Warlock Apprentice

A skeleton was one of the most common familiar creatures used by wizards. However, wizards preferred to use necromancy spells to stuff certain soul inside an existing skeleton to make a Dead Man’s Skeleton, in which case the soul could interact with the physical world using the skeleton as a host. Flora’s “Little Red” was essentially a Dead Man’s Skeleton. But that one was special, considering how it came from the Nightmare Realm.

For a Dead Man’s Skeleton, the soul was its true body, while the skeleton was its outer shell. They could always change that shell as they needed.

A Dead Man’s Skeleton was man-made, while a Wanderer Skeleton was created naturally.

As a start, a Wanderer Skeleton usually possessed a stronger soul. However, its final strength still depended on chances and luck.

“Is this a Wanderer Skeleton?”

Angor looked up at the serpent. He was quite certain that the serpent was also confused by what had happened.

It didn’t know what was inside this coffin?

Now… this had gotten a whole lot more interesting.

As he considered, he suddenly sensed a sharp stench again. It wasn’t the rotten smell from the black-water lake, but a pure stink of spilled blood.

To prove his thought, blood began to seep out between the gaps under the shaking coffin lid!

“Blood? What the heck?” Angor frowned again. Of course, skeletons didn’t bleed. So what on earth?

A strange voice suddenly answered his question.

“My, blood, this.”

It sounded aged and distant, but pleasant. Angor felt as if a great being wished to talk to him even though it had to travel through the most ancient forest, climb over mountains, sail the seas and break the boundaries of time and space.

As the voice came about, a gentle breeze blew over the ground and caused the dandelions to sway. Shiny green lumps left their bases and floated around Angor and the great serpent.

Angor looked up again and noticed the serpent was displaying a tired look.

“You spoke to me?”

It was a nod.

“Take him, away. Save, him.”

The pleasant tone brushed against his eardrums gently, and it somewhat charmed his mind.

As Angor listened to the strange voice, it caused him to feel calm. It seemed as if the voice had such power which suppressed all irritations and conflicts of the mind.

And he sensed no magic at all. Angor believed this was the most beautiful voice he ever listened to.

Even Toby looked at the giant serpent with respect.

However, it seemed that speaking like this took a lot of strength away from the serpent. After he spoke those words, the serpent slumped to the ground and breathed heavily.

“Speaking will cause you pain? Don’t speak then, you can nod or shake your head,” Angor said.

It was a nod.

Angor finally realized why the creature had been quiet. “You want me to take the coffin away to save… someone?”

A pleading nod.

Angor was confused again. The coffin had someone alive in there? A village survivor? No way, not after a thousand years!

“Is it someone from the abandoned village?”

He even explained the word “abandoned” to make it easier for the snake.

While it listened to the explanation, the serpent grew sad a little. It then nodded again.

“For real? But it was ruined a thousand years ago… Unbelievable.”

By this, Angor meant that both the possible survivor in the coffin and this thousand-year-old serpent were miracles.

He guessed that there had to be another reason behind it. The serpent mentioned that it was its own blood coming from the coffin, which probably meant the creature had been keeping the person inside the coffin alive. But… even the blood of a wizard-level monster couldn’t sustain a mortal for so long.

Which meant the captive wasn’t anyone ordinary.

“Why is it shaking? Can I open it up?”

The serpent nodded, albeit with some uncertainty this time.

The serpent didn’t know what was going on here… Angor actually felt reassured now that he knew the serpent didn’t mean harm.

After getting the serpent’s consent, Angor kept his Aster Barrier up and slowly pried the lid open with Hand of Spell.

The lid wasn’t nailed at all, which made it easier for the serpent to place blood inside. Angor didn’t need much force to easily flip the coffin open.

Meanwhile, the individual inside was struggling harder. Angor saw the interior of the coffin that was full of blood, and a blood-covered figure restrained in vine strings was writhing madly.

He couldn’t see the face of the person clearly. From the person’s outline, he could only tell that it was a young male.

Compared to this, he was more concerned about how the eyes of the man showed complete madness mixed with fear.

And he recognized that look.

“He’s possessed?”

Upon hearing this, the resting serpent suddenly bolted up and looked at Angor with a stern look.

“Who, are you? Why hathhhh you come, to Pocratee?”

Unlike the gentle voice before, the serpent sounded frigid this time, as if the voice had turned into a sharp knife against Angor’s throat. Even the fluffy greens around them put on a colder atmosphere and were now ready to become blades and assault Angor should anything go wrong.

“Pocratee… Is that the village’s name?”

The serpent remained silent for a second before nodding.

Angor more or less understood what just happened. The serpent had to have been guarding Pocratee, so it knew that the village was void of people. Angor’s arrival meant hope and threat.

There was hope for the man in the coffin, but Angor’s unknown origin was the threat.

“I’m an apprentice. I accidentally fell into a plane passageway, and luck brought me to an exit which then led to Pocratee,” Angor said. He then took out his bone card from his bracelet. “I don’t know if you recognize this, but this card is proof of my identity. I came from Brute Cavern, a wizard organization in the southern wizarding world.”

The serpent glanced at the bone card without any response. It seemed like it didn’t know what that was.

Angor simply put the card back and pointed to the man in the coffin. “As for his condition… From where I came from, I saw something similar before, so I know what’s happening to him. Possibly.”

The serpent still displayed disbelief in its eyes. The air grew colder, causing Angor to tremble again.

Angor sighed and explained everything about Twilight Well, the plane passageway, and how he got here. He didn’t hide his connection to the rainbow dragonflies either. However, he amended his words by telling the serpent that his professor, Sunders, left a powerful “sigil” in his body. The powerful sigil of a level-2 wizard who had found the path of truth could allow him to control the dragonflies and escape the passageway.

The serpent was still unconvinced, and Angor couldn’t really do anything else. He couldn’t tell the creature everything about the Nightmare Realm, which was both his secret and Sunders’ strict order. Speaking more about it would easily give Sunders’ family secrets out to outsiders.

“Great snake, I believe you can see that I’m not your foe. Do you think someone my age can destroy Pocratee?”

The giant creature nodded this time. It brought Angor here because it witnessed this young human burying the victims carefully.

“I don’t have anything else to convince you. I can tell you that my professor can treat his condition. If you let me leave, I’ll take him to my professor and ask him for help,” Angor said.

He told the snake that most wizards in Twilight Well suffered from the same situation. Only a more powerful wizard on the path of truth like Sunders could help the man in the coffin.

To prove this, he showed the power of his “sigil”. He moved to the coffin and looked at the struggling man.

“Stop moving!”

The man looked back at him in fear and slowly quieted down.

This worked because of Shava’s name. It had nothing to do with his non-existent “sigil”. Angor knew how to pretend because he learned about it when he was dealing with Duke Tepikkhu.

While still confused, the serpent felt like showing respect to Angor’s teacher. It met other wizards before, so it clearly knew what a “truth-finding” wizard meant.

It slowly lay back down, tired out.

“I’ll take him to my professor and remove his condition.”

“Thankssss…” the serpent said, using the last bit of strength it could muster.

Angor sighed in relief and tried to ask how to leave this place.

The serpent lifted the tip of its tail and pointed at the path outside this chamber, which extended further into the distance.

Angor quickly felt joy. It seemed that he finally discovered his chance.

He remained to talk to the giant serpent for a while, in a gentler way this time. He learned a lot of useful information. Also, he realized that the snake wasn’t really as fearsome as it appeared to be. It was like chatting with a wise old man. He could read a lot from the creature’s gazes even without it speaking.

According to the serpent, the abandoned village was named “Pocratee”, and it was once a research ground for a group of doctors who decided to conduct their studies away from civilization. It was also called the “Sanctum of Healers”.

One day, a disaster fell upon the village and brought a mist passage inside the place, as well as a bunch of evil visitors.

The rainbow dragonflies.