Warlock Apprentice

During dinner, Toya kept bugging Angor with pretended protests in order to force Angor into crafting something. Toya used all available methods for a kid, including yelling, crying, and acting cute, yet Angor simply maintained his table manners of a gentleman and remained completely quiet.

Toya was far from being a gentleman. He loved talking during his meal. Since Angor would not entertain him, he turned to speak to Yeliya instead.

Toya mostly talked about his childish ideas and ambitions, which might seem boring to any outsider. But Yeliya listened to him with her gentle smile while she answered Toya’s questions patiently. There was one time Mithra grew irritated with Toya’s blabbering and asked the boy to stop talking, only to receive a painful ear-pinch from his wife.

Both Yeliya and Mithra were renowned and powerful wizards in this world, yet Angor felt the warmth and harmony of a family. It was both pleasant and comforting.

Suddenly, Toya mentioned another name, which surprised Angor a bit.

“Hey, Granny Yeliya, I want to ask, why did you stop me yesterday?” Toya seemed unhappy about something.

“Yesterday? Oh, you saw…”

“Princess Shan! I saw her at Champagne Road. One of those cult guys were bullying her. I asked Dodo to help, but you dragged me back!”

Yeliya giggled. “Angor was there. You don’t have to join the mess and make it messier.”

Angor looked between Yeliya and Toya.

“Toya and Shan?” Angor recalled what he saw on the little girl. Shan looked around the age of six or seven. There was a pair of goat horn-like braids on her hair, a tribal style breast tube, animal hide skirt, paint on her cheeks, and a necklace made from wolf fangs…

Then he looked at Toya, also about the age of six. He had dark skin, a feather headband, and a leather skirt with similar colorful paintings.

These two looked so alike. Did they come from the same tribe or something?

“What’s it do to with Mister Angor? Luckily there was Princess Shan’s friend who came to help, otherwise, that mean-looking man would have killed her!” Toya yelled.

“It wasn’t her friend who saved her, but someone else. Hey, he’s right in front of you.” Yeliya smiled.

“You were there, Miss Yeliya?” Angor asked.

“Correct. And nicely done, Angor. I see you truly are Sunders’ student. That signature illusion of yours is quite a sight to behold.”

Toya realized what they were talking about and widened his eyes. “It was Mister Angor who trapped the bad guy in the mist?”

Angor nodded. “That ‘Princess Shan’ came from Brute Cavern, the same place where I came from, by the way.”

He said this to tell others that he offered help as a “colleague”, but the true reason for his decision was Nausica. Still, he wasn’t going to tell them anything about Nausica for now, which would probably make the whole matter complicated.

“Ah, so that’s why you didn’t let me do anything, granny. So Mister Angor was with them!”

“Did you and Shan used to live in the same tribe?” Angor asked out of curiosity.

“Yeah! Princess Shan is the daughter of our chieftain, but she left us a long time ago. The last time I saw her was during our clan festival three years ago.”

While talking about Shan, Toya lowered his head and blushed a little, which was rare to see on the naughty boy.

Angor remembered what Nausica told him—Shan was actually older than Nausica herself, which meant… over 30. But Toya was a kid, both outside and inside.

Of course, wizards usually didn’t mind the difference in ages. Still, Angor found it funny that Toya was having a lover’s attitude toward someone at such a young age.

“But why did Supreme Cult break their own rules? Princess Shan completed her registration before, and they still went after her,” Toya asked.

Angor also wanted to know about this.

Usually, Yeliya would use vague words to muddle through such a question because Toya’s tiny brain couldn’t comprehend some of the shady business among different organizations. But when she saw Angor casting a curious glance her way, she decided to tell the truth.

“Even someone like those ‘Mayhem Doers’ are divided into conservatives and extremists. While the conservatives admit their ‘registration’, the extremists do not. The latter will almost insist on eliminating all foreign beings regardless of their origin. The young cultist you saw yesterday was such an extremist. Also, he talked to you afterward, right?” Yeliya looked at Angor.

Angor nodded. “I had some magic plants on me that I bought from someone. He sensed them and came to warm me of staying away from foreign creatures.”

“You see, this is a typical extremist. They’ll bother you for the slightest smell of foreign presence,” Yeliya explained to Toya patiently.

“That’s… so pushy.” Toya scowled.

Mithra, who had been enjoying his meal, spoke up, “To hell with them. They only go after weak ones whose home has been conquered by a plane fusion. If a more powerful being comes from another world, they’ll turn tail faster than anyone else. Do you remember when the grand demon called Fallen Sun showed up in the south and burned everything to ash within 15 days? The Supreme Cult never made a sound about it. They probably hid somewhere to change their wet pants.

“They’re openly harassing people now because of some other funny business…” Mithra sighed. It seemed there was something he didn’t want to reveal.

Yeliya also looked down a little.

Fearing that the meal would get too awkward, Angor tried to start another topic by asking, “Is there a way to hide foreign aura from the cultists?”

Angor would like to learn how to save someone from being harmed by the world’s consciousness, but he couldn’t ask something too obvious at the moment. Therefore, he asked the other question he wanted to know most. He urgently needed something to conceal the presence of Jon or his Alien Eye.

“Yeah, can we do something about Gank so that Princess Shan doesn’t get stalked by any cultist again?” Toya also asked.

“Ohh, I see you love her. You even know the name of her servant!” Yeliya joked.

“I-I don’t-love-I just, honor her.” Toya was giving out silly smiles again.

Yeliya covered her mouth and didn’t comment.

“There are ways to hide a foreign object or creature. One of the easiest is putting it inside a space storage or your personal dimension, such as a Sorcerer’s Garden,” said Mithra.

“But I don’t think Shan has any of those.”

Angor frowned. He couldn’t place the Alien Eye into his bracelet for some reason.

“And if you don’t have those items, you can try mixing the foreign aura with something else to hide or even eliminate it. There are spells, potions of the hides of special monsters to help with that.” Mithra looked at Angor’s wrist. “Your magic array… Infinite Reticence, right?”

Angor nodded.

“It weakens your presence in other people’s view. In other words, it covers your own aura to a certain extent, am I right?”

Angor suddenly felt enlightened about something.

“Of course, it’s better if you know proper magic arrays specifically designed for hiding someone’s aura. Otherwise, you can use Perpetual Rune to keep something in a fixed state so that its aura does not get out easily. Of course, it won’t work as effective as magic arrays.”

A Perpetual Rune was usually used to keep something in good condition for a long time, such as how magazines always enchant their papers in such a way so that their published materials wouldn’t rot away even after thousands of years.

With Mithra’s reminder, Angor realized he had been blindly looking for a solution elsewhere when he already had one. There was more than one magic arrays that could help!

He kept thinking of finding a special box or something to keep the Alien Eye safe and neglected his own skills.

…

When dinner was done, Angor returned to join Mithra as they discussed the mechanical arm. Previously, his plan had many flaws and missing spots beyond his knowledge. After the competition of wits between the two alchemists, he slowly learned what he needed.

By the time Angor left Elixir Hut on the next day, he had already established a comprehensive construction plan in his mind. Mithra, as a true master alchemist, did an easy job perfecting his unfinished theories while also providing ingenious suggestions.

The old man even came up with an outer design both favored by and convenient for ladies.

Still, not everything they talked about was agreed upon. There were several points denied by Angor in the end, even though he knew that Mithra was only trying to improve the final product.

For instance, Mithra insisted that they should use some precious materials and apply complex rules, but Angor decided not to accept that.

While talking, Mithra somewhat forgot that Angor was only an apprentice who couldn’t process high-level materials yet. Besides, it was only several days until the Purification Garden would open for entry, and Angor didn’t have enough time to pick up new skills.

Angor was going to make this arm to help Nausica survive better in the coming challenge. As for more advanced techniques… he always had time to do so later.

After Angor left on his own, Mithra also prepared something and stepped out of the door and went into the city, albeit in a different direction.

Angor was heading back to the main city district, while Mithra went to the lower side of the city where the core facility—the Research Department—was located.