Warlock Apprentice

To be precise, the music box just barely reached high-tier, but it still went above the standard line that separated it from items of lower ranks.

Angor thought his alchemy works would only reach this level after he turned a wizard because as commonly believed by all alchemists, making a true high-tier item asked for many aspects not bypassable by using extra help, such as the maker’s own power level and how many advanced alchemy spells they could use. Right now, Angor met none of these conditions.

However, there were known exceptions that fell out of these limits. These exceptional creations had such strong effects from the very start that they were not limited by poor materials and incompetent techniques used by the alchemist.

Commonly, alchemists needed to rely on high-level materials and skills to ensure a better outcome because items created in such a way wouldn’t turn out so badly even if they made some minor mistakes in the process.

However, it was completely possible to bring out high-tier items using cheaper components. In fact, most Master Alchemists had several such “trademark” inventions during their careers.

Angor had created the same case by using inferior ingredients for “Ocean Tuner”, which displayed a superior effect that deemed it as a high-tier tool.

[Increasing water affinity during apprenticeship training. Providing substantial revelation to level-1 wizards who studied the power of the sea.]

While “increasing water affinity” sounded pretty straightforward, the second effect that granted “revelation” made little sense to Angor since he was neither a wizard nor someone who studied sea-related arts.

According to the analysis provided by Narda’s Vision, an apprentice could spend time in the illusion to train on water-aspected cantrips faster. This was very helpful to all because all apprentices more or less needed to master several Elementalist cantrips no matter which subjects they were studying, and water-aspected cantrip was usually a good choice they couldn’t avoid.

Furthermore, the boon provided by Ocean Tuner would multiply if it was used by an organization to train a large group of apprentices to promptly gain capable human resources.

For this reason, the music box would undeniably become a highlighted prize if it was sold at public auctions and might have its price elevated to at least seven digits when major organizations competed for it.

As for the second effect, when reading the result of Narda’s Vision, Angor immediately noticed that the key point of it was not “revelation” but “wizards”.

Unlike the first effect, the revelation part worked on wizards.

These two effects together meant the music box was more than enough to be regarded as a high-tier alchemy creation.

Of course, the tier of an item was not important if it did not suit its user in nature. For example, if Angor had to choose between Ocean Tuner and Crimson Aegis right now, he would choose the latter even though it was of a lower tier.

Usually, only wizards were rich enough to afford high-tier items, and they usually preferred ones with general utility effects rather than attacking properties because they already knew a hefty amount of offensive spells as wizards. For this reason, the universal effect of Angor’s music box would appeal to a lot of people.

Putting these factors aside, being able to craft an actual high-tier item meant Angor was not far from becoming a Master Alchemist, as everyone would agree. Any organization that heard about this matter would attempt to invite Angor and treat him as their most honored guest. Unquestionably, newspapers and magazines such as Grove of Time would use lots of pages to attract readers by distributing Angor’s fame.

Several decades ago, Grove of Time already did something similar by introducing a genius alchemist from Tower of Hurricane, “Mythril Innovator” Jellal. Although Angor knew he was not THAT skilled yet because he could not regularly produce high-tier items like a true master. Ocean Tuner was mostly a pleasant surprise when he grasped that tiny fragment of inspiration while listening to Valli’s song, after which it was his intuitive impulse that finished the crafting.

Or rather, Angor wasn’t sure if he was the one making that decision at all. It was as if the will of the sea suddenly wanted to take control of him to bring a gift into this world.

But he WAS sure that he had no hope of repeating the miracle again. Ocean Tuner was made available by combining several elements he had no control over. For this, he would not consider the item to be a representation of his real skill.

Still, he was glad that he managed to blend a brand new type of power into his alchemy illusion, which was the power of the sea. He wondered if he could discover any other options later to use in his alchemy illusions, apart from “power of the sea” and “manifestation of Mystery”.

…

At the bottom of the sea, Jebra was looking at a white, flattened seashell that showed the picture of the end of Angor’s alchemy process.

Jebra recorded this picture upon hearing the strange moaning. He was hoping to hear it again in order to figure out the particular sensation brought by the amazing sound, yet it never happened again.

Nonetheless, Jebra managed to capture something useful when Angor’s illusion went away as the music box was finished. When Angor was putting the music box into his bracelet without further sustaining the illusion, Jebra used his tool to snap the moment just in time.

The picture did not illustrate the appearance of the item very well, but Jebra didn’t care. What was important was that he felt the power of the sea coming from Angor’s position at that time.

As an expert of sea-related arts, Jebra was sure that the music box was intended to be used for people like him. Or rather, it was meant for high-level wizards who studied the power of the sea.

But since he didn’t have any proof to ascertain the actual effect and level of Angor’s music box, Jebra only kept the picture in his storage so that he could show it to his teacher later, when he returned to Song of the Deep.

As he prepared to go after Angor’s direction again, he suddenly felt another energy signature approaching. And he recognized this one.

“Uhm? Jebra?”

“Pro-professor?” Jebra was surprised to hear the voice of his teacher, “God of Seas” Flunza, from the energy.

“It’s me. What are you doing here?”

“Oh, professor, I’ve been watching Angor’s actions as requested by you. Can I head back now? I can assure you that Angor was not the thief. As far as I’ve seen until now, he spent most of his time at Ferran. He didn’t have enough time to get away and retrieve something from the hidden dimension.”

“You’re after him right now?”

“Yes, sir.”

“I… believe I sensed an unusual energy turbulence coming from this part of the sea. Did that have anything to do with you?”

“Energy? No, I didn’t do anything. But I might know the reason for it.” Jebra grinned.

“What is it?”

Jebra explained what he observed from Angor in great detail.

“You kept a picture of him?”

“Yes.”

Flunza was maintaining a connection with Starliege Temple and waiting for a response. When he heard Jebra’s report, he quickly sent another portion of his energy to Blackberry Waters.

A fuzzy human figure made of water appeared in front of Jebra.

“Show me.”

Jebra was a little surprised to see his professor so interested in Angor’s item as to send another water avatar all the way here. Even so, he wouldn’t disobey Flunza’s request. With quick moves, he took out the “filming shell” and displayed what was recorded in it, including the conversation between Angor and the mermaid princess.

Meanwhile, he kept his attention on Flunza’s avatar and noticed that his professor narrowed his eyes when looking at Angor’s music box.

“A true genius. He lives up to his name,” said Flunza, after carefully watching Jebra’s clue for a long time. “That ornament is a genuine high-tier alchemy creation. Combined with the ‘particular feeling’ you mentioned, I’d say that it’s something that represents a section of the sea’s discipline. It’s beyond valuable, more so to us sea manipulators. Mayhap it is even a tactical asset.”

“What?!” Jebra exclaimed out loud as he never saw his professor speaking so highly of Angor’s items.

A tactical alchemy item was enough to grant a weaker wizarding organization a solid position when negotiating with others!

“Sir, Angor has not moved very far yet. Should we… you know?”