmare properties because of a reckless decision, but it was still possible for him to gain something from the plane passageway.

“You didn’t tell anyone else about the village, did you?” Sunders’ expression turned serious.

Angor shook his head. There was only Shadow who showed some interest in Pocratee, but Angor couldn’t tell if that man would look for the place.

“Good. And keep it a secret at all times. I’ll find a time and look into it later,” Sunders said as he pointed at Angor. “With you, of course.”

Sunders had no problem dealing with the rainbow dragonflies. But at the same time, the insects were a form of natural protection that kept other intruders away from the village. Sunders planned to explore the village while keeping the dragonflies there, which meant he had to bring Angor along as he could keep the monsters in check.

“I understand.” Angor nodded. “But, sir, I have to go home around the end of next year. You see, my former mentor—”

“I won’t do it any time soon, so you can stick to your own plans. You decide when to get home. I already agreed before. If you wish to ask for my help to save your teacher, just bring him to me.”

Angor slowly nodded even though he’d never take Jon to Sunders and let someone find out that Jon was an illegal traveler from another world. He didn’t know how to deal with Jon’s condition yet, but he was confident he’d make enough money to buy information soon.

“I think we’ve talked what we should for today,” said Sunders. “I need to rearrange my plans for the coming years. You stay here for now. If you have any questions regarding your training, feel free to ask.”

Angor was trying to ask something that had bothered him ever since he went on that strange journey when Sunders interrupted him.

“For alchemy-related questions, Mithra allowed you into his library, right? Then you should go there. Read as many books as you can before the garden opens. Free knowledge.”

Angor already thought about the same thing, but he never actually said it because it sounded so embarrassing.

He calmed his mind and finally asked the particular question he always wanted to know, “Professor, someone pushed me into the plane passageway back at Midnight Sovereign…”

He already had a good assumption for it, but he’d like to hear the answer from Sunders.

“It’s Twilight.” Sunders didn’t hesitate about this one. “But she’s not in Twilight Well at the moment and we don’t know where she went. It’s possible that she was still looking for you to finish her kill. If you want to get your revenge, get stronger.”

In fact, the first thing Sunders did after Angor’s incident was to look for Twilight to beat her to death. Sunders didn’t actually kill her because Devildare was there asking for mercy.

Sunders’ fury was another reason for Twilight’s disappearance, but the gentleman decided not to tell his student about it.

“I will.” Angor displayed a determined look. He managed to survive everything so far, but this didn’t prevent him from resenting Twilight.

He did break the rules of Twilight Auction before, and he already accepted and paid for the punishment. A hundred thousand magic crystals were more than enough to compensate for his mistake.

Even so, Twilight attacked him again. Also, her intention was obvious. Anyone lost in a plane passageway was lost for eternity, both body and soul.

He would never forget about Twilight’s terrible deed.

It took him some time to lock up the growing rage in his mind so that he could speak to his professor in a proper manner.

“Why are you here in Floating Mech City, professor?”

“Because of the purification garden, of course.” Sunders chuckled. “I believe you came here for the very same reason.”

“But Diablo told me that something bad is going to happen?”

“There is… something. A great danger, even. But at the same time, you may find a great fortune.”

Before Sunders could say anything else, his ears suddenly twitched a little, and he quickly pulled Angor out of the gravity garden.

Next, Sunders spoke to Angor by using a Voice Transmission spell, “Do not mention anything related to Nightmare Realm or Nightmare Domain outside my garden. As for the purification garden… I’ll talk to you later.”

Something beeped outside the study.

Sunders opened the door and revealed his Rune Monitor butler, Number One.

“Master, a guest is here.”

“I see. Leave us be for now.”

There were a number of illusions deployed around the manor. Sunders already sensed that someone had come.

“Should I leave too, sir?” Angor asked in a small voice.

“No. You come with me.”

They both came to the guest room and saw someone already waiting. Angor checked the visitor and didn’t recognize him. It was a strange-looking old man with really long eyebrows that reached his chest. He was dressed in an expensive-looking deep-blue wizard robe with lewisia flowers sewn on it, as well as a triangular-shaped wizard hat. Angor couldn’t sense any energy ripples from him, but since Sunders addressed him in a careful way, he had to be someone important.

“I thought you’d bring your student along, Kanter.” Sunders took the main seat, while Angor took a guest seat to the left after bowing to the visitor politely.

“‘Eventide’ Kanter, the current clan master of Lilith’s Clan,” Sunders told Angor through Voice Transmission.