Warlock Apprentice

“A peculiar smell? What kind of smell?” Angel curiously looked at Little Red.

Judging from Little Red’s tone, this scent seemed quite extraordinary? Could it be that Knockby truly harbors some secret?

Angel had always felt that acting mysterious was quite abrupt. If Knockby indeed had special attributes, then his previous abruptness might have been a sign of a hidden portent?

As Angel pondered this, Luigi looked at Little Red expectantly. Unlike Angel, Luigi was certain that Knockby had issues but couldn’t pinpoint the anomaly regardless of how he tried.

If Little Red could sniff out deeper intelligence, perhaps answers could be found from her.

Faced with everyone’s gaze, Little Red hesitated for two seconds, cautiously organized her words, and then slowly spoke: “The scent on him is actually quite complex; those that I feel are meaningless I’ll skip. For example, Analysis No. 656 ‘Ignorance’; Analysis No. 799 ‘Cowardice’…”

Whether it’s ignorance or cowardice, these traits were already evident with Knockby and didn’t require elaboration.

The scent that truly puzzled Little Red…

“It’s a smell that I’ve never analyzed before,” Little Red said earnestly. “Therefore, there is no specific analysis number.”

The analysis number was a system Little Red devised herself, with each number corresponding to a rough piece of intelligence.

The smell she detected on Knockby was beyond any recorded number.

Though without a specific analysis number, based on her previous experiences, Little Red concluded the intelligence was: “Dormant ancestral bloodline.”

Dormant, ancestral, and bloodline were the three peculiar pieces of intelligence Little Red decoded, yet these were interdependent, forming a unified whole.

Hence, Little Red presented a seemingly logical but somewhat ambiguous phrase: dormant ancestral bloodline.

“Dormant ancestral bloodline?” Hearing this analysis, Luigi’s eyes gleamed with understanding, murmuring to himself: “Indeed, Knockby possesses a hidden bloodline.”

Luigi raised his head and looked at Angel and Laplace: “Previously, Bimon named himself Nak Su, and didn’t we speculate that this ‘Nak X’ was information about the Invention Mouse bloodline?”

Because, that exceptionally intelligent Invention Mouse, Pifei, also once named itself Nak Fei.

Bimon had never met Pifei, and unaware of Pifei’s name, named itself with a strikingly similar ‘Nak Su’, which surely hinted at an unknown underlying connection.

At the time, Luigi speculated that the Invention Mouse family might possess bloodline information.

Numerous powerful clans are born with the ability to speak, possessing extensive external awareness. Why does this occur? Wizards explain it as genetic information, also known as bloodline information.

Like the Abyssal Elemental Dragon, born with the capacity to wield unique elemental attacks; even without instruction, it could seamlessly harness these skills, with energy ratios and weights surpassing those Wizards who’ve studied elements for a lifetime.

This knowledge of elemental energy manipulation is inscribed within the Abyssal Elemental Dragon’s bloodline, allowing even newborn dragons to instinctively employ it.

Bloodline hereditary information marks the clan’s essence and most potent knowledge.

Clans with such genetic information are inherently strong or have powerful ancestors; otherwise, they couldn’t embed hereditary information in their bloodline.

Perhaps the Invention Mouse family had formidable ancestors, leaving copious information in their blood, passed down through generations.

Otherwise, how did ‘Nak Su, Nak Fei’ come to be? It must be information buried within the bloodline.

It can’t be, as Angel suggested, that ‘Nak’ is just the comfort zone of the Invention Mouse’s vocal range, hence the name ‘Nak’?

Luigi doesn’t believe this explanation.

He leans more towards hereditary bloodline information, yet only those Invention Mice with a more ancestral, purer bloodline can trace such information.

Currently, only Nak Su and Nak Fei, these two tiny mice, have discovered ancestral traces.

All these were Luigi’s thoughts before he arrived at the Dog House, without any evidence.

Yet now, Little Red’s words seemed to invigorate Luigi.

“Dormant ancestral bloodline” subtly hints that Knockby hides a mysterious bloodline they hadn’t previously uncovered?

If it’s a hidden bloodline, doesn’t that indirectly confirm that a powerful ancestor of the Invention Mouse existed, else how could there be residual bloodline?

Angel understood Luigi’s point; however, he found himself bewildered, as Knockby hardly looked like it had a strong bloodline.

But the intelligence provided by Little Red led him to question his own beliefs.

Did Knockby, or rather the ancestors of the Invention Mouse, indeed wield immense power to enable the transmission of information through their bloodline?

Angel refrained from Luigi’s excitement, instead calming his mind as he composedly asked Little Red, “Can you share your thoughts? Since you find these pieces of intelligence special, there must be something distinct about them?”

Little Red decoded three keywords: dormant, legacy, and bloodline.

These aren’t particularly obscure words; in Angel’s view, each should have a corresponding analysis number.

After all, even subjective terms like “loneliness” have analysis numbers. How could these three words exist outside of them?

Yet, if they aren’t outside the numbers, why did Little Red say they’re special?

Little Red seemed to understand Angel’s point, and she earnestly explained, “Indeed, these words have corresponding analyses. But when applied to mice, they don’t.”

Angel was taken aback: “Why is that?”

“Because as I said, these words shouldn’t be viewed separately in mice; they’re an integrated and interlocking entity.”

They’re a unified integral piece of information.

Precisely because they’re unified, in Little Red’s analysis number system, there isn’t a phrase expressing multi-meaning. Little Red’s intelligence primarily conveys single-meaning words.

Angel nodded in understanding, “I get it… if it’s merely integrated information, it’s indeed uncommon, but calling it strange might be a stretch, wouldn’t it?”

So what exactly did Little Red find strange, or peculiar?

Little Red pondered for a moment and then said, “Although these words are integrated and should be analyzed as such, I’ve never analyzed complex information. I’ll separate them and discuss each.”

Angel nodded without objection.

Breaking it down actually poses no issue. As long as the separated meanings are recombined afterward, it’s fine.

Little Red: “The first information extracted is… dormant.”

The so-called dormancy is not the same as the broad sense of dormancy. It is not the organism itself that is dormant, but the energy.

An energy that lies in deep dormancy within Knockby.

According to Little Red, this energy has almost sunk to the point of being as still as dead water, and is very difficult to awaken. But to say it is completely dead stillness is also incorrect, because there is still a faint hope of connection with the outside world.

Therefore, it cannot be called a deathly stillness, but rather a dormancy, or simply a sleep.

“The second piece of information is legacy,” Little Red continued but did not immediately provide an analysis. Instead, she asked first, “Did Brother Harp mention Knockby, Nak Su, and Nak Fi just now? Does Brother Harp think this is an inherited information?”

“Yes,” Luigi nodded and briefly recounted the matters of Nak Fi and Nak Su.

Little Red: “As for Knockby? Didn’t it choose its own name?”

Luigi shook his head: “Knockby was named by Bimon… also known as Nak Su.”

After listening, Little Red rubbed her chin, lowered her head, and murmured, “I actually think Brother Harp is correct. The reason they have the same name might indeed be due to inherited information.”

“But only now I realize that Knockby seems not to have been enlightened, so I don’t know if this is true… If we could see Nak Su, maybe we could be more certain of this.”

“Unfortunately, Nak Su is not here now.”

Luigi: “It’s okay; Bimon is also not far from here now. If necessary, I can bring it over later.”

Luigi has already regarded Bimon as his future “poem-writing tool mouse,” so it’s good to know more about Bimon for his grand writing career.

And the way to understand it is to let Little Red analyze Bimon’s information.

If Knockby is analyzed, how could Bimon be less?

Little Red: “Then let’s talk about it after seeing Nak Su. Let’s return to the information about ‘legacy’ first…”

The so-called legacy actually refers to the hereditary information in the bloodline.

Little Red originally wanted to use “Nak X” as an example, which is why she took the initiative to inquire. But unexpectedly, she was one step short.

The name Knockby was given by another Invention Mouse, making it unable to be used as evidence. So she had to put this example aside for now.

However, even without this example as evidence, Little Red could still say with great certainty: “There must be hereditary information hidden in the bloodline of the mice. It’s just that they might not have discovered it themselves.”

The “legacy” extracted by Little Red is her confident backing.

“Moreover, I can vaguely sense that the legacy information within the mice is extremely profound, like a giant abyss, with immense depth hidden inside.” Little Red said, patting her chest in slight fear: “Such a powerful depth, even the Ghost Steward cannot match, akin to an insurmountable towering mountain.”

In simple terms, the hereditary information hidden within Knockby might be extremely vast.

Vast to the point of encompassing cultural depth in every aspect.

“However, no matter how profound these depths are, if they are not activated, further evaluation is impossible,” Little Red added with a bit of regret.

And it is very difficult, very difficult to activate it.

Don’t forget, it is a unit of three words, and before “legacy,” there is the word “dormant.” The depth has already been consumed by dormancy, so to activate it, one must at least awaken the dormancy.

But how to awaken it? Even if Little Red doesn’t know the method, she can guess the difficulty involved, which is undoubtedly not easy.

Perhaps, even in this generation, there remains no way to awaken it.

Perhaps, it will take until the next generation of Invention Mice, or the generation after that, by chance and coincidence, to awaken the dormant depth.

Little Red: “The last word is bloodline.”

Bloodline, in conjunction with the previous “legacy,” actually refers to the hereditary bloodline left by the ancestors of the Invention Mice.

It too needs to be activated, and the difficulty of activation is as great as that of hereditary information.

Logically, “legacy” and “bloodline” could be mentioned together since they are similar and complementary. The reason Little Red separates them is due to a peculiar piece of information under the “bloodline” data.

Or rather, Little Red feels the strangeness in Knockby’s aura is entirely due to the scent of its “bloodline.”

Luigi curiously asked, “Is there something wrong with its bloodline?”

Little Red solemnly nodded, “Yes, and it is extremely wrong.”

Why did Little Red say this? Because she sensed a scent on Knockby that doesn’t belong to the “mortal” world.

“Not of the mortal realm?” Everyone present was stunned, what kind of description is this?

Only the Dog Deacon and Laplace seemed to have thought of something. They exchanged glances, and finally, Laplace spoke: “Not of the mortal realm, it means transcendent. But I think Little Red would not be frightened by the transcendent, so the answer should be another word that corresponds to the mortal realm.”

After a pause, Laplace continued, “In the mortal world, there really isn’t a concept of transcendence. For the vast majority of ordinary people, the only thing that stands above the mortal is… divinity.”

Luigi muttered, “Not of the mortal realm, then is it divine?!”

Luigi quickly looked up at Little Red, “Do you mean that deep within Knockby’s bloodline, there exists the scent of a deity?”

Little Red neither nodded nor shook her head, only softly said, “Whether it’s the scent of a deity, I cannot say for certain. But the feeling it gives me is indeed like what Sister Hair described, transcending the mundane. It carries an indescribable aura that makes one involuntarily want to worship.”

This aura that makes one want to worship could indeed be that of a deity.

In many deity-inhabited worlds, the first type of god-like skill that deities learn is to garner faith. Worship is a means of gaining faith.

However, it cannot be said for certain that it is a deity; it could also be an “ancestral spirit,” or “ancestor.”

If an ancient patriarch of a family suddenly appeared before the descendants of that family, those descendants might have a tendency to worship as well.

This is a kind of default mechanism passed down through the bloodline. After all, your bloodline comes from your ancestors, so it makes sense to show respect to your ancestors.