Warlock Apprentice

Chapter 310: Infinite Reticence

When Angor planned to make a composite-effect space storage, he read through the entire Enchantment Cyclopaedia: For Starters and didn’t find any rune he wanted. The passive effects granted by these basic runes all looked too simple. He simply gave up and moved on to the magic arrays described in Enchantment Cyclopaedia: Advanced.

He had to choose which enchantment effect to give his space storage.

Attack abilities? No. He might as well make another weapon for that purpose.

Defensive effect? He thought about it and denied his idea. Anyone who managed to break his defense could damage his space storage too, which would do something bad to the stored items. For defense, his best choice was to make something else.

The magic arrays were either too difficult to draw or unsuitable to his situation.

Until he was attracted by something called “Infinite Reticence”.

It was a magic array similar to “Prelude to Elimination”, which consisted of six runes. The book Enchantment Cyclopaedia: Advanced provided a detailed explanation.

“Stealth and isolation”.

Stealth, as the word suggested, was used to hide something.

An item enchanted with “Infinite Reticence” was able to conceal its physical form. In other words, becoming invisible. Since he was going to keep his most precious items in his space storage, this effect alone had almost convinced Angor of the choice. Being able to hide it from plain sight would be perfect.

Also, “Infinite Reticence” could conceal the aura of an item as well. Even wizards wouldn’t be able to sense the presence of something hidden in this way, which further secured Angor’s possessions.

Apart from “stealth”, the “isolation” effect of Infinite Reticence could be considered something similar. But “stealth” was a semi-passive effect that could keep going for a long time at the cost of a very small amount of energy, while “isolation” required its user to actively trigger it. The actual level of the effect depended on how much energy was used.

Under the effect of “isolation”, the presence of the user became weaker. If he used full force to activate the magic array to its max level, he would avoid being noticed by anyone as long as he stayed completely still.

Generally speaking, the supportive effect of “Infinite Reticence” worked wonders for Angor, who preferred to stay low among people. It helped him keep his items safe while evading too much attention.

However, the effect couldn’t completely cut off his connection with the outside world. Using the magic array, he could only escape someone who tracked him by eyesight. Anything or anyone that could sense his hormone or use a prophecy spell could still locate him easily.

Angor fully remembered the stealth effect of Infinite Reticence and wondered how to clear the “stage” he was in.

Suddenly, a four-wheeled vehicle decorated by colorful shining lamps appeared on the busy road.

There were five horses pulling the vehicle with a giant stage as its main body. Pairs of dancers who wore beautiful masks and getups showed their performance to the onlookers around.

At the same time, they were tossing colorful feathers and flowers into the crowds.

The townsfolk grabbed the objects joyfully as if they were picking up free coins.

When Angor watched the scene in a daze, the door of a bakery nearby suddenly opened up with a loud “squeak”, and a gentle-looking woman carried a big plate of hot bread outside.

Upon smelling the sweet bread, Angor’s stomach growled helplessly. The woman heard him and approached him with a bright smile.

Yet Angor only felt his heart beating faster as the woman drew closer.

Something was wrong. Terribly wrong.

Angor turned around and bolted to the other side of the street. He turned around and saw the woman speaking to a beggar.

“Was it you? I thought… Never mind. Go ahead and take one. Don’t starve yourself.”

As Angor remembered, the beggar was sitting right behind where he was a moment ago.

The terrible sense of danger vanished when he saw the woman giving a piece of bread to the beggar.

“Are you telling me not to accept anything from these people?”

As he went over it in his mind, a milky-white calla flower came from the sky and landed on his shoulder, then it tumbled along his arm, reaching his hand.

He noticed that the flower came from the dancers’ vehicle and frowned.

“No. I didn’t feel it again when I take their stuff…”

As he considered, he quickly sensed the uneasiness growing in his mind again. He looked up from his hand and soon realized the problem.

Anyone who found a flower or plume would attract jealous looks from people. Now with his calla flower, those standing in front of him were turning around to find out who the “lucky guy” was.

And this was when Angor felt the terrible sense reaching its climax.

“I know it now! My instinct is telling me to avoid their attention but not their things!”

He felt the warning every time someone looked his way. For example, when the bread maker heard his belly rumbling and moved to him…

“Wait. Did she not see me at all?” Angor realized something else.

And he got another idea about his situation. When he entered this strange place, he was holding his space bracelet, which was enchanted with Infinite Reticence. Now, the effect of Infinite Reticence was affecting him. He was “isolated” from the crowd.

The bread maker did hear his belly noise and checked. But she never actually saw him. His presence was weakened, and the woman thought it was the beggar behind him who made the noise.

He looked at his hand again. The calla flower had broken through his “protection”. Of course people would easily notice who just won a flower, which would ruin his trial.

With that in mind, Angor immediately tossed the flower on the ground and moved into the shadows of the buildings.

As he expected, the sense of danger disappeared.

He understood now; he had to avoid catching anyone’s attention in this happy town.

But he still didn’t know how to get out.

“Guess I’ll keep going forward.” He already noticed that the town only had one street, which probably meant the same one he had been walking on.

To stay safe, he slowly walked toward the exit of the town while staying as low as possible.

…

In reality, Angor had his eyes shut tightly. The “ring” in his hand was still glowing.

When the light died down a little, it could be seen that the “ring” was a simple-looking bracelet, which had been releasing a strange aura into the environment after it left the area of Condense.

Angor’s ethereal laboratory #13 was located in the southwest area of The Tributary, a remote corner around the rising mountains.

When he moved in, Iron Granny mentioned that there was no one else within an area of a hundred kilometers, so he could do whatever he liked. Even if he would create omens, those outside the area wouldn’t notice him across the landscape which blocked their sights.

The granny spoke the truth, that there was “no one else” in this area—no one other than Angor and her.

…

The Iron Fortress was parked on top of a small hill lump, about five kilometers away from lab #13.

Iron Granny was sitting on a soft armchair on the balcony on the third floor of the fortress, enjoying the smell of the Dusk Blossoms she planted. She had an exquisitely-decorated tray in one hand and a teacup of the same style in her other hand. The rose tea in the cup was still releasing vapor into the air.

She sipped her tea and gazed at the clear blue sky. “Alas… the same boring day goes on. Why won’t you all come here and have some tea with this old bone, young’uns? Is this place not fun for you?”

The shadows of several figures flashed in front of her eyes—wizards, who once owned their labs inside The Tributary. But they were no longer here.

As Iron Granny summoned her memories, a surge of strong mountain gale suddenly rose and created clanking noises on the iron wall of the fortress.

The mountain gale kept going and grew stronger as if the sea were witnessing a storm.

The mist covering the mountains were gone. Trees that were growing at the mountain foot bent to one side. The Dusk Blossoms on the balcony all left their stems. For a moment, purple, red, yellow, and white flowers joined the wind and floated into the horizon like dandelion seeds.

Even Iron Granny’s silver hair bun was messed up.

With an “oof!”, she placed her teacup on the tray and freed up a hand to rearrange her hair. Then she looked toward the southwest where lab #13 stood.

Where the mountain gale came from.

“Ho… Angor, um? What a talented little one. It’s only several days, and you made another mid-tier alchemy charm?” Iron Granny stood up, releasing the glimmer of spells from her eyes. “Let me see what the omen is telling us…”

Above lab #13, the sky was blue and clear while the clouds gathered in peace. Nothing particular could be seen apart from the blowing mountain wind, yet Iron Granny clearly registered what was going on using her special power.

A moment later, she canceled her spell and squinted her eyes.

“Strange ripples, concealed omen, mountain gale that tries to blend in with the woods… something that helps you hide? Clever. He knows when to stay low. It’s true that strong wind is commonly seen in mountain woods. Yet an experienced hunter can easily tell when something’s wrong from the uncommon weather. Although… with Sunders protecting you, there is no hunter who’s brave enough to mark you as prey.

“Now that I think about it… Why did Sunders suddenly change his ways? Did Wallace do something to him?” Iron Granny looked away from the unseen omen and indulged her mind in other matters.