Warlock Apprentice

Mithra was brewing a potion in front of an alchemy workbench. When the old alchemist saw Angor coming from the corner of his eye, he signaled Angor to be quiet and wait.

Angor politely stood aside. This meant Mithra didn’t mind him watching.

In the field of alchemy, Mithra was one renowned figure who belonged to the “Reformer” school. As the name suggested, they perused new theories while gradually giving up old ones, retaining only the most useful elements in all kinds of alchemy works.

Angor didn’t know much about Apothecary. To him, Mithra’s potion tubes and how different-colored liquids moved through different devices and containers looked exactly like what certain scientists did in some of the Earth movies. However, the flames and other spells wielded by Mithra all told him that this was not Earth.

Time slowly went by. When a hanging clock told Angor that it was noon, Mithra finally halted his task.

He just created a puddle of a pink potion, which showed crimson glitter. Slowly, Mithra stored the liquid inside a silver-gilded vial.

Next, he gave the vial a small shake to hear how the liquid sounded when colliding with its container. Then he wrote something down on a parchment sheet and affixed a label onto the cap of the vial—Improved Peach Potion.

This was a pretty famous potion among wizards. People might have the wrong idea about its name, while the potion itself was only a supplementary tool used during bloodline purification.

Even so, Angor didn’t know there was an “improved version” of it. He wondered what improvement was created by Mithra.

“I added some hemopoiesis components that help the user’s body to keep their basic functions healthy,” said Mithra after he saw Angor looking at the potion curiously. This was not really a secret, so he had no problem explaining.

Keeping basic body functions healthy?

Angor’s eyes shone. He happened to need something with such an effect.

“Mister Mithra, I’m recently looking for methods to nurture someone’s body. Can you tell me something?”

“It depends. For example, people need their bodies ‘maintained’ while undergoing bloodline injection or purification, but the exact method in each case is different.”

“How about soul ejection? Like, how to keep a Soul Coupling state going longer while keeping the body alive?”

“Oh that… I thought you’re planning to get a bloodline,” Mithra muttered. “You can use some basic magic plants to brew nutrient fluid for that purpose. Your body will be fine inside the liquid. It only calls for easy Apothecary skills. Nothing too hard.”

“Um, it’s actually a little complicated…” Angor considered and decided to reveal his condition without mentioning his sequence of gravity. “I learned something that consumes soul energy and I can only use it after ejecting my soul. Yet I can’t stay that way for too long without leaving my body in danger.”

“You want to keep your body safe in a pinch? There are many potions for it, all with different levels of effects. Some of them keep you alive for an hour, while some for several minutes. As for their cost… One of the cheapest one is Cillian’s Witch Stew, created by the Gypsy School.”

Angor knew a number of different witch stews since Prome’s shop often offered them. The stews were originally invented by Gypsy School, and they possessed effects between alchemy potions and gourmet dishes. Different people used different materials and techniques while going over the very same brewing process to bring out their own stews.

The name of a witch stew was determined by its creator. For example, there was the Karoline’s Witch Stew, Cillian’s Witch Stew, and Shanna’s Witch Stew.

These stews all tended to have restrictive effects; therefore, not many people could use them. But at the same time, they were known for their almost negligible side-effect to human bodies. In contrast, products made by the other schools were more or less risky to use.

“Cillian’s Witch Stew helps Bloodline Wizards keep their bodies running after they exhaust their bloodline energy,” Mithra said. He pondered and added, “Which means it should help your case as well. By the way, since there are many bloodline users who need it, you can find it in a lot of places, such as the main city district.”

Angor carefully remembered the name.

“And I believe you’re not here just for this, em?” Mithra continued, “Do you want to see my library? Or…” He noticed a stack of parchments in Angor’s hand. What was exposed quickly aroused his curiosity.

Angor quickly handed his drafts to Mithra.

“I want to consult you, Mister Mithra. I just designed a mechanical arm. Is there anything amiss or incorrect on it?” Angor asked politely.

“A mechanical arm?” Mithra quickly realized what those words meant.

And what he saw on the paper immediately drew his attention.

The Floating Mech City was proud of their machine alchemy skills. Mithra was an Apothecary, but he was no stranger to machines—he was actually the honorary vice president of the research department of the city. He had spent a lot of time observing or working on machine alchemy, which allowed him to develop a pair of keen eyes on the subject.

The first page of Angor’s draft was a picture that displayed various parts of the designed arm as well as their functions.

To give any viewer a detailed sight, Angor also placed the simple sketch of a human body on the page.

Of course, the draft was for finalizing Nausica’s new arm.

Also, Angor gained most of his ideas from certain sci-fi movies he saw on the tablet. His design looked nothing like what wizards usually expected, yet it looked shocking nevertheless. When Sailum first looked at Angor’s idea, the boy could only use the word “awesome” to express his mind.

Back in Brute Cavern, Angor only finished a part of the machine arm. Now, he had completed the entire composition and created something with eye-catching metallic details and strange yet futuristic features.

“Have you ever seen mechanical armament before?” Mithra asked something while pointing at the papers.

“Um, what is that?”

Mithra shook his head. “Your idea is different from those developed by our research department, but there are some similar connections to it…”

Mithra mumbled something to himself and gave Angor another look of approval. “You have both brilliant alchemy talent and the bright mind for creation. I assume this arm is meant to go on someone’s body like a piece of clothing, right?”

Angor recalled what he saw from the robot movies—people could either “wear” the robots by going inside or control them remotely by other means.

“Basically, yes.”

“I see.” Mithra nodded again. “Do you know about the research department I mentioned?”

Angor nodded. That was the core institute of Floating Mech City that gave birth to all advanced alchemy machine products known to the world. One of the two city masters—”The Fool” Muse—ran the department as its supreme leader.

“About 30 years ago, Muse initiated another grand project that was meant to develop machine armament—an all-cover machine armor to be worn by combatants. They already finished building several prototypes, but they weren’t satisfied by the armor’s power output, so nobody released the product to the outside yet. Today, there are still less than ten people who knew about the secret project. It’s such a surprise to see someone who came up with a similar idea.”

By now, Mithra no longer doubted Angor’s future achievement. Everything shown by the boy suggested the rise of a new master alchemist.

Mithra sighed and suppressed his urge of bringing Angor’s draft to Muse. He then carefully examined the interesting design.

First, Mithra asked about the general purpose of the arm before commenting on every detail worth discussing.

The fruitful talk lasted for half a day.

When someone pushed their lab door open, the outside was already dark.

What Yeliya saw in her husband’s underground lab was a pair of bodies, one big and one small, bending over a tiny table while debating about something. There were occasionally illusions showing up around them to facilitate their theories.

Yeliya thought the boy came here for lessons, but now, she thought differently. There were even times when Angor insisted on his own ideas, which caused Mithra to throw up his arms and protest with red cheeks.

Such a heated discussion was usually seen when Mithra was working with other master alchemists.

Still, Yeliya found the strange sight to be quite harmonious.

She waited for almost an hour until the two academicians were about to enter the next phase of their seminar when she quickly intervened. “Alright alright, go have a bite before continuing. Toya’s little tummy is growling like a beast already. We can’t leave a growing boy to starve.”

Angor thought it best NOT to be freeloading on someone’s family meal and prepared to say goodbye to the couple.

But Mithra quickly stopped him. The old man began to treasure this childish yet creative young man. Many of Angor’s alchemy ideas were wrong due to lack of experience, but he had a really promising field of vision and a broad mind. Mithra believed he could actually learn a lot from the boy, even if Angor was only an apprentice.

“Stay with us!” Mithra wasn’t going to let his new academic partner go so easily. “I still need to convince you on a lot of stuff, especially the material selections. You’re going to listen to me! Whether you like it or not!”

Angor chuckled helplessly. “Mister Mithra, I do want to listen to you, but those are-”

“Stop it!” Yeliya moved between them. “AFTER the meal, if you would. Angor, come with me; otherwise, this old thing will keep you in this place forever.”

Without waiting for an answer, she dragged Angor’s arm and went upstairs.

When back inside the cozy hut, Yeliya asked Angor to take a seat while she went to finish her cooking.

Probably because of the long wait, Toya had fallen asleep on the dining table while drooling. His cheetah cub, Dodo, huddled on the boy’s legs while snoring.

Angor looked out the window. He watched the moon and stars while enjoying the smell of home-made dishes that were ready to be served.

Everything felt quiet.

His mind appreciated the well-needed tranquility.