Warlock Apprentice

Apprentices couldn’t just turn into wizards because they wanted to.

To 99% of all apprentices, becoming a wizard could be well considered the ultimate goal. Under such a circumstance, aiming for the path of truth as an apprentice was downright impossible.

However, it seemed both Sunders and Flora assumed that the otherwise absurd challenge was something possible for Angor. Not only that, but they also expected Angor to aim higher after becoming a wizard, which “might take him a lot of time”.

To them, the question was whether Angor should “take time” to accept the challenges. Unfortunately, Angor did not have such high hopes for himself. He did not have the confidence to become a wizard in the first place.

He became a level-3 apprentice so fast all thanks to his potent channeling method that allowed him to proceed while disregarding the limits that dragged down other apprentices for a long time. Yet this channeling method, however special it was, would not help him with attaining wizard level. To become a wizard, he had to have personal awareness, an enriched mind, and most importantly, endless time and effort.

Angor was hoping to reach that level before turning 30, which was already beyond impressive in this world. This was why he couldn’t tell his choice to Sunders, because the “major premise” of Sunders’ question was wrong!

“I see…” Sunders nodded. “You’re right. I shouldn’t be asking you all these if you can’t get there yet. Regarding spell slots… you can put it aside for now. Think about it again once you reach your current limit and is sure you can move past it.”

Angor complied. This was exactly what he was thinking.

If someone were to force him to choose right now, he would probably go for wizard level first because he certainly did not wish to die helplessly when the calamity came.

“Something else you need?” Sunders saw his student considering something else instead of leaving.

“Um, sir, what did Miss Flora come back for just now?”

Angor decided to ask this question because he saw something out of place on his teacher.

The gentleman appeared to be different. Angor couldn’t put his finger on it. He got a feeling that Sunders seemed “loosened” compared to before, in a good way.

Did something good happen?

Angor tried to remember what he saw today. Sunders seemed fine this morning, and there was Flora’s visit…

Maybe it was something related to Flora?

It was such a rare sight to see the gentleman in such a “cheerful” mode, albeit just a little, and Angor wanted to find out why. He chose to do so by asking an indirect question.

Despite that, his intention was easily seen through.

“You want to know why I look different today?” Sunders raised an eyebrow.

Angor scratched his head.

“You’ll naturally know in a few days, but since you asked…” Sunders grinned. “Sumesh has become a truth-finder wizard.”

Angor was puzzled for a while as he tried to recall who Sumesh was. He then realized that whenever people talked about Sunders, they would often mention this name.

As of now, Sunders had three students. Flora was an orphan found by Sunders when she was still young, while Angor joined Sunders the year before last.

The remaining one, Sumesh, was Sunders’ first student; he had been studying under Sunders for over a hundred years.

To Angor, the name “Sumesh” only existed in rumors and tales. He knew Sumesh was also an illusionist. The difference was that Sumesh majored in Truth Manipulator, a special Illusionist subject that confused or convinced people by obscuring the boundary between real and fake.

Also, Sumesh was titled as “The Masked Man”.

He left Brute Cavern 50 years ago in pursuit of his own path, and it seemed he had triumphed.

Fifty years was not much different than a blink of an eye to wizards who had extended lives. Given that Sumesh managed to find his path of truth in such a short time, it proved that his talent was indeed unparalleled.

Of course, Sunders was pleased to find out that his “number one student” was a huge success.

Creating a truth-finder wizard would grant Sunders an even more influential position in Brute Cavern. The gentleman had no interest in political privilege. He was only interested in the fact that he would have more chips on the table when negotiating with the other authorities in the organization.

Angor smiled as well. Even though he had not met with this rumored man, he felt happy that his classmate was so successful.

“Did Miss Flora bring the message to you?”

Sunders nodded. “When Flora was on an expedition quest with Moonfrost Union, which lasted 20 years, she became good friends with Sennefer. It was Sennefer who sent her the message, that in a wizard camp inside Xien Plane, Sumesh created a new spell and caused a large-scale omen, which was seen by lots of people.”

Angor wondered what kind of new spell was born in Sumesh’s hands. Pity. He couldn’t possibly travel to Xien Plane and find out.

Sunders suddenly frowned and took out his “crystal ball transmitter”, which had several new messages shown on it. Most of them were congratulations sent by various entities when they learned about Sumesh’s achievement.

At the same time, Butler Goode knocked on the door, claiming that several wizards were visiting.

Of course, these people all wished to use this chance to establish friendly connections with Sunders. And this time, the unsociable gentleman decided to invite them inside.

“Lift the barrier around the island and take them here!”

Angor also noticed a message from Rein Mute. He invited Sunders to his place for a chat.

Soon, a good number of people set foot on Phantom Island, where it was usually peaceful and relatively quiet.

Angor quickly took his leave. He figured that he probably wasn’t supposed to show up during the social meeting among so many wizards.

“When will Lady Greya arrive, professor?” Angor asked one last question before leaving.

“If all goes according to plan, in two days, at most.”

Greya was currently leaving from a teleportation array in the Evernight Kingdom, which was located on the other side of Parmigi Highlands. She was traveling via Sleepless City, a city-organization located in the southeast part of the Evernight Kingdom.

Sleepless City and Edge of Night were two major organizations in the Evernight Kingdom. Despite the fact that they were established inside the Evernight Kingdom, the authorities of Evernight Kingdom knew little about them.

This was similar to how the mortals in Evory didn’t know much about Floating Mech City even though the city constantly floated above Evory.

To common folks in the Evernight Kingdom, Sleepless City was also called the “Ever-Bright City”, because as its name suggested, the city had no nights. This was achieved by a giant magic array built alongside the city.

When Greya stepped out of the teleportation portal, her eyes were almost blinded by the shining, dome-like barrier above her.

The magic array under the city was called the “eternal radiance”. When it was fully activated, it would create this barrier-like curtain that provided light to the city as well as drawing more mana from the environment.

“Ohhh, when under this barrier, I can absorb primal mana almost four times faster than from the outside. If Angor can draw the magic array, I’ll ask him to get me one when I resume business at Barbie’s Restaurant!” Greya spoke to herself.

She floated toward the outside of the city. She would keep going like this until she reached Brute Cavern. Without her “proper” body, she could no longer travel via plane passageways. Thankfully, she only had to fly past a short distance above Parmigi Highlands.

Before leaving the city range, her ears twitched as she saw a group of people on the street below her talking about the news from Moonfrost.

Greya was interested because she heard Sunders’ name being mentioned.

“Oh… Sumesh has done it…”

She still remembered when Sunders took a level-2 apprentice boy who always had a straight face on to her restaurant about a hundred years ago. At that time, the gentleman required another Twisting Protozoa.

And I’m making completely no progress here… If I don’t find my body soon, I guess even that Angor boy will surpass me soon.

She was annoyed by her condition. Even so, Greya still silently admired Sunders’ keen eye for looking for good students.

The gentleman found three students. A truth-finder wizard, a powerful witch, and a newly-found boy who was still an apprentice but had already scared the hell out of people with his preeminent potential.

If things kept going like this, Sunders’ students could probably create quite a legend in the south even without their professor’s help.

Greya shook her head and kept moving outside.

Suddenly, a piece of strange music came out of nowhere. When the strange music reached her ears, Greya immediately stopped moving.