Warlock Apprentice

Chapter 304: Prome’s Gift

After seeing Vice off, Angor returned to the guest hall and saw Nausica, Sailum, and Dave chatting happily. When they saw Angor coming back, Sailum was giving him inconspicuous grins. Even Nausica, who usually remained composed, was snickering.

Angor approached and heard Dave telling his friends about the glorious deeds of “Baron Milk”.

“Hey, Angor, why did you pick such a title?”

“Not your business.”

“What’s Saka to do with you, Angor?”

“He’s my enemy.”

“Why did you kill Parasite Queen, Angor?”

“She deserved it!”

Dave was quite smooth and slick when speaking to Nausica and Sailum for the first time. However, he did so by telling them Angor’s embarrassing stories, and Angor really did not like it.

Before leaving, Sailum whispered to Angor, “You should’ve introduced such an interesting friend to us sooner!”

Nausica followed behind Sailum and put a hand on Angor’s shoulder. “That was quite a mess you made in the town. Gods. I hope we can grow strong sooner, so we’ve what it takes to back you up.”

Angor saw his friends off and realized that despite Sailum’s joyful mood, the boy was depressed deep inside.

He totally understood, and he could not do anything about it. The path of wizardry waited for no one. The first and last chance to stop and rest would be their final.

Angor returned to the hall and saw Dave still grinning at him.

Prome joined them. “Did you reach an agreement with Vice?”

Angor nodded. “I did. I think I know why Vice is addressed as one of the best geniuses. I don’t know his true strength yet, but at least his flexible mind and refined disposition are something I would never be able to learn. He’s a born wizard who knows how to perceive people’s intentions.”

Prome agreed. “I knew he would notice our trick.”

“And you still joined me by going with it?”

“It doesn’t matter. I’m telling him the truth, that creating such a weapon is extremely hard, and I think he understood it. We put up that show so he may present his best credit to us.” Prome grinned as he said, “A resourceful man as him quite enjoys manipulating the situation he’s in. We acted smartly to show him respect.

“Anyway, as long as you get what you wanted, you shouldn’t worry too much.”

Angor glanced at Prome and silently exclaimed that he should never underestimate any single individual he came across. Prome knew they would be found out from the start, while Vice only pointed it out when they were talking in private… Angor just realized he was the only “honest one” in the whole matter.

Out of courtesy, Prome did not ask Angor about the special material.

Angor sat back on his sofa and placed the silver revolver on the table.

Prome failed to hide his excitement upon witnessing the gun. “This-this is-”

“A revolver enchanted with Prelude to Elimination.”

…

Angor yawned when he was alone again in his house. He had been awake for the past 30 hours, and he really needed some rest now.

In his bedroom, he found Toby sitting on his tiny bed pecking playfully at a small object.

The bird had mostly recovered, but he slept most of the time these days due to blood loss, and for the first time since they returned, Angor saw him in such an energetic mood.

Angor approached and was going to pat Toby’s feather when he saw the bird playing with a space capsule.

When he asked, Toby moved a wing slowly and told him that Prome left it here.

Angor stretched his spirit feelers and found a number of books inside the capsule.

He broke the capsule open and revealed the books, which were mostly about synthesis. He had the same books saved in his hologram tablet. However… the practical cases and Prome’s personal annotations were most valuable.

Angor picked up a coverless book from the bottom of the pile and was immediately shocked by its title.

Prome’s Alchemy Notebook

It was the most precious personal experience collection of an alchemist. Angor had one of his own, about which he started writing since his first alchemy creation.

And Prome gifted him something so valuable?

He quickly turned the pages and read the texts which appeared inexperienced and inept at first, but slowly grew defter and defter. He felt that he had gone through the same learning progress when looking at Prome’s own road of pursuing alchemy knowledge.

He saw Prome’s message to him on the last page:

[Thank you greatly for your help, Angor. I do not think you’ll accept my magic crystals, so I’ll simply give you these worthless books of mine as a reward. —Best wishes. I’ll keep watching your unstoppable advance from the foot of the mountain of alchemy.]

“Worthless?” Angor shook his head. The books were priceless treasures to him.

Prome was right. He would probably return any magic crystal payment. He planned to use the revolver to return Prome’s favor for saving his life. Now, however…

He might have repaid the favor. Yet their friendship only deepened.

And maybe this was exactly what Prome hoped for.

“Heh, old fox.” Angor sighed and threw himself on his bed. “Now there’s no way I can refuse his gift.”

He slept until the next morning.

It was the latter half of the Month of Soothing Wind, and 11 days to go before Month of Harvest (August). There were a little less than 2,000 magic crystals saved on his card. Suppose he could give Vice the weapon in two days… he still had a lot to make up for his 100,000-crystal debt.

However, he was not too worried about this. If assuming the worst, he could simply sell his Section Ephemera which was enough to get him the money.

Still, he would not do such a thing unless absolutely necessary.

He quickly went down to his basement to work on Vice’s customized weapon. He already had another plan in mind, which could earn him the money he needed without selling his Section Ephemera.

Before going to his lab, he took a peek behind his curtain and saw a good number of people still lurking outside. There were fewer compared to before. However, those who remained here would still cast their glances toward the mansion now and then.

They were all mortals too. Angor took a guess that some apprentices hired them.

Putting spies in front of his door openly… Angor huffed and closed his curtain. Yesterday when sending Prome away, he intentionally lingered outside for a while, yet none of the people spoke to him.

He only wished he could write a note “TAKING ALCHEMY ORDERS! NOW OR NEVER!” and stick it on his head, and hopefully, it would attract several more rich guys like Vice. However, it seemed unlikely for now.

So what the heck were they doing at his door?

Angor returned to his lab, somewhat irritated.

He planned to base Vice’s weapon on a revolver again. However, he was going to choose something more heat-resistant and stable this time. Vice asked for something that worked on a large number of targets, which meant the weapon should have bigger energy output.

The different materials brought a different outcome.

One day later, Apprentice Town 8 became the center of attention again when its sky was shrouded under a dark cloud again. There were even high-leveled apprentices from Tree Spirit Garden who came to check it out.

Angor inspected his new item with great satisfaction.

Unlike “Rebirth”—which was the name given to the silver revolver by Prome—this new revolver was of a deep bronze color. The overall design was still the same but without the delicate engravings. Angor only added some simple polish work and checkered the gun stock, so whoever used the gun did not lose grip too easily.

He needed to work quickly on this. As long as the weapon worked, he would not spend time caring about its appearance.

The bronze weapon was still good on the look even without specific decorations. At the very least, Angor admired the low-profile luxury.

Before he could try the weapon out though, he heard someone knocking on his door.

He yawned and walked upstairs. As he thought, another omen had attracted more people to his house.

“Now this is annoying. Do I really need to find somewhere secret when I do alchemy now?” Angor mumbled in discontent and walked into his yard.

His appearance drew a lot of attention. And this time, people actually moved closer instead of pretending to be onlookers.

Angor humphed. He no longer wanted to “accept orders” from these people now—they missed their chances yesterday.

Angor looked toward the yard door to see who just knocked. He already made up his mind that he would not consider any request with a reward below 50,000.

Before he could get to think about how to turn down the visitors though, he saw Vice waiting at his door.

The man had replaced his gray robe with a bright, flame-red wind coat. His white, golden-trimmed trousers and showy blond hair went well with his invasive character.

Vice smiled when Angor opened the door. “I came as soon as I saw the omen. Did you succeed, Mister Padt?”

Angor felt a bit awkward now. He told Vice it was going to be hard before, and now… he disproved himself so fast.

“Um, well, almost,” Angor mumbled and invited Vice inside.

“The omen is exactly like yesterday. I see you’re getting good at this, Mister Padt.”

Angor could not really tell if Vice’s smile was sincere this time.