Warlock Apprentice

Chapter 3256: Chapter 3257: Scholar’s Space

Angel gave a brief explanation of Bimon’s background. He didn’t say much about its peculiar traits, only: ”Bimon was recommended by Pixi. It’s a very clever little mouse, and it knows Pirush’s inventions quite well. It should be able to handle the job of ’power leveling’.”

The Pika Sage also knew Invention Mice very well. Pifeifei’s keen wit and aura were impressive even to him. Even though none of Pifeifei’s descendants were as dazzling as it had been, they were still very smart. They might not reach the level of top Scholars, but being an ordinary Scholar or specialist was completely within their capabilities.

In the Pika Sage’s view, Bimon should be just such a relatively clever second-generation Pifeifei.

Having Bimon study ”debugging” on Angel’s behalf should be workable. It might take a bit longer, but it would probably still be faster than Angel learning it himself. After all, the Pika Sage had already heard from Angel that Angel knew absolutely nothing about Aggregation Energy. In this situation, letting Bimon study in his stead was a good idea.

Angel had just finished making his decision when Luigi at his side muttered in dissatisfaction: ”I’m the one who wanted to buy Bimon. It should write poems for me first as a service... how did it end up getting conscripted by you?”

Angel pretended not to hear.

The Pika Sage heard, but he merely stroked his beard and smiled mildly.

Luigi’s words further confirmed to the Pika Sage that Bimon was just an ordinarily clever Invention Mouse. After all, he knew Luigi’s level in writing and appreciating poetry. If Luigi wanted Bimon to write poems, chances were it wouldn’t produce anything very good.

As he was thinking this, the Pika Sage’s gaze also drifted to the stack of paper on Bimon’s table, each sheet carrying a faint Illusion Technique aura.

”Love is the red text marginalia in the academic database, the mottled color of tooth-dye mixed with water, the sky beyond the cage that you can never touch.”

Though he had only glanced at a single short line, the Pika Sage inwardly concluded that Luigi truly had no eye for talent, and Bimon didn’t have much of a literary bone in its body.

That said, even if the Pika Sage felt Bimon wasn’t particularly bright, he personally was very fond of Invention Mice. Bimon managing to find Luigi and Angel as its new masters was actually a very good choice.

Most important of all, there was even a chance of using Bimon to draw the two sides closer together.

Thinking of this, the Pika Sage silently praised Pixi in his heart, and the more he looked at Bimon, the more pleasing it seemed.

As for Bimon, at this moment it was frowning its tiny brows, its expression serious as it looked at Angel.

From its small, jet-black eyes, one could clearly see doubt.

Even without asking, Angel could guess what Bimon was thinking. Nothing more than: ”Didn’t you say that once I finished the love poem, I’d be allowed to see Knockby? Why is there another new job? Is this some kind of multi-stage challenge?”

Seeing Bimon’s solemn expression, Angel gave a slight smile. He flipped his hand, and yet another mouse cage was Summoned into existence. He then joined this cage with Bimon’s cage, and opened the doors on both sides.

In the new cage, without a doubt, were Knockby... and a Beast Speech Pointed Fruit.

Knockby was currently hugging the fruit and snoring away.

Once Bimon saw Knockby, the doubt in its eyes vanished in an instant. It practically dropped pen and paper on the spot and dashed into Knockby’s cage.

Only, the closer it got to Knockby, the slower its pace became. It didn’t know how to describe what it felt at that moment—the more it wanted to get close, the more timid it became.

In the end, it still didn’t approach Knockby at close range, instead stopping half a meter away from him.

It gazed at Knockby with gentle eyes.

After confirming that Knockby was only asleep, it let out a long sigh of relief and slumped down on the ground.

After such a long wait, the heavy stone in its heart finally fell; it could feel a bit of fatigue... but at least it was satisfied inside.

It raised its head and looked at Angel: ”My lord, do you have a new job for me?”

It had just heard Angel’s conversation with the Pika Sage, and roughly understood that it was needed to learn some sort of technology, though exactly what knowledge it was was still unknown.

Angel nodded and briefly explained the situation to Bimon: he needed it to learn the ”debugging” techniques stored in the Recording Shell. To that end, Angel also took the opportunity to make a miniature booklet of knowledge points related to Recording Shells and placed it beside Bimon for reference.

Although Bimon had never dealt with Recording Shells before, after hearing Angel’s explanation it understood what it needed to do.

”Once you finish learning, I’ll build a big house for you and Knockby.” To boost Bimon’s enthusiasm, Angel specially offered a reward.

To Bimon, this reward wasn’t all that great; but it knew Knockby would definitely be happy about it.

In other words, this would be their future home.

Thinking of that, Bimon nodded very seriously: ”I’ll finish learning the debugging techniques as soon as possible!”

In its view, this wasn’t hard.

At most, it would need a few days to finish. ℴ

Angel chuckled: ”I believe in you, meow~”

As the words left Angel’s mouth, before he even realized anything was wrong, he saw Bimon inside the cage suddenly puff up like its fur had exploded, bolting over to Knockby, scooping him up and rushing into the deep corner.

Bimon stared at Angel with terrified eyes. For some reason, its heart was filled with fear, as if it had encountered a natural enemy.

Angel was stunned for several seconds before he learned from Luigi at his side that he had unconsciously let out a cat’s meow.

Angel rubbed his temples helplessly. He had been completely unaware of the cat-cry; he didn’t even notice anything off afterwards. Only when someone reminded him and he recalled it himself did he notice the clues.

This Blessing Magic’s side effect... was even subtler and harder to detect than Angel had imagined.

Angel sighed and didn’t dwell on it too much. Things were already this way; there was no other solution, he could only endure it for now.

Still, putting it another way, he’d just meowed once—was Bimon really that scared?

Earlier, when facing Knockby, those hands that wanted to touch but didn’t dare reach out were now firmly wrapped around him... and most importantly, it was hugging Knockby while hiding in the corner.

Was that really necessary?

Facing Angel’s question, Bimon didn’t speak. It only kept staring fixedly at the pair of red cat ears atop Angel’s head.

It hadn’t paid attention before, but now that it saw those cat ears, the fear in its heart surged up again.

Seeing that Bimon kept silent, its eyes still full of terror, Angel thought for a moment and put the Protective Cover back over the mouse cage. Only after confirming that Bimon couldn’t see him did he start asking about the reason.

In the darkness, Bimon perhaps found a bit of safety. With no visual shock, its rationality slowly returned, and only then did it begin answering Angel’s questions.

”Suddenly I just felt an incomparable fear?” Angel was a bit surprised by this answer. What was this supposed to be? Because cats and mice are natural enemies, so it was a natural-enemy suppression?

Did that mean any random cat could suppress an Invention Mouse?

Or was this suppression only because Angel’s ”catification” came from that Demihuman race in the mysterious scene?

Angel didn’t really understand, and Luigi and Laplace also had no idea what was going on, so they could only set the doubt aside for now.

However, Angel still decided that before the side effects of the Blessing Magic faded, he would try to use the Mind Ribbon whenever he spoke with Bimon. As for the cat ears, just covering them up with Illusion Technique would be enough.

To avoid triggering any stress disorder, Angel didn’t immediately lift the Protective Cover on the mouse cage, and chose to let Bimon and Knockby rest for a while first.

After all, the Scholar who knew ”debugging” hadn’t arrived yet.

The only lucky thing in this whole cat-and-mouse scare was that Knockby hadn’t been woken up. Maybe it was exhausted from running on the wheel earlier, or maybe it felt Bimon’s presence nearby—its sleep quality was extraordinarily good. Even when Bimon picked it up and carried it around, it still slept like a lump of soft pancake.

Putting Bimon and Knockby aside for the moment, Angel looked up at Pika Sage, intending to ask when they would start learning ”debugging.” He noticed, though, that Pika Sage’s expression was rather odd, and his gaze kept drifting toward the mouse cage from time to time, as if pondering something.

Angel’s thoughts turned, and he also glanced at the mouse cage, roughly guessing what Pika Sage had in mind: ”Is Sage wondering about something regarding Knockby?”

When Bimon showed up earlier, Pika Sage hadn’t cared at all. Now that Pika Sage kept looking toward the mouse cage, clearly his attention wasn’t on Bimon, which meant only Knockby was left.

Knockby did indeed have aspects that warranted Pika Sage’s attention.

Its appearance was almost identical to Pixi—aside from gender, there was practically no difference.

And its name was also very similar to the name Pixi originally gave herself, Knockfi. This obviously would catch Pika Sage’s notice as well.

Sure enough, as soon as Pika Sage opened his mouth, he asked about Knockby’s situation.

Angel had long expected this, and with a smile he recounted Knockby’s origins, including the fact that it was a ”waste mouse.”

As for where Knockby’s name came from, Angel didn’t hide it: ”Knockby actually doesn’t know this name herself, it was Bimon who gave it to her.”

Hearing this answer, Pika Sage immediately started to fill in the blanks on his own.

Why would Bimon choose the name Knockby? This wasn’t hard to guess. Most likely he knew Pixi’s original name was Knockfi, so he gave the same kind of name to the fellow kin he adored.

This reasoning made sense.

And why did Knockby look exactly like Pixi? If Knockby were a clever mouse, that would be a question worth deep consideration; but now it was confirmed that Knockby was just a dull mouse, a waste mouse, so the question stopped being a question at all.

Pika Sage might feel sorry for a clever mouse like Bimon, but he definitely wouldn’t care about a waste mouse. He might even say that in his eyes, waste mice and Invention Mice were entirely different species.

Even if Knockby was Bimon’s emotional bond, that still couldn’t change what Knockby essentially was.

So after thinking it over carefully, Pika Sage realized there was no need to pay attention to her.

His fluctuating thoughts calmed in an instant.

...

Next, Angel began to chat with Pika Sage about matters related to ”debugging.”

Pika Sage stated clearly that he had already contacted the relevant Scholars, and had also specially arranged a room to be used for ”teaching.”

Then, under Pika Sage’s guidance, they left the row house and arrived at a hidden spot nearby.

It was the dead end of a deep alley.

In front of them was a wall, with no doors anywhere around.

Angel reached out with his spiritual power to sense, but found no abnormality in the surroundings.

It wasn’t until Pika Sage took out his cane and lightly tapped the wall that Angel felt a surge of Aggregation Energy flowing in from the cracks on all sides.

As the Aggregation Energy gathered, the wall slowly ”weathered” and ultimately became a mirror.

If Angel hadn’t personally felt the Aggregation Energy, he wouldn’t have noticed anything unusual in the process at all... he had to admit, Aggregation Energy was extremely effective when it came to Concealment.

After the mirror appeared, Pika Sage turned and said, ”Two Pirush Scholars have already arrived. They’re inside the Scholar’s Space.”

The so-called Scholar’s Space was the Mirror Space behind this mirror.

After speaking, Pika Sage lifted his foot and stepped into the Mirror. After a ripple, his figure vanished.

Angel glanced at Luigi and Laplace beside him, and, once he was sure there was no danger, followed them in.

The slight sense of weightlessness felt very similar to when he had entered the Hundred-Dragon Divine Kingdom’s outpost before.

However, whereas the Hundred-Dragon Divine Kingdom’s outpost had been a vast space, this Scholar’s Space, once Angel entered and roughly looked around, was probably only about the size of the plaza outside.

There weren’t any towering structures inside. Most buildings were low, soundproof factories and teaching-research rooms.

Many Pirush in Scholar’s robes were going in and out of these buildings.

The Pirush here, in terms of mental bearing, were noticeably different from those outside: more focused, more confident. Every Pirush’s eyes carried wisdom and contemplation.

There was none of the mischievous streak seen in the Pirush outside.

According to Pika Sage, all of these people were Pirush Scholars, just working in different academic directions.

”Now that we’re in the Mirror Space, we can speak freely.” Pika Sage said, ”The Giant City Spirit of the Crystal Eye Clan has its eyes spread throughout Ring Fort; it makes many things difficult to do.”

”Especially Pirush academic work.”

Every one of the routine multi-race gatherings was a Feast of scholarship for the Pirush. Pirush Scholars could purchase all sorts of materials, tools, and knowledge from other races, which all served to enrich the Pirush’s own academic repository.

Many Scholars were willing to come along precisely so they could be the first to study knowledge from other races.

Once they started researching, all kinds of academic viewpoints would be raised one by one. Many of these viewpoints were internal Pirush confidential knowledge.

If mentioned outside, they might well be overheard by the Giant City Spirit.

Pika Sage said, ”Although, as a partner, it’s not very nice to silently criticize the Crystal Eye Clan, it has to be said: they definitely use the Giant City Spirit to collect huge amounts of information, and that includes knowledge.”

”If I were in their shoes, I’d do the same, so all the major races are actually well aware of this. When choosing an outpost, they generally leave themselves some reserved territory.”

The Mirror Space was precisely the reserved territory for each race. Here, when they spoke, acted, and conducted research, they didn’t have to worry about the Giant City Spirit’s spying.

This time, Pika Sage’s decision to arrange the Pirush Scholars who would explain ”debugging” inside the Scholar’s Space was in fact also meant to avoid the Giant City Spirit’s prying eyes.