Warlock Apprentice

“Due south?” Angor tried to confirm.

“Yup.”

That didn’t make sense. They were pretty close to the exit, which meant any robbers would show up in large groups by now. This had always been the case as they encountered more and more enemies.

Those who didn’t have Meraid’s Swords should all be laying in wait and hopefully, work together. Why would someone break off from the group and come alone?

Angor couldn’t understand the reason. Nevertheless, it was good news since there was only one enemy to worry about. But again, something told him that the matter was more complicated, and perhaps dangerous.

He chose to keep the concern to himself right now instead of revealing it to others.

Nausica was getting more and more stressful as they moved farther. “Hey, Angor… something isn’t right.”

“What is it?” Angor asked. Nausica’s warning had drawn everyone’s attention.

“The one signal I mentioned is moving around one spot and it isn’t getting closer. It doesn’t seem like a raider to me… It’s more like someone who got lost.”

Angor looked at Keely, who nodded to confirm. “Yes, just like Nausica said.”

Moving around in one place? Angor wondered whether this had anything to do with their plan.

Is someone else chasing that guy? Or maybe the signal actually came from a Duon who was being chased?

“We still keep going?” Nausica asked, uncertain.

According to Nausica’s previous alert, there were over a hundred scale signals behind their position, which suggested way more enemies than they detected. Stopping now meant getting caught by them.

“We’ll keep moving,” Angor said after some consideration. “But as we have enough time, let’s move around that signal ahead of us. It’s fine if we stray off the straight path for several kilometers.”

“Okay, let’s head a little more to the southeast then.”

After setting the route, they moved. When they were about to approach the single signal, Nausica made a turn toward the left so that they didn’t run straight into it.

It suddenly began to rain as more and more raindrops splashed on the boat as well as everyone’s head.

Shiliew looked up at the raincloud that appeared out of nowhere. “This water… doesn’t belong anywhere. And why does it stink?”

Shiliew lifted a hand, caught some rainwater, and took a sniff. “Wait… this is not rain!”

The falling water created a misty effect that surrounded them. Soon, they found it hard to stay awake. One by one, their heads slumped down as people fell into slumber.

Angor was also affected by the condition, but he wasn’t fully asleep yet as he could still sense what was around.

He managed to retain consciousness because he already noticed that the mist effect was an illusion. As an illusionist himself, he knew how to resist certain cantrips. He had not figured out the true effect of the illusion yet, but he knew whoever cast it was stronger than him since the illusion successfully hindered his mind.

He was awake, but he couldn’t move.

So this is why I felt something was out of place back there…

The only thing he could do now was to listen to the snoring of others. It seemed their health wasn’t in danger.

He waited anxiously.

Ten minutes passed.

He didn’t want all their effort to go in vain just before reaching the Altar of Demise. But when he tried again, he couldn’t even lift a finger; it was as if his body didn’t belong to him.

He suddenly heard something moving beside him.

Shiliew slowly stood up.

Angor quickly saw hope. Shiliew took something that prevented drowsiness not long ago, maybe it’s still working!

Angor hoped that Shiliew could come and wake him up so that they didn’t have to waste any more precious time. But to his surprise, Shiliew approached the edge of the boat instead of going for the others.

Poom!

She jumped into the water.

Wait, what?!

As Angor wondered what she wanted to do, another passenger stood up and followed Shiliew’s example.

It was Keely.

Soon after, both Shan and Nausica left the boat and went swimming. Angor was left alone on Gondola.

He had already ascertained that the illusion caused their abnormal behaviors, yet he still couldn’t understand the true purpose of it.

There’s another illusionist who’s a lot more experienced than me?

It wasn’t long before he felt a strange force taking over his body. Just like the others, he slowly moved to the rail of the boat, unwillingly.

Before his body leaped from the boat, Angor silently chanted Spirit Mantra and was glad it worked. However, his body was still controlled by something and was already jumping overboard.

Angor put away his Gondola in his bracelet and followed behind. He wanted to find out who did this and why.

The first thing that welcomed him underwater was a giant, black vortex that immediately pulled him toward the center of it with great force.

He quickly spent what remained of his spare soul energy and escaped from the pulling force.

He dragged his body back into the air. He didn’t find the others in the water, which meant they already sank into the vortex.

The fiasco lasted for more than ten minutes, leaving only one hour left for the final countdown. Angor was wondering if he should head to the altar on his own since his soul had no problem resisting the illusion.

But Nausica…

When he struggled with a decision, he saw some bubbles emerging from the surface of the sea.

Someone made it out??

A pair of black, pointy ears poked out of the water, followed by the body of a black kitten. The kitten looked pretty miserable in the water as its fur clung to its body.

“Luna??” Angor called.

Luna didn’t see Angor floating in the sky until it heard Angor’s voice and looked up.

“Marrrw!!” The creature’s eyes brightened up in joy. It jumped high and steadied itself on Angor’s clothes using its claws and teeth.

With several swift moves, Luna found a comfortable spot on Angor’s shoulder.

“You aren’t affected by the illusion?” Angor was sure Luna followed behind Keely when she jumped off.

Luna shook head and kept meowing at him.

Angor had no idea how to comprehend cat language. After some more failed conversation, Luna jumped back into the water again, and with a pleading look, it beckoned Angor with one paw.

The gesture was obvious enough—Luna wanted Angor to go help its master.

Angor sighed. He couldn’t possibly refuse Luna since it saved him from Yethew’s poison bug.

Quickly, he dived into the sea.

While moving, he took a quick mental calculation and concluded that they needed at least half an hour to reach Altar of Demise at full speed, supposing that there was nothing else to stop them on their way. This meant he had another half an hour to save everyone.

And if he failed to do so within the time limit… he HAD to leave on his own.

He wanted to save his friend, true, but only on the condition that his own life wasn’t in danger.

His life was number one in priority and nothing else could be more important than it. He believed that all wizards would do the same.

Once in the water, Luna quickly led Angor toward the depth.

Angor called Luna back and took over the gray scale Luna had been holding. Using the signals he sensed, he saw there were four swords and two scales at the bottom of the sea.

The swords weren’t moving. One of the scales was together with the swords, probably Nausica’s scale.

Angor checked the second scale and frowned. This one was moving toward the other signals.

So an expert illusionist set us up so that he could take our swords? But whatever was that vortex thing?

With multiple questions in mind, Angor cautiously moved toward the signals.