Warlock Apprentice

Chapter 3250: Chapter 3251: Tremor

There shouldn’t be any problem... right?

With a jittery heart, Angel silently watched the movements of the Secret Ceremony Box.

At the beginning, the Secret Ceremony Box always moved in more or less the same way—the rose patterns on the porcelain case began to glow with a soft light, and as these lights spread into midair, they outlined one rose illusion after another, vines sprawling outward.

Brilliant rose illusions bloomed in competition above the Secret Ceremony Box.

It was like a crowd of noble young ladies in lavish new gowns, vying to outshine one another on the prince’s scorching-hot dance floor, desperate to show their most beautiful side.

Along with the blooming floral illusions came a wafting fragrance.

At first it was a flood of floral scent, then slowly shifted into a faint sweetness.

This sweet scent gave the feeling that those dazzling noble young ladies were quietly leaving the stage, and now stepping into the light was a bashful Cinderella full of shy grace.

It didn’t have the earlier overwhelming floral punch, but it gripped the heart even more, fresh and penetrating.

In that instant, even the lingering scorched smell in the brazier seemed to be scrubbed clean away, leaving only a lovely rhythm behind.

Everything seemed to be moving toward the best possible outcome.

Everyone around, whether Luigi, the Pika Sage, or Piu, gazed at the Secret Ceremony Box with looks of yearning.

Their eyes were hazy, as if they could already see that soon-to-be-born delicacy radiating an incomparably dazzling light.

Angel’s expression at this moment, however, was completely different from theirs.

Angel did not relax in the slightest; on the contrary, he was getting more and more tense. Because back at the Hundred-Dragon Divine Kingdom’s outpost, it had been exactly like this—the Secret Ceremony Box’s initial movements were just as wonderfully promising, but once it entered the finale... no, it didn’t even need to reach the finale, it plunged straight off a cliff in the ”midphase,” turning from the most wonderful into the most vicious.

What the Secret Ceremony Box was showing now was still only the prelude; everything depended on what happened after the midphase...

Laplace shared the same feelings as Angel. As a witness to the last activation of the Secret Ceremony Box, she knew perfectly well that you couldn’t just trust surface appearances.

The lovely facade right now was no more than the inherent process of activating the ”Sweet Wind Honey Fire Sugar Vine” Ceremony.

Whether it could succeed depended on whether the Ceremony could enter the late midphase and beyond...

Just as Laplace was thinking this, the ”Sweet Wind Honey Fire Sugar Vine” Ceremony silently stepped into its midphase.

Laplace was already on high alert, ready at any moment to throw up a barrier to shroud the Secret Ceremony Box.

Because last time, this was exactly when things had gone wrong.

However, this time there was no sign of the imagined surge of stench or cascade of black vapor.

The Ceremony slid very smoothly into the next stage.

This time, not only did clusters of rose blossoms appear in midair as illusions, but thin mists formed around the flowers, and on the petals, dewdrops swelled, tender and ready to fall.

The wind swayed, teasing the mist into fine wisps and threads.

The dewdrops also trembled in the breeze, slipping across the petals, dripping one by one into the Secret Ceremony Box...

Everything before their eyes looked like an illusion of nature itself, but in truth, the drifting haze carried the toasty aroma of baked pastries, the dewdrops gave off the rich scent of milk, and even the wind itself was laced with sweetness.

Luigi drew in a deep breath; the fragrance in the air made him almost intoxicated, and he even felt the urge to compose a poem on the spot.

Sadly, when the words reached his throat he couldn’t think of any fitting phrases.

In the end, it all condensed into a single question: ”With things like this, does that mean it’s going to succeed?”

Angel didn’t say a word. Although the situation now looked excellent, it was still only the midphase, and he had no idea whether some freak twist would wreck the finale.

Anything confident he said right now could end up as a flag planted squarely at his back, so it was better not to say anything at all.

Laplace likewise held her tongue, though she was noticeably more relaxed. The Ceremony in the Secret Ceremony Box had now smoothly entered the midphase; it probably wouldn’t go wrong anymore, right?

Looked at this way, the last malfunction of the Secret Ceremony Box really might have been a one-off accident.

Laplace had more or less set her mind at ease, but what she didn’t know was that Angel had a long and sordid history of making Magic Bread... and the victims—whether Toby or Greya—weren’t present at the moment. So there was no one around to blow the whistle.

Another two minutes slipped by.

When everything had begun to advance toward a state of nearly perfect completion, even Angel started to feel that there really shouldn’t be any more problems... and then, right at that moment—

The perfectly fine Secret Ceremony Box suddenly emitted a grinding ”ka-ka” sound.

Laplace and Angel snapped to full alert at once, turning doubtful eyes on the Secret Ceremony Box.

The ka-ka sounds continued, and the Secret Ceremony Box began to quiver slightly.

”What’s going on?” Both the Pika Sage and Piu instinctively took a step back.

The Secret Ceremony Box shuddered as if some living thing inside it were about to burst out, or as if something had gone wrong in its innards and it was on the verge of exploding.

Luigi also looked at Angel in puzzlement: ”My Elemental Avatars tell me they didn’t make any mistakes. What’s happening? Is there a problem with the Secret Ceremony Box itself? Or... did we mess up the procedure?”

Angel still said nothing, only deep helplessness flickering in the depths of his gaze.

Sure enough, the variables were back again.

In the usage record the parrot had given him for the Secret Ceremony Box, there was no mention of this kind of trembling phenomenon. Since it wasn’t a common occurrence, that left only one possibility—mutation.

The foul black vapor last time had been a mutation.

This bout of mad shaking could also be a mutation.

However, in Angel’s view, the trembling of the Secret Ceremony Box should only be the ”process” of the mutation, while the ”result” of the mutation was still hidden inside the case.

Had the Magic Bread inside gone wrong again?

With this question in mind, Angel kept his eyes fixed on the Secret Ceremony Box. After trembling for a while, the box didn’t stop; instead, it climbed into an even higher-frequency shake.

The various rose blossoms and drifting mists hanging in midair as illusions all shattered into broken bubbles under this trembling.

The space of Illusion Dream reverted to reality once more.

But the Real World is often full of hard edges and... stench.

When the Secret Ceremony Box’s trembling reached a certain critical point, a thin stream of black-gray gas seeped out from inside.

Accompanying this gas was a stench so violent it made people want to vomit! It was like some kind of gaseous weapon: in an instant it churned the calm surface of the lake into towering waves, slamming everyone’s high expectations hard against the shore.

This crashing reek left almost everyone present completely stunned.

Only two people managed to stay clear-headed.

Angel and Laplace.

The moment they noticed the Secret Ceremony Box begin to quake, they had very tacitly sealed off their sense of smell, and as it turned out, that decision had been correct.

When the first wave of reeking tides hit, they weren’t knocked senseless by this sudden plunge into disaster.

And they immediately took action in response.

Angel immediately activated the Purifying Field, corralling the foul stench that was spilling out around them. While it couldn’t dispel the stench right away, at least it kept the reek circling inside this room instead of leaking too much outside.

Outside was Pirush’s station, with countless people lining up to add pages. If this stench storm leaked out, it wouldn’t be a small problem—it would mean facing the censure of all the various races.

On the other side, Laplace also took action. A barrier like a mirror surface spread out, enveloping the Secret Ceremony Box.

It isolated the Secret Ceremony Box from everyone around it.

All the blackish-grey gas was now overflowing against that sharp-edged mirror barrier. Like a spring, in just a short time it had covered the entire surface of the box.

However, that was all these blackish-grey fumes could manage. Because Laplace had prepared in advance, this time the barrier was ”thickened and reinforced,” without the slightest gap, cleanly blocking all the gas within.

For the moment, the black-grey fumes were under control, and the stench wasn’t leaking out.

In terms of problem-solving, you could call it a happy ending for everyone.

The only victims were basically everyone except Angel and Laplace.

Luigi, Pika Sage, and Piu had all been caught off guard by the sudden stench. Each of them was dazed and pale. Pika Sage had almost passed out, slumping on the sofa and staring blankly up at the ceiling.

”There’s still some smell...” Laplace looked over at Angel.

Angel’s gaze dodged slightly. In a low voice, he said, ”I’ll take care of it.”

Just now he’d only stopped the stench from leaking out. What he needed to do now was purify the inside. Handling it wasn’t hard; whether he used the Purifying Field or the Exile Space, he could quickly get rid of the odor.

Although the Exile Space would purge it faster, Angel still chose the Purifying Field.

After all, Pirush’s station wasn’t an isolated space like the Hundred-Dragon Divine Kingdom. It was connected to the outside Ring Fort, and the Giant City Spirit could sense what was happening here at any time.

If he only treated the Exile Space as a trash can, opening and closing it in an instant, maybe it wouldn’t draw the Giant City Spirit’s attention. But if he kept the Exile Space open for a long time, that kind of violent spatial fluctuation would definitely alert the Giant City Spirit.

Choosing the Purifying Field was much gentler; it just meant the deodorizing would be slower.

But that didn’t really matter. Everyone had already smelled it—spending a bit more time or a bit less with the stink wasn’t going to make much difference now.

As the stench in the air was gradually purified, Luigi finally shook off his daze. He looked at Angel with puzzled eyes. ”Th-then what was that all about?”

Angel, having already resigned himself to the situation, answered calmly, ”Nothing serious. The Spell Technique might have failed to cast... Food-type Spell Techniques are still too much of a stretch for me.”

Laplace, Luigi: ”...”

Luigi: ”You’re sure what you cast was a Spell Technique?”

”Tricks and Spell Techniques are about the same,” Angel shrugged. ”Cross-system casting—nothing I can do about it.”

He paused, then tried to patch things up for himself: ”And it’s not necessarily that I failed the casting. Don’t forget there’s another possibility.”

Angel looked at Luigi. ”Didn’t the parrot say before that the Secret Ceremony Box can have accidents? And accidents mean...”

While he was making excuses, he also steered the conversation.

Luigi was smoothly led off in another direction. ”You mean... mutation?”

Angel nodded. ”Yeah, mutation.”

Luigi: ”But mutations are really rare, aren’t they?”

”Mutations are rare, sure, but that doesn’t mean they don’t happen. Case in point, we’ve got one right here.” As Angel said this, he snuck a glance at Laplace beside him.

With Luigi having only experienced this one mutation, it wasn’t hard to talk him around.

But Laplace had gone through two Secret Ceremony Box mutations in a row; trying to talk his way past her clearly wasn’t going to work.

Angel looked over at Laplace, wanting to see how she’d react.

Laplace simply gave Angel a cool look. ”Are you planning to keep trying?”

Angel gave an awkward laugh. ”I’d better not. Food can be eaten any time—later I’ll make something on my own for you to try, meow.”

After Angel finished speaking, he turned to look in Pika Sage and Piu’s direction. Once he’d confirmed they were fine, he relaxed and prepared to think about why the Secret Ceremony Box kept mutating.

But when he turned back, ready to ask Laplace to return the Secret Ceremony Box, he saw both Laplace and Luigi looking at him with strange expressions.

Angel was puzzled. ”What’s with you two?”

The air fell silent. After a few seconds, Luigi finally broke the hush. ”Do you remember what you just said?”

Angel frowned. ”What did I say? I was talking about mutations.”

”No.” Luigi waved his hand. ”I don’t mean the mutation thing. I mean you... Do you remember making some weird sound just now?”

Angel pointed at himself in confusion. ”I made a weird sound?”

Angel thought back carefully and didn’t notice anything off.

Right then, Laplace lifted her hand and gave a light wave.

A mirror surface appeared in front of Angel.

In the mirror, Angel’s figure was reflected.

At first, Angel’s gaze was drawn to that pair of red cat ears, because compared to before, the red cat-ear Phantom Shadow was a bit more solid now. Clearly, making food again had triggered the blessing’s effect. If he kept cooking, it was only a matter of time before the red cat ears detached from the Phantom Shadow and became real.

But soon Angel’s focus shifted, because he realized that while the mirror showed him, it wasn’t his present self, but him from a few seconds ago—

Angel, sporting the red cat ears, was speaking to Laplace: ”...Food can be eaten any time...”

After he finished that whole line, Angel suddenly let out a ”meow” at the end.

In the image, Angel didn’t notice how out-of-place his own cry was and just kept doing what he was doing. But Laplace and Luigi were both stunned by that sudden cat-call.

Angel froze after watching the whole scene.

That cat sound came from him?

”I’m quite sure it was you,” Laplace said.

If it was Luigi talking, Angel might have hesitated. But when Laplace said it, that was basically ironclad.

”So the beastification isn’t just the cat ears... It can even beastify my voice?” Angel knit his brows. ”But what’s the point of that?”

Laplace: ”The effects granted by a Mysterious Object don’t have to be meaningful.”

Luigi nodded. ”Exactly. The Evil Sorcerer’s Eye gave you the delicious-food blessing, and as a counterbalance it’s making you slowly beastify—totally normal, right? Just like Piri, whose balance effect is making her get lost.”

Angel: ”I mean, that’s true...”

But he still hadn’t seen any delicious-food blessing.

Angel felt like crying without tears. As it stood, he hadn’t received any blessing at all and had instead gotten a pure negative debuff.

Who was he supposed to complain to about that?