Warlock Apprentice

Not long ago, Antonio brought news from Gusiro.

Gusiro was also willing to accept the refining task; however, he follows the blending school, so refining any work tends to be slow. He only intends to take on one of the tasks.

This means the remaining two refining tasks would naturally become Angel’s responsibility.

Perhaps Gusiro felt a bit uneasy about pushing two refining tasks onto Angel, this ”rookie” at the Research and Development Institute. Hence, he offered Angel the chance to choose which two tasks to undertake and leave the remaining one to him.

Gusiro’s meaning was clear: among these three alchemy requests, since he was only refining one, he had no qualms about taking on the most difficult one.

However, which task to leave for Gusiro still depended on Angel’s choice.

For the past few days, Angel had been studying the customization requirements of these three individuals. Through his simulated refinements and his alchemy drafts, he now had a general inclination in mind.

...

As the communicator lit up again, Antonio’s soft blue figure emerged in front of Angel.

”Good afternoon, Mr. Pat.” Antonio greeted elegantly as always, ”What might be the reason for your summons today?”

Angel did not speak but simply extended a finger to point at the desk.

Antonio lowered his head, noticing three pieces of draft paper spread across Angel’s workbench.

Antonio wasn’t unfamiliar with these drafts. After all, he had handed them to Angel—they were requests from the top three competitors of the New Star competition, each representing their alchemy customization demands.

Antonio’s eyes lit up knowingly: ”Mr. Pat, have you decided which two tasks you’ll undertake?”

Angel nodded and pushed the draft on the far left toward Antonio: ”This one will be entrusted to Master Gusiro, while I will handle the other two.”

Antonio looked down to examine Angel’s choice.

”Trom’s customization?” As he recognized the task designated for Gusiro, his eyes briefly revealed a hint of surprise: ”Mr. Pat, are you sure you want to give this refining task to the Moon Silver Master?”

Angel nodded affirmatively, replying, ”Yes... You seem quite surprised?”

Antonio shook his head slightly: ”Surprised, not necessarily. Ultimately, the choice is yours. I am simply overcome with some sentiment.”

”Why sentiment?”

”Because when I questioned Trom about his requirements back then, he was fervently eager, expressing how much he hoped you would undertake his refining.” A slight look of regret crossed Antonio’s face: ”It’s unfortunate that the one task you didn’t choose was his.”

Antonio paused momentarily: ”Since you’ve finalized your decision, I will now inform Master Moon Silver of the arrangement.”

With that, Antonio performed a courteous departure bow, and his figure gradually faded away.

After Antonio left, Angel once again directed his attention to the three drafts before him. From left to right, they corresponded to the customization requests of Trom, Onassis, and Xiliu.

In fact, among the three requests, Trom’s was relatively simple.

Why simple? Because Trom’s request was to refine a piece of protective clothing. He even offered Hisomi’s pelt as the primary material... If all alchemy customizations were like Trom’s—where even the core materials were provided—every alchemist would undoubtedly feel greatly relieved.

Nevertheless, Angel did not choose Trom’s task, and that decision had an equally straightforward rationale: it was unsuitable.

Angel’s expertise lies in enchantment—a technique that utilizes external forces to amplify the effectiveness of demonic materials. Moreover, the corresponding magic patterns and magical energy arrays need to align with the properties of the given materials. You can’t simply engrave or implement anything you wish; there are extensive restrictions.

Hisomi’s pelt is naturally imbued with an absolute defensive special ability. During the competition, Trom even utilized the pelt multiple times to evade fatal attacks.

This means that even without refinement, Hisomi’s pelt already functions as a semi-finished product.

Such semi-finished materials make it incredibly challenging to find compatible magical energy arrays in conventional texts; unless one actively reconfigures the pattern structure of the magical energy array, achieving compatibility would be nearly impossible.

Over the past few days, Angel has covered the drafts with calculations on magical energy data and structural adjustments, trying to discern whether it was feasible to refine the tool Trom desired.

The answer: It can be refined.

However, achieving this might require months or even longer to adapt the structures of the magic patterns.

The intensity of effort and time required makes it disproportionate to the outcome.

Of course, Angel could choose to forgo adjusting the magic pattern structure and proceed directly with forced refinement. But the result—a question of whether the enchanted magical energy array could enhance or merely replicate Hisomi’s inherent defensive capabilities—would be uncertain.

After deliberating for days, Angel ultimately decided against Trom’s customization.

Without hesitation, Angel summoned a small flame and burned the draft on the far left into ashes. Now, the only drafts left before him were Xiliu’s and Onassis’s customization requests.

Xiliu’s requests outlined three directions: First, she hoped for a potion that could permanently eliminate her susceptibility to drowsiness—a request that Midora and Regina had already dismissed.

Her second direction was to refine an item that would have a positive effect on her drowsiness affliction. In other words, the exact nature of the item was flexible—as long as it resulted in some positive impact. However, this vagueness left a significant amount of interpretive leeway, meaning it was uncertain whether the final product would satisfy her. After all, ”positive impact” was merely a subjective personal feeling. It was incredibly difficult for others to discern what kind of ”positive impact” Xiliu truly desired.

The third direction was for a weapon.

Regarding Xiliu’s customization, Angel already had a concrete plan in mind. Thus, after confirming there were no omitted details, he set her request aside and shifted his focus to Onassis’s draft.

Onassis had two customization directions. The first, like Xiliu, was a weapon.

However, Onassis outlined numerous peculiar and contradictory demands for this weapon—such as ”condense in water, explode in fire,” and ”project starlight, reflect sunlight,” and so forth...

Looking at these requests made Angel feel a headache; they seemed to evoke Jon’s explanations of absurdities like ”rainbow-colored black.”

Antonio’s stance on such requests was: ”For these kinds of customizations, simply satisfy one of the outlined requirements and refine based on that. For instance, crafting an ice-based weapon capable of condensation in water, or forging a fire-based weapon that bursts into flames. Whether or not the client is satisfied doesn’t matter. After all, the alchemist retains the final authority—it’s up to them whether the client accepts the result.”

Onassis’s first customization direction was overwhelmingly convoluted, with his list of demands filling an entire page, exacerbating irritation. However, his second requirement was surprisingly concise, condensed into a single line:

Any tool, as long as it pertains to the realm of philosophy.