Warlock Apprentice

Constant lightning bolts brightened the dark room.

Felicia sat on her bed with an upright body and troubled expression.

She had entered the illusion a second time. This time, she followed behind the wine thief and went inside the palm tree forest.

After walking through a narrow path, she came to a small harbor town built beside the estuary of a river.

The town sat along the mountain foot. All structures had a bright white theme. White bricks, white fences… even the roads were paved using white cobbles. Every house possessed a small yard with colorful flowers growing inside, which gave the entire town a further, lively look.

Felicia entered the town, while “Wine Thief” would occasionally rest on her shoulder.

After checking the houses, she came to a peeing statue fountain, where a small door led toward inside the mountain.

Once she left the mountain again, the Wine Thief stopped wandering around and lingered above her head.

Felicia realized that the story of the illusion had ended.

She stopping pumping mana into the ear mana, which caused the illusion to scatter in a flock of feathers.

The journey in the illusion was relatively fun. Neither the ghost ship nor the small town had any people in there, but the objects and details shown everywhere could tell her old stories better than any storyteller.

The stories hidden in the small town were actually connected to each other. Together, they told her a secret concealed behind the town, which led her to the mountain door.

Like a chain of quests.

The interior of the mountain was a peculiar place that looked both narrow and broad. Also, when Felicia stepped inside, she felt strange as if time were frozen. Everything around her carried the trace of eternity. Here, the stories began to involve supernatural elements. She found a certain, bloodstained hammer inside a shipyard. Using this, she imagined a story where a ship was being constructed. The same ghost ship she ventured into a moment ago.

She learned a lot of extra clues inside the mountain, such as some secret places she had yet to find. From a simple painting, she could tell that there was a hidden valley full of flowers somewhere. From a rusted key, she knew there was a prison cell at the bottom of the sea.

They were just side stories like the ghost ship, while the “main quest” was right inside the mountain.

Telling from how long Greya had been inside the illusion, Felicia believed that Greya didn’t have time to explore the side stories.

However, she had finished looking around the mountain. There was nothing special apart from meaningful stories. Well, if she had to point something out, then maybe the time flow felt different.

But what else?

Felicia would admit that Angor’s illusion came out almost perfectly. Some of the stories could benefit both apprentices and wizards.

She recalled Greya’s reaction that she saw earlier.

“Get away from me!”

That reaction didn’t fit with what Felicia saw. Did Greya see something scary?

Felicia decided to explore the illusion again and find out what she possibly overlooked.

However, the illusion scattered just as she entered the mountain door.

She was sitting in her bedroom again, with an extra guest beside her—Greya.

Greya had taken the feather ear stud in her hand. She looked terrified, but at the same time, a little happy.

“Are you alright?” Felicia would care for the wellbeing of her friend rather than blaming her for interrupting the illusion.

“I’m okay now.” Greya shook head.

“Why did you… Is there something wrong with the illusion?”

Greya stayed quiet.

“Something in the town? Or inside the mountain?”

“The latter,” Greya said after a moment of hesitation.

“What’s wrong in there?”

Greya sighed. “That place… reminded me of something related to Nightmare Realm…”

Her eyes slowly lost focus as she recalled the horrible experience she went through. “You felt it too, right? When you step through that small door, there’s something, that troubles you, as if…”

“Time stopped,” they said in unison.

“Yes.” Greya nodded. “It aroused my memory again. I thought about Nightmare Realm and swarms of monsters around me, ready to feast on my body…”

“That’s why you yelled and threw the item away?”

Greya looked down in mild embarrassment.

Felicia never went to Nightmare Realm before so she couldn’t understand what the place looked like. But she could totally imagine what it was like if a familiar trace shown by an illusion could cause a “truth-finder” wizard to lose herself like that.

“Glad you’re okay. I thought that kid rigged the illusion; I was going to bring him back with my Butterfly Spirit. Well, you’re already out of Nightmare Realm now, don’t think about it too much.”

Greya shook her head again. “It… actually allowed me to remember something,” she murmured while under Felicia’s confused gaze. “When I fell into Nightmare Realm, I was imprisoned by a legendary sea monster.”

Felicia went agape upon hearing this. Legendary monsters had been extinct for a long time in the southern wizarding world. The only legendary monsters she knew of right now all dwelt in the depths of Abyss.

“But then, there were another two humanoid monsters fighting each other. The sea monster got involved in the power surge and was badly wounded.”

“Wounded? When it didn’t join the fight at all?”

Greya shivered. “Yes… It stayed pretty far from the battle, and it almost died.”

“Are you saying the two humanoid monsters are—”

“Beyond legendary.” Greya closed her eyes. Even she didn’t wish to believe her own words.

Felicia gulped and tried to take in what she just heard. “What happened next?”

“Together with ‘Sawai’, we set a trap so that we could kill the injured monster,” Greya said. She suddenly revealed a bitter smile as she continued, “Of course we failed. A legendary monster, even near its death, isn’t something we could hope to conquer. Luckily, it didn’t have enough strength left to kill us, so we managed to escape.

“But then something went wrong. We were discovered by the monster’s underlings. They were all monsters half-step toward legendary, as powerful as Mister Monkey, I would say. They created a perfect barrier that prevented me from escaping. I had to eject my soul. I then left my body on the island as bait and snuck away with my soul.”

“So you left your body behind yourself?”

“Correct.” Greya nodded before she said something which almost caused Felicia to stumble off her bed, “I’m going back to Nightmare Realm to retrieve my body.”

“Are you insane??” Felicia rushed to Greya and held her arms. “You’re going back to that hellhole? What for? So you can die quicker?! Have you forgotten our goal? You’re the biggest hope of Gourmet Wizards and we need you to guide us! If something happens to you, Candy House will—”

Greya gently pressed a finger on Felicia’s lips. “I know. For you, me, Candy House, Butterfly Tavern and… my restaurant. I know everything. And this is why I must insist.

“I told Angor that Toby must face four extra challenges, something he cannot avoid unless he would waste his life away under someone’s protection…” Greya lowered her head. “The same goes for me. I must face this mission.”

“But…”

“Don’t, please. You understand me, right? Why haven’t I fully occupied this body? Why have I maintained my soul independently? Something told me that I cannot settle down. Something told me not to use this body. But the illusion finally reminded me why.

“Taking this body meant giving up my past completely. Will I have a future without a past?”

“You’re saying—”

“Without my original body, I will not have the chance of advancing. It’ll be difficult to regain the strength of a wizard, let alone my full strength.”

Greya looked at the feather ear stud in her hand.

If not for Angor’s “hint”, she might have decided to settle down in this foreign body for real, which meant completely demise. Every time she thought about this, she felt endless gratitude toward the young boy.

It took some time for Felicia to digest Greya’s words. She finally found it impossible to persuade Greya otherwise.

“Still, Greya, Nightmare Realm isn’t something you can enter and leave freely. Besides, will you be able to find your body at all even if you go there again?”

Greya frowned. That was a serious problem.

“I can find solutions on how to establish a tunnel and go to the island… but I need a guide.”

Guide?

Greya lifted her hand and showed Felicia the adorable ear stud.

“You mean… Angor?” Even if the boy somehow added the aura of Nightmare Realm in the illusion, Felicia didn’t believe Angor actually went there before.

“No. Whether he knew about Nightmare Realm or not, he’s not strong enough to help me. I’m talking about Sunders.”

In the last century, Sunders would come to her restaurant and order a serving of “Twisting Protozoa” every decade or so. Greya more or less knew about Sunders’ secrets, including the man’s connection with Nightmare Realm.

Neither of them talked about it openly yet. Still, Greya was almost sure that Sunders knew how to enter Nightmare Realm, and a Twisting Protozoa was the key.