Warlock Apprentice

“It’s me, Angor.”

Jon frowned upon hearing Angor’s voice. “Weird. I can meet with unknown factors in my dream too? Can I not fully control a lucid dream?”

“Yeah, I may be an ‘unknown factor’, but I didn’t show up randomly, you know. I made this happen,” Angor said with a chuckle.

Jon stroked his stubble. “Are you saying… you’re the REAL Angor, who somehow entered my dream?”

“Precisely.”

“How could I believe you? Maybe you’re just my imagination?”

“Try to feel it, Mister Jon. You’ll believe my existence by then.”

It was definitely a bad idea to expose oneself when invading someone’s dream, but in this case, Angor fully trusted Jon.

As the “high commander” of the dream, Jon easily sensed a tiny foreign signal coming from not far away.

The signal did not belong to the current dream. Just as Angor said, he came from the outside.

“I see, it’s surely an interpolating element…” Jon muttered. “How do you prove that you’re THE Angor, my young student?”

“Well, how do you like me to prove myself?”

Jon smiled upon hearing Angor’s response.

As Angor watched in confusion, the dream suddenly melted into blurry fragments, until they showed up somewhere completely different—a classroom.

Jon moved to the blackboard as he said, “I used to teach my classes here. I’ll give you some simple tests. Work out these quizzes, and I’ll believe you.”

Instead of using the blackboard, Jon summoned a hologram screen out of thin air and displayed a number of questions on it.

[Q1: Take 1,000 people and make them stand in a circle. Kill number one, then kill the third man starting from his position. Repeat. Who will be the last one standing?]

[Q2: Work out the rank of the following matrix…]

…

[Q10: Rectify the hologram below using the Five Seidel Aberrations, then resolve the final password using Vigenère Cipher according to the spectral alignment…]

Dumbfounded, Angor stared at the questions while feeling a mild daze. He simulated the reunion with Jon in his mind before coming here many times, yet he had never thought that he would be taking a test like this.

This is what you give me after we’ve been apart for so long?! Mind-boggling quizzes and an early wife?

While trying his best not to roar out his complaints, Angor found a seat and began his “exam”.

It was rather easy to figure out the answers since his mental capacity had been improved by many levels when studying wizardry.

With a bright smile, Jon watched as Angor wrote down the final answer and sighed.

“It’s really you, Angor.”

“Why would it be otherwise?”

“I never thought I’d be seeing you again like this. Is it the power of wizards? I thought you’re way smarter though. You can do the last question and be done with it without minding the other nine.”

“Huh?”

“Do you still remember the 10th question?”

“Yeah, it’s the one I needed to finish in the end, in order to get the password of that tablet. It was the 100th question back then.”

“That’s it. You just need to show me the answer, and I’ll admit you right away. Buuut… I see you never slacked off on your studies. You worked fast!”

Jon spent a few minutes being a talkative teacher while repeating phrases like “diligence is the key to success” until Angor found it necessary to stop him.

“Wait wait wait. Aren’t you going to ask why I am here?”

“Oh, that… Aren’t you here to inform me of my condition? I’m terminal, aren’t I?”

Angor didn’t answer.

“Don’t stress yourself out. I knew this would happen. It’s the ‘world’s consciousness’ we’re talking about. I’ve no way of fighting back. Not a chance. I’ve been thinking in my dreams. Since you’re talking to me like this instead of waking me up, the answer is clear. I can no longer wake up, am I right?”

Jon continued with a calm expression, “It’s fine. As I said in my letter, I’ve lived a fruitful life. Two worlds, two universes, two civilizations… I’ve left my traces in both. What is there to regret?”

Angor could feel that Jon meant those words, and this made him really sad.

“It’s not completely hopeless yet. I’m still trying. I’ll make it happen…”

Determined as he tried to be, Angor still sounded a little uncertain.

“That’s good to hear.” Jon smiled gently. “I’d be lying if I say I don’t want to see more of this wonderful world. Just don’t burden yourself too much, alright? You’ve inherited most things I can give you. I’d be just as happy if you’re there to enjoy this world in my stead.”

Jon then changed the subject before it sounded too sentimental. “Right, I suddenly had these lucid dreams because of you, is it not? Before this happened, I was feeling lost in some dark place and couldn’t even think clearly.”

“I used a magical ant called the ‘Dream Weaver’ to give you good dreams. Though I didn’t expect it to give you lucid dreams for real.”

“An ant that weaves dreams? That sounds a lot like the old story I told you before.”

“Yeah, that’s why I bought it when I saw the ant in Floating Mech City. The ant is said to have been extinct for a century. I did a good job of finding it!” Angor claimed proudly.

“Floating Mech City, you say?”

This name alone helped Jon draw the wonderful image of a flying city in his mind. As a seasoned scholar, Jon couldn’t wait to hear all kinds of amazing stories Angor could offer, which would be the best gift he could receive before his end.

But of course, he also hoped to live on and witness everything by himself.

Angor had no problem granting that wish by spending some time describing his journeys in great detail so that Jon could control his dream to create different objects and sights to go with Angor’s words.

But with his weakened mental state, Jon couldn’t fully illustrate everything he heard.

As Angor reached the part where he saw the giant cloud whale flying above The Redbud, Jon excitedly looked up at the imaginary creature he just “painted”. “It sounds so similar to the legendary ‘Kun’ in Eastern mythology! But how does something so big sustain itself, when both worlds have similar oxygen density?”

Angor stopped his stories despite Jon’s eager look.

“We’ll have more time later, let’s stop for today. Let me catch some good meals and some sleep, okay?”

Even if this was a dream, it still relied on Jon’s brain functions. Talking about complicated things for too long might be harmful to Jon. This was why Angor made such a decision just in case.

“You’re right.” Jon nodded. “I can’t tell the time, but you’ve spent a lot of time in here. I need some time of my own to grasp what I heard anyway.”

“Um, Jon? I think you didn’t look, how I put it, too happy, when seeing me. Didn’t you used to tell me that reuniting with dear friends is one of the merriest things in one’s life?”

Jon rubbed his forehead. “You know, since I know how to control my lucid dream, I’ve gone through every piece of memory related to you, starting from when you were a toddler. And man, what a naughty little b*stard you were. Happy? I feel like pumping more lessons into your head instead.”

“But that wasn’t me! Well, it was me, but—”

A little bit annoyed, Angor left Jon’s dream and suddenly remembered how Jon matched him with Muey.

“Even as a kid, I’d never chase after a girl like that!”