Warlock Apprentice

Sunders never explicitly explained what “recycle” meant, but each time Angor heard about it, he felt something cruel hidden behind it.

The city guards dared not stop the violent actions of someone from the Supreme Cult because the cult members shared a terribly notorious name in this world. They might not be strong fighters, but no other wizard organizations wanted to provoke them because the cult defined the “political correctness” of the entire region.

Most organizations tended to operate their own shady business somewhere, and they would perform researches on illegal otherworld creatures. Balba in Brute Cavern was such a case. Typically, the Supreme Cult strongly opposed such behaviors because this went against their creed. As the loyal believers of the world’s consciousness, the cult members relentlessly messed around at people’s places and caused an uproar.

Of course, the major organizations could wipe them out once and for all, but it would be at a great cost. Besides, no one knew whether the world’s consciousness would simply give birth to a second Supreme Cult after the first one. No one wanted a bunch of revengeful psychos constantly biting their heels.

Angor took a guess that the big man was an otherworldly visitor. He already sensed something from the bulky figure that didn’t belong to this world.

The black-haired young man came from Supreme Cult, who regarded the big man as an intruder. This was what caused their street fight.

The little girl mentioned that the big man already got “registered”, but this didn’t prevent a cult member from attacking him.

Angor silently shivered. He once considered solving Jon’s problem by getting him “registered”. But now he realized that the Supreme Cult, as everyone suggested, was a bunch of maniacs who didn’t even follow their own rules.

Angor made up his mind to deal with Jon’s condition more carefully from now on.

The fighters were entangled in a more intense battle after their failed negotiation. The black-haired man began to use deadlier attacks against the muscular man. For now, he didn’t go for the little girl yet. However, his attacks were dangerous enough to harm her without specifically aiming at her.

Angor had no idea where the little girl came from. She seemed pretty young, yet she already displayed the same level of strength as level-2 apprentices. She could unleash different cantrips without preparation. Combined with the superior physical defenses of her “mount”, they fended off the cult member’s assault just fine.

Angor could also see that despite their effort, the duo was slowly losing. It seemed the cult member possessed an unknown ability that allowed him to grow more powerful as he received more wounds, which could be seen from his blood-vessel covered eyes. His cold expression had been replaced by pure madness that was intensified along with his growing strength. His scattered hair danced wildly as if there were a hurricane blowing over.

Finally. the little girl’s defeat was determined when the bulky man lost an arm.

After several follow-up attacks, the bulky man collapsed on the ground, while the little girl tumbled down from his shoulder.

“Saladin! Are you sure you would oppose us Brute Cavern?!” the girl yelled.

“Heheehahahee…” the young man named “Saladin” replied with a series of eerie laughs. His eyes were now completely red. None of his previous “cold and composed” character was left.

“He’s mad!” The little girl turned to call the onlooking guards, “Hey, you cowards! Aren’t you going to do something when a guy is harassing a teen?”

The guards chose to look at the floor.

Saladin was moving to the girl with his sword lifted. It seemed he no longer cared about his original target after he lost his sanity.

The girl’s legs were wounded, so she could only crawl away in fear.

With another maddened laugh, the cultist slashed at the defenseless girl.

A thin figure suddenly dashed into the street and dragged the girl away.

“Shan, run!” a female snapped.

The girl realized she was out of danger before she noticed Saladin going for the bulky man next. “Gank, no!”

Hearing her call, Saladin’s head jerked her way again. While laughing in the same inhuman voice, the cultist kicked the ground and dashed at the girl like an arrow, aiming his sword at the girl as well as her savior.

Before the cultist reached his targets, the entire street area was covered by a sudden mist.

“Shield.”

People heard another female voice speaking behind the mist. The single word was followed by a giant explosion.

“Aqua Prison.”

The speaker sounded tired this time as if she used all her strength.

A brief moment later, people saw a one-armed lady, another woman with blue, curly hair, the wounded little girl, and the bulky man running out of the misty area. The bulky man carried his lost arm in his intact hand.

The black-haired cultist remained inside the mist.

“Shan, Shiliew, let’s get away before Saladin shakes free.”

The little girl named “Shan” quickly nodded. “Thank you, Nausica, Shiliew. I’d have died for real back there.”

One of the people who rescued her was Nausica. Her face looked pale, probably because Saladin’s sword almost connected with her face. However, her determined eyes didn’t waver at all.

“I was too reckless. It was Shiliew who actually helped.” Nausica pointed to the second rescuer, a woman with short blue hair.

“What was that mist spell though? We got out just fine, but Saladin looks like he just caught some kind of hysteria,” Nausica asked; she seemed puzzled.

“Shiliew knows how to use water to create a mist barrier, right?” Shan looked at Shiliew. “So what exactly did you use?”

Shiliew looked confused at the question. “Actually, it was…”

Her eyelids suddenly closed up. Next, Shilliew began to snore loudly while standing in the middle of the crossroad.

“She’s sleeping again!”

“That’s ‘Dripping River the Sleeper’ for you. She does this anywhere and anytime. Hey wait, sh*t! Her Aqua Prison’s gonna fail like this. We have to run!”

They could walk away while talking because Shiliew used a spell to capture Saladin. Now that Shiliew fell asleep, her spell would quickly vanish.

Nausica tossed Shiliew onto the bulky man’s shoulder. After that, they dashed toward the direction of Champagne Road without looking back.

They didn’t know that even after they left, the mist around Saladin never went away. Shiliew’s spell restraint on Saladin already went away, yet Saladin never escaped.

The onlooking apprentices looked among each other in confusion

“Is Saladin dead? Why isn’t he coming out?”

“Now that’s trouble. Supreme Cult sent more than one member. We don’t want to anger those cranks.”

The two guards standing on top of a building panicked and quickly used their transmitter to call Mister Sirui.

The mist finally grew thinner, slowly revealing Saladin’s form.

Saladin didn’t seem hurt. Also, he regained his previous calm and indifferent attitude, which meant he had gotten rid of his mad condition.

Saladin glanced at Champagne Road. He knew his target had escaped there, but he couldn’t afford to chase them since there were more powerful wizards stationed there.

Besides, he was more interested in who just tricked him with an interesting spell.

It had been some time since he regained sanity. He couldn’t understand why he failed to find the exit of the mist in his calm state.

He looked around and failed to find out the caster of the mist. Maybe it is one of the two women who showed up just now?

Under everyone’s fearful gaze, Saladin grinned devilishly and walked away.

By some unknown coincidence, he was walking past Angor’s position just when Angor was descending from a tree branch.

Saladin glanced at Angor and assumed it was just another observer. Yet when he turned away, an instinctual feeling caused his heart to thump faster.

Saladin glared at Angor.

Angor didn’t mind Saladin’s questioning gaze. He simply pulled his hood over his head and prepared to depart—only to find Saladin blocking his way.

“Need something?” Angor asked from under his hood.

“… You’re carrying something from another world. Let me give you some advice—do not get involved with any otherworldly creature.”

Saladin was staring at Angor’s chest.

Angor had a necklace that came with a pendant containing the “culprit” who brought Jon to this world—the Alien Eye.

Saladin didn’t mention anything about “recycling” the item. Their job was to deal with creatures, not their possessions. There were many alchemy applications that required the use of otherworldly materials after all.

Angor waited until Saladin left and frowned.

An apprentice noticed the presence of Alien Eye when Sunders cannot… They aren’t lying about how the Supreme Cult cultists are extremely sensitive to otherworldly beings.

With a grim look, Angor watched as Saladin disappeared at the end of the road. Once the man was gone, he then headed to Champagne Road.