Warlock Apprentice

“He’s too impatient though. The Savage only left several minutes ago and he started crying aloud. What an eyesore,” said Fiery Charm. She suddenly switched her attitude as she said, “Bad patience, can’t get over loneliness… Someone like that would never be a wizard.”

Ness nodded. “Orlando has been acting low profile on the airship and never committed any big mistakes. But that was thanks to his friend, a talent named Roffig. Roffig has been constraining him. Otherwise, that Orlando would have caused a lot more conflict with the other talents.”

“If you put it like that, they might compensate each other if they stay together.” Fiery Charm smiled.

“Correct. Orlando has a decent talent but a bad character while Roffig possesses a calm temperament but only average talent. These two can make a fine combination,” Ness explained.

“So…” Fiery Charm was going to make a conclusion when Wallace suddenly revealed a wicked smile.

“So they must be separated when we arrange apprentices. One of them should stay above the mirror while the other stays below. They won’t get any teamwork in Brute Cavern,” Wallace said.

Fiery Charm and Ness were taken aback a little but they nodded in the end instead of retorting.

Ness said, “Let’s do just that. Good teamwork is based on good individual properties. Otherwise, a team won’t work out. These two will not see each other again before becoming High Apprentices.”

Ness took out two bone cards—the name cards for Orlando and Roffig. Ness used a special method to script the comment into their profiles.

Next, Wallace looked at the pockmark boy and the fatty, “Let’s talk about the next pair.”

Ness followed his direction and explained in a low voice, “The one with the marked face is Laffitte, and the fat one is called Fosah. They appeared more interesting than the previous combination. They know some really childish tricks but they have potential. They neither compensate nor assist each other’s faults. Let’s just say, they are the ill kind who were drawn to each other. I’m curious to see what they can achieve.”

Ness nodded with his own assessment of them. He then continued, “They both have average talent. They regarded Hookdick as their boss and proposed to become his underling. However, they are actually plotting something else, so they are only obeying Hookdick on the outside to satisfy his ego. They’re still young, and they can keep developing like that.”

Ness took out bone cards for Laffitte and Fosah and put their comments in them.

“Heeheehee. As a lady, I’ll say something about that pirate boss,” Flora’s voice came.

“A female pirate?” Fiery Charm looked toward the beautiful woman who had been smoking her pipe with a calm expression. She was the only female talent. Fiery Charm was not expecting that she was actually a pirate.

“Nausica, renowned pirate on Blackberry Waters. Pirates usually have ugly names, but not this one. She oppressed and united all evil forces in the area and has a heart of justice. Common folks all regard her as a hero. Even if some of the authorities tried to discredit her name, people were never convinced,” said Flora. Instead of commenting on Nausica herself, Flora talked about her background story first. She then added, “She’s a natural leader, knows how to talk. She’s sturdy, calm, and flexible when dealing with people, and has a good talent. I give her my best score among all the talents we recruited this time.”

It seemed Ness also regarded Nausica highly, and mostly wrote down positive comments. Good traits were not the only elements for wizards to choose apprentices, so Nausica still had to use her own effort and luck to forge her future.

“I’ll say something about Hookdick,” said Ness as he finished Nausica’s profile and pointed to the man full of arrogance written on the face.

“This man is extremely narrow-minded. He used to be the chieftain of a tribe located on a primitive continent. He killed lots of people, and he even eats them,” said Ness.

Wallace and Fiery Charm revealed a disgusted expression upon hearing those words. Most wizards were cruel and selfish, true. However, they usually did not bother mortals. It was an unspoken rule among all wizards.

Ness continued, “He has a good talent which is relatively close to my art. If you don’t mind, I’m planning to accept him as my student.”

Wallace nodded, “Fine. You can make him into a good killer.”

With Hookdick finished, there were three people remaining. Sailum, Balba, and Ebony.

“Sailum is the youngest talent in this batch. He’s a dedicate book lover who is obsessed with keeping his book clean even if his own body goes dirty,” said Ness. He told them several stories about how Sailum was preoccupied with his books and made a conclusion.

Wallace was quite fond of Sailum’s characteristic as he said, “A good kid. He would make a fine academism student. Oh right, how did he survive the deathmatches?”

Sunders humphed without speaking, seemingly having a negative idea about Sailum.

Flora explained to him, “Heehee. Him? He feigned death. Many tried to play dead in the deathmatches, but Sailum was the only one who did that from the very beginning and stayed that way for an entire week.”

So that was why! No wonder Sunders disdained Sailum like that. Wallace did not mind Sailum’s method since playing dead was also a viable tactic. He even made it out in the end, which meant the boy had some superior patience, concentration, and luck.

Fiery Charm pointed to Ebony, “Compared to the others, this one is doing his best to find a way out.”

They looked. As she said, Ebony was looking about, either trying to find an exit or the entrance of Brute Cavern.

“He knows where to find edible plants. That’s good survival skills.”

Those were about everything they could say about Ebony. Then there was silence. No one commented on the last talent, Balba. As a half-blood produced by a human and an otherworldly brute, no matter how good his talent was, his fate was sealed.

“Hey, Sunders, tell us something about your student will ya? I checked over and over and didn’t find anything special on him. A spiritual power of 15, which is… moderate. The boy has nice patience though. He’s all calm when tossed into the wild, but that’s not very important to wizards. So whatever did you want from him?” asked Wallace. He was very curious about Angor. The old man had been observing him from the start. Also, he thought Angor already noticed their presence.

Everything proved that Angor was a complete mortal with ordinary physical abilities. There was no way the boy could have seen them.

But he is Sunders’ new student! Why on earth would an almighty killing machine in the southern land accept a normal talent as his student?

Wallace was not the only one wondering. Everyone was.

Sunders did not answer most of Wallace’s questions. He only said “He’s a good boy”, and returned to being a man of few words.

However, these simple words carried a lot of meanings.

At the very least, Sunders himself was very satisfied with his new student, and this alone was a very strange matter. Perhaps the boy named Angor possessed some kind of talent not known to anyone else?