Warlock Apprentice

Chapter 425: Choosing Offshoots

Angor opened the door of Centenary Palace and immediately saw Shadow sitting on top of Naga. The latter was obviously breathing heavily with her face blushing all over.

“Am I interrupting? Guess I’ll be off.” Angor closed the door again.

A moment later, Shadow reopened the door awkwardly. He was now fully dressed.

“That was fast…” Angor commented in all seriousness while glancing at Shadow’s groin area.

“This is an adult business!” Shadow groaned.

They walked inside the palace and prepared to talk about their next plan when the grand priest came to seek an audience again.

“Geez, his nose’s sharp like a dog, I tell you. When I came back here first, he immediately knew it too,” Shadow complained.

Angor asked the old Krakok to come in.

A bright green hummingbird circled in the air for a while and placed the priest on a desk.

“Mister.” The old man quickly gave Angor a passionate glare.

Angor nodded. “I’ve asked Lady Isabelle.”

“Lady Isabelle? She’s back?”

“I’m not sure. It may be the remnant of her soul that she left behind.”

The priest decided not to question about wizard business. “What did Lady Isabelle say about the matter?”

Shadow also looked their way.

“She agreed,” Angor said.

The old Krakok immediately grew excited upon these words.

“However, we cannot break the magic array in Hippocrotee city. That is to say, to free a small number of your people, we must think of something to remove the bond from their blood.”

The priest looked hesitant. It was both good news and bad news.

“I said I’ll do what I can, and I’ll keep my words, especially since Isabelle allowed so. I’ll go back and ask my professor about a solution. If I get any info, I’ll come here again.”

“Young mister, so you cannot take them away right now?”

“Wait, did you already choose someone?” Angor frowned.

“That is correct. Their lives seem peaceful and happy here, yet we both know it’s an illusion, a lie. It’s better for them to go out earlier and adjust to foreign lives.”

Angor took a moment to think about it. It wasn’t a difficult task to bring several Krakoks along since he could keep them inside the bracelet. But he felt the responsibility to be quite heavy. He was going to protect the seed of hope of an entire race, but he was not even strong enough to protect himself yet.

The wise priest quickly noticed Angor’s concern. “You don’t have to worry about their safety, young mister. Just… find a suitable place for them, and they will rise, even if their new home can be harsh. Trust me, Krakoks are hard-working folks.”

That didn’t sound too hard now.

“Well, I think you can agree,” Shadow’s voice suddenly came through a spell as he said, “the Krakoks are considered native in this world too, which means we can teach them wizardry. Suppose the Krakoks all have similar talent levels as those brothers with me, then they’re pretty good too. You can bring them back to your organization as apprentices or ask them to follow you. Once they become strong, you’ll get some decent followers.”

Angor didn’t reply. He never planned to actually take students, but Shadow’s opinion seemed sound.

“Apart from wizardry, you see how good the stuff they crafted? Do you have a mortal family? They can help them receive good income through their skills.”

Angor’s eyes brightened up.

It had been 3 years since he left home. If nothing else went wrong, he would be returning to Old Earth at the end of next year, which meant it was convenient for him to take the Krakoks home. These creatures were too tiny to make human-sized furniture, but their smaller works of art could boost the income of Padt Family pretty well.

“Okay, I’ll take them away.” Angor nodded toward the grand priest, who had been eagerly waiting for an answer.

“Thank you very much for the blessing!”

“Now bring them to me, with their luggage. We’re leaving today. I have food and water for them for now, but they should take their own just in case something happens.”

“Right! I’ll summon them right away!” The grand priest suddenly became a lot more spirited. He hopped on his hummingbird sprightly and departed.

“Aren’t you going to choose for yourself so that you can find more talented ones?” Shadow asked.

“I don’t have any items to test out their talents. Do you?”

“Nah. Heck, even these clothes are yours,” Shadow said. He then revealed a wicked grin. “You can just breach their spirit defense to look inside, you know?”

“No point breaking the rules for this.”

Someone without zero talent could easily die or become retarded upon receiving such a violent test. Wizards usually forbid such a method even though no one would actually punish the offender as long as he or she did not make a fuss. Anyway, it was not as if somebody cared about the life and death of mortals.

“I don’t really need to find talents. Let their luck decide.”

Shadow shrugged and rested on a chair. “Suit yourself.”

The man began to fiddle around Naga’s breast area.

Angor looked away from the disgrace.

“Once we’re back at Real World, I’ll need a day to get food supplies. You good with that?” Angor asked when he made sure Shadow was done with his “adult business”.

“Yeah, sure. I’ll need to get something to wear too. Also, we must use my vehicle to travel to Silent Hill. Don’t you laugh at me!”

They both knew that Shadow’s “vehicle” seemed pretty girlish. It was not like he had another choice—he looted it from a dead female apprentice.

When Angor imagined how he would fly with another guy who was wearing a colorful silk cape, he shivered.

“No, thanks. I have a vehicle. I… made it the other day. But I haven’t tested it out yet.”

Shadow wasn’t surprised at all when hearing this. Angor almost created a Mystery Item back at Dark Castle. Creating a vehicle wasn’t a big deal.

Still, Shadow felt jealous. “Hey, let me have a look. What kind of vehicle is it?”

Angor was already planning to test it out in the open, and he reached for his “Gondola”. Before he could get it from his bracelet, the grand priest returned.

“Guess we’ll do it when we’re leaving Water Grasse,” said Angor.

The priest brought 30 Krakok families with a total of 81 individuals to the palace. Every Krakok was trembling in fear when they saw the two giants staring at them.

Angor noticed that there wasn’t anyone too old or too young. They were mostly in the prime of their lives or energetic teenagers.

“Young mister, I’ve already told them about their mission,” the old priest explained. “They know everything apart from the issue of our souls.”

“Pfft. You told them nothing then? Their soul problem IS why we need to do this.” Shadow snickered.

The priest looked down. He didn’t know how to explain the problem to his people, or how to tell them that the souls of their ancestors all became someone’s fuel instead of resting in heaven.

“What exactly did you tell them?” asked Angor.

“That there’s an issue in their bloodline, and we need you to solve that problem. Also, I asked them to bring the bloodline of Krakoks farther and to establish new homes beyond,” the old man replied carefully.

“I see.” Angor nodded and approached the nervous Krakoks. “I agreed to your grand priest’s request to take you away to a new home. I have only one condition while we’re traveling together; you must absolutely listen to my orders, at all times.”

Angor saw the old priest trying to say something and spoke first, “As a wizard, I swear to the world’s consciousness that I shall not harm you along the way. And once you all settle down, I’ll no longer intervene with your actions. What say you?”

The Krakoks looked at each other. They then looked at their grand priest, who wasn’t going to give them any opinions. The old man had already decided to let his people decide their own fate.

The silence lasted for a while.

The grand priest kept glancing at Angor’s impatient expression and feared that the young wizard would suddenly change his mind.