Warlock Apprentice

Angor slowly put a hand against his chest and touched the pendant.

The Alien Eye.

He had been keeping this item close at all times, which included bathing and sleeping time. Sometimes, he would forget about it since it was almost a part of him by now.

He never paid too much attention to it. To him, it was only a memento left by Jon.

To anyone else, the item appeared like any other cheap trinkets. Even a truth-finder wizard like Sunders never noticed anything special from it.

But this didn’t mean Angor had forgotten how important it was.

The Earth where Jon came from probably belonged to a completely different universe from the one the wizarding world was in, and it was the Alien Eye who brought Jon here.

According to Nausica, something happened to the Alien Eye when Angor was sleeping on the cloud whale one day. Angor still had no idea what this meant, but he believed the particular artifact was hiding some amazing secrets.

Another proof to it was that the Alien Eye “refused” to go inside his space bracelet. Or rather, it was an unknown instinct that kept telling him that forcefully doing so would break his storage space.

What Saladin just said had further convinced him that the Alien Eye was very special.

He once read about otherworldly crafting materials from Material Polymerization and Alchemy Material Illustration, both of which described how items tainted by otherworldly aura would get slowly affected by the world’s consciousness as time went by. For example, foreign magic plants would get “adapted” and became native to the wizarding world in the end.

For non-lifeform items, their foreign aura would simply disappear.

However, the Alien Eye had been in the wizarding world for decades, and its special aura was still here. Angor knew because Saladin just told him.

At the same time, Angor realized he had to be very careful when handling it. There should be more people in this world who could sense the presence of the Alien Eye, and perhaps soon, someone might show an unwanted interest in it.

Besides, Angor was more concerned about the particularly ill-named organization that sent Saladin—the Supreme Cult.

Saladin was only an apprentice of the cult. There were bound to be more effective methods for the cult to find such foreign items. What would happen if the Alien Eye provoked them one too many times?

According to the slacking guards, the cult sent more than one person to enter the purification garden.

Angor walked on with a determined look. He had to find a way to conceal the Alien Eye from prying eyes.

…

The Champagne Road was famous for its good number of pubs and hotels. Usually. this place was not so active. However, the garden event had attracted more than ten thousand apprentices from all over the world, most of whom had to find their lodgings here.

Angor walked along the street and observed groups of apprentices in various dressing styles.

Compared too how most people here looked like, his black hooded robe was almost plain.

Also, clothing wasn’t the only thing that made people stand out. There were people covered in black mist, people who hovered above the ground instead of walking, and those with different-colored glows… It was as if people all needed some kind of special visual effect so that they didn’t appear too humble.

Angor made sure he steered as far as possible from these weirdos.

Finally, he reached a pub house with a shiny and colorful sign.

No. 93, Champagne Road, Timber Pub.

From the opened wooden window, he saw crowds drinking, yelling, and singing inside; all of whom were fond of enjoying the noisy and ostentatious mortal lives even though some of them weren’t mortals.

Across the door, Angor felt hot air assaulting his skin.

It was winter outside, but people still preferred heat and alcohol.

His entrance caused a brief silence in the pub before everyone quickly returned to their own business. Only the bartender in his black and white suit cast an extra glance at Angor.

“Welcome, sir. What would you like to have?”

The bartender was a mortal with a decent look. When he showed a professional smile, several apprentice witches giggled openly. One of them even openly invited him to her bed business at night.

The bartender politely rejected the offer and looked at Angor again.

“Take me to the Budding Quarter,” Angor said in a pretended deep voice.

Those words caused people to go quiet again. Everyone was now looking at Angor, trying to figure out something.

“Budding Quarter? Someone from the cult came looking for trouble?” a guest muttered.

Just several minutes ago, Shan arrived at the pub with her big guy. All the guests knew what just happened to them. Now that someone else came looking for Budding Quarter, it raised their curiosity again.

The bartender was also shocked. He might be a mortal, but he learned a lot about the business among wizard organizations.

“May I see your invitation, sir?”

“Invitation?” Angor frowned.

“I’m sorry, but without it, I cannot show anyone there as it might potentially bother the other guests.”

Before Angor could reply, one of the witches from earlier who wore too few clothes moved to Angor aggressively. “Hey you, get your sorry face out of here if you’re not invited. Let me tell you, the owner of this place is a powerful wizard who absolutely hates you Supreme Cult lot!”

Angor glanced at her without saying anything. He moved around the bartender and headed to the bar counter.

He already saw who he came for. She was sitting at the counter—Nausica.

Earlier today, he inquired some info from Shadow so that he could find Nausica in the city. As he recalled, Nausica managed to reach the top level of Sky Tower, which meant she would join the garden challenge too. Angor just freed himself from other matters today; otherwise, he would have gone to her earlier.

Nausica was now asking for a glass of wine from someone. When Angor tried to speak to her, the interrupting woman moved to his face again. “Are you deaf? Timber Pub doesn’t welcome you cultist bastards. Get lost, now!”

She intentionally said that aloud to attract everyone’s attention, including Nausica, who just looked Angor’s way.

“Out of my way,” said Angor in the same deep voice.

It seemed the witch planned to use the pub as a shield to humiliate a Supreme Cult cultist while perhaps earning herself a good impression among people.

However, she found the wrong guy.

The air around Angor suddenly turned dark. He lifted a finger and released a small trace of nightmare aura into the woman’s forehead.

Immediately, the witch froze on the spot with a terrified look.

Without paying her any mind, Angor walked around and joined Nausica.

“You from Supreme Cult?” Nausica asked in her usual alluring voice with her eyes half-shut.

Angor didn’t answer. He took some time to examine the old friend who he hadn’t seen in the past half-year. Due to Nausica’s Bloodline training, her body shape was even more attractive. She was now wearing a bright-red cloak over her soft armor; the cloak helped her cover up where she lost an arm.

Nausica also watched the wordless black robed man with a doubtful expression. Something told her that she knew him.

“It’s been some time, Nausica.”

Nausica’s heart beat faster upon hearing the youthful yet clear voice.

“You, you’re—”

Before Nausica could say another word, she sensed something sweeping past her.

“What have you done to Shana?!” It was someone who just slammed a fist toward Angor’s position.

Angor didn’t move. Again, he unleashed a nightmare aura that instantly knocked out the ambusher.

“Why you—”

After seeing two victims that either going down or standing still in horror, the other patrons in the pub all prepared to move.

Angor turned to face the crowd and began to gather more nightmare aura. He punished the two attackers accordingly and didn’t do anything beyond necessary. He would gladly do it again if more people meant to assault him. Rather, he felt somewhat excited for angering so many people.

Maybe I can save their lives if I beat these guys to the ground and prevent them from going to the garden?

With that in mind, Angor’s aura grew thicker.

“Don’t take it wrong, please! He’s my friend, not a cultist,” said Nausica as she moved in front of Angor.

It seemed a warrior lady from Brute Cavern was very convincing to apprentices from various smaller organizations. Following those words, people all returned to their seats.

Except for Shana, who was still glaring at Angor in both rage and fear.

Nausica looked back and said, “So, these two—”

“They’ll recover soon.” Angor meant to tell this to both Nausica and everyone else. “Now, can we talk somewhere private?”

Nausica glanced at Shana first. “Well, you heard him. You’ll be fine. I’ll check on you later.”

She nodded to the other guests and took Angor to the backyard of the pub.