Warlock Apprentice

Chapter 2122: Chapter 2123: The Voice of Oblivion

Barbarian Cave, Mirror World.

At the top floor of the Cloud Tower, there is a locked room.

Inside the room, the windows are tightly shut, making the already dim space even more profound.

The only light source in the room is a Crystal Ball embedded in the center of the floor, occasionally emitting a ghostly blue glow, adding a layer of cold light to the silence.

In the flickering ghostly blue light, one can vaguely see Rhein sitting cross-legged beside the Crystal Ball, eyes tightly closed.

This serene atmosphere had persisted for several days, until today, when a movement began under the closed eyelids, and approximately five minutes later, Rhein finally opened his eyes.

”Hoo...”

Rhein let out a long breath of turbid air, and the silent space came alive with this breath. The extinguished candlesticks and fires on the wall, by the long table, and in the fireplace reignited with bright flames.

As the light dispelled the darkness, Rhein looked at the Crystal Ball in front of him.

The Crystal Ball still rhythmically flickered with a ghostly blue glow, and as the blue light surged, Rhein extended his index finger to gently tap the smooth icy surface.

A ghostly blue stream of information flowed from the Crystal Ball, burrowing into Rhein’s index finger.

”It has been five days, let me see if there are any issues over at the Star Pond Ruins.” Rhein murmured to himself, ”Except for a Magic Power message from the Tree Spirit, intercepted outside the tower, no one else has sent any messages.”

Rhein was actually most keen on checking if Ironclad Granny had sent any messages because she was temporarily in charge of the Star Pond Ruins. Since there were no messages, it indicated that the Star Pond Ruins likely did not have significant issues.

As for the Tree Spirit’s message... since it didn’t directly wake him from seclusion but rather sent a Magic Power message, it clearly wasn’t something urgent, and it could be dealt with later.

Rhein stood up and walked to a metal apparatus shaped like a silver trumpet, manipulating a few arcs of light in the Energy Field. As the arcs trembled, the trumpet immediately started operating.

This arc of light was a form of energy-level information interaction developed through the Magic Absorption Path. Rhein activated it with the intention of relaying some messages to certain individuals.

After completing all this, Rhein sat back in front of the Crystal Ball, his gaze inadvertently catching sight of the monocle placed next to the Crystal Ball.

Looking at this pair of glasses, Rhein unknowingly sighed gently.

The reason he suddenly went into seclusion for the past few days was because of these glasses. During seclusion, Rhein calmed his restless thoughts, pondering over the future of the Barbarian Cave, the Wilderness of Dreams, and Angel.

Of course, all future directions centered around Angel.

During these days of contemplation, Rhein had roughly established a basic tone, previously disseminating messages through the Magic Absorption Path to lay the groundwork for this tone, releasing some information in advance.

Once the groundwork is sufficient, all core members will be called to a meeting to officially announce the future direction.

Reflecting on the initially peaceful development’s future suddenly taking a different turn, Rhein was indeed somewhat sentimental. But he also knew clearly that only through ”change” could the Barbarian Cave reach new heights. Besides, with the Wilderness of Dreams backing this tremendous change, it would definitely not head towards a worse direction, so as the Controller of the Barbarian Cave, he had to proceed with this plan.

”Angel...” Rhein muttered softly, saying Angel’s name, a complex mix of emotions in his voice filled with sentiment.

Rhein imagined the Barbarian Cave would shine with unprecedented brilliance under his leadership, something his predecessors hadn’t achieved. Yet, he hadn’t foreseen that this honor would rest on Angel, who had only been with the Barbarian Cave for a mere few years. How could this not bring about a sense of amazement?

Rhein himself had researched and trained across domains in Divination, yet he never truly believed in predetermined fate; otherwise, he wouldn’t have chosen to abandon the ”River of Fate” path for the ”Speechless Deity.”

But at this moment, with Angel’s silhouette vividly appearing in his mind, for the first time, he deeply felt that perhaps there truly were favorites of fate. Otherwise, how did Angel coincidentally join the Barbarian Cave and achieve such growth in such a short period, precisely fulfilling Rhein’s long-held aspirations?

Truth be told, at Rhein’s current level, emotional disturbances are rare, yet Angel’s appearance has caused significant emotional fluctuations.

There was contemplation, envy... even a slight twinge of jealousy.

However, this jealousy was fleeting, quickly expelled from Rhein’s mind, as he knew clearly that for future development, Angel’s presence was pivotal.

Not only must he refrain from jealousy, but he also needs to actively eliminate threats surrounding Angel.

Currently, the greatest threat to Angel is the Seed.

Rhein’s eyes flickered for a while, seemingly calculating something.

As time passed, nearly an hour has elapsed since Rhein’s awakening, and his thoughts were almost sorted out. Extending his hand towards the monocle, he intended to check if Ironclad Granny was available to discuss future developments.

However, Rhein quickly retracted his hand.

”Forget it, let’s first take a look at the Magic Power message from the Tree Spirit. Just as well, have the Tree Spirit arrange some people to enter the Wilderness of Dreams to assist in the New City’s construction.” With this in mind, Rhein moved to the window, opening one that had been closed for several days.

Once the window was opened, a pure white dove that had been circling the Magic Absorption Path slowly descended, landing on the windowsill.

Rhein gently touched the dove, which immediately emitted a white light, scattering a large number of illusory white feathers.

Simultaneously, within the white light, the silhouette of the Tree Spirit appeared.

”Angel has already deciphered the broken Magic Pattern, and he and I are preparing to explore the hidden room.”

The first words in the Tree Spirit’s Magic Power message startled Rhein.

Although Rhein wasn’t as gossipy about hidden explorations as the Tree Spirit, the ruins Angel was in and the Star Pond Ruins were clearly built by the same entity, making Rhein very concerned about the situation in the hidden room, hoping to uncover some valuable information.

”However, from the current situation, the hidden room is extremely dangerous. It contains the Nightmare Light, which even my Avatar cannot withstand... If you’ve forgotten about the Nightmare Light, bring out Reeves to explain it to you again.”

”So far, we haven’t found a way to neutralize the Nightmare Light.

”Once you receive the message, it’s best to come over.”

...

On the other side, inside the hidden room.

When the Tree Spirit saw the desk beside the workbench, his eyes lit up with joy, ”There are many parchments and scrolls here, they might record information about the hidden room and the Nightmare Light!”

Seeing the casually spread parchments on the desk, Angel was also excited.

In the Wizards’ Realm, knowledge is of paramount importance.

The abundance of parchments here, along with the bound volumes of processed paper, surely recorded a wealth of information. Even if they only detailed some experimental data, it would be a rare treasure of knowledge. Compared to the Stellar Iron sought before, its value would undoubtedly be higher!

Filled with delight, Angel carefully controlled his Domain Field, slowly approaching the desk.

Perhaps the Nightmare Light is already the greatest threat, making other mechanisms unnecessary. Therefore, on the way there, no danger was encountered.

As the Domain Field drew nearer, more scenes unfolded.

In front of them was not only a desk piled with large quantities of parchment but also, about three meters directly ahead of the desk, a metal stand shaped like a ”凹”.

That is... an Item Analysis Table!

The Item Analysis Table is a special auxiliary identification apparatus, containing a vast amount of elements that can establish a connection with the object being identified. It is a deep extension of the Eye of Nalda. Essentially, every Alchemist will have one.

The previous owner of this ruin, Tizarro, suspected the possibility of a hidden room in this ruin because the Item Analysis Table was missing in the third underground level’s laboratory.

Now it has indeed proven Tizarro’s suspicion correct, as the Item Analysis Table is indeed in the hidden room.

Moreover, it’s worth mentioning that there are several dark shadows clearly visible on this Item Analysis Table, seemingly things left behind by the previous owner and not taken away.

Angel took a careful look, confirming that they were not materials, but some kind of tools.

”I can take a look later.” Angel did not immediately approach the Item Analysis Table but sat on the vine chair made by the Tree Spirit and picked up the parchment on the table to read.

This was a piece of parchment that had been obviously cut smaller, intended for sewing.

Just that in the end, something unexpected seemed to have happened, and the parchment had not been sewn together, lying scattered on the table.

Angel glanced at it and frowned.

Not because the parchment recorded any earth-shattering content, but simply because there were too many symbols Angel didn’t recognize on this piece of parchment, as well as the formulas formed by these symbols. Their arrangement was very chaotic, as if the recorder was stuck in some kind of deadlock during recording, leaving a large block of black scribbles.

As for the symbols Angel recognized, their arrangement was also incomprehensible to him at this moment.

All he could confirm was that this seemed to be a record of some alchemical experiment.

Since he couldn’t understand it, Angel simply put it aside and picked up another piece of parchment. However, it was much the same as the previous one, chaotic formulas, complex symbols...

Angel flipped through several pieces of parchment on the table, and they were all the same, basically unreadable.

However, there was still some gain.

These drawings placed most prominently represented the state the owner of the ruin was in before leaving—engaged in some difficult alchemical experiment.

What exactly the experiment was cannot be deduced for now.

Since no useful information was obtained from the parchment, Angel turned his attention to the pile of pulp paper-bound volumes stacked to the side. These specially crafted pulp paper-bound volumes were placed very neatly, and their binding was exquisite, suggesting they wouldn’t be the chaotic, incomprehensible experiment records.

”You can look at this stack.”

As Angel was deciding which one to read, the Tree Spirit, sitting on the other side of the desk, suddenly pointed to a stack of pulp paper-bound volumes next to him.

”I casually flipped through these earlier and found they were all related to alchemy, which I think should be useful to you.” The Tree Spirit initially flipped through this stack and, upon discovering it was alchemy-related knowledge, gave up. He doesn’t dabble in alchemy, so these were useless to him.

Angel nodded. The three things he currently most wanted to understand were the hidden room, the Nightmare Light, and matters related to the creator of the ruins.

It has now been confirmed that the creator of the ruins was an Alchemist, and perhaps some relevant information about him could be gleaned from the alchemy books here.

Angel casually picked one up. Just as he was about to open it, he noticed that the Tree Spirit sitting across from him was currently reading a green-covered book, his eyes not blinking, seemingly entranced.

”Culori Chronicles I.”

That was the name on the cover of the book. It looked like an autobiography or a diary?

As Angel was pondering, the Tree Spirit seemed to notice his unblinking gaze and explained with a smile, ”This is a journal with clear date markings. I estimate it was recorded by the owner of this hidden room.”

As the Tree Spirit spoke, he slightly displayed the inside of the book pages, and Angel could clearly see the date marked in the upper right corner of the page: New Calendar year 5298.

Approximately two thousand years from today.

It coincided perfectly with the era of those ancient devices in the laboratory.

Unexpectedly, this Alchemist named Culori might indeed be the creator of these ruins.

”Have you discovered anything?” Angel asked.

The Tree Spirit shook his head, ”Not yet. The entries record very trivial matters, and in many stories, the protagonist is not Culori, but someone named Belos. From some details, it seems that Culori really enjoyed bullying Belos. I have no idea what their relationship was.”

Since the Tree Spirit was already reading Culori Chronicles I, Angel didn’t go for the related diaries but instead started reading the pulp paper-bound volume he had in hand.

Upon opening the first page, Angel saw a row of elegantly written script: Culori.

After seeing this name, Angel was almost certain that Culori should indeed be the original owner of the ruin.

The first page only had the name and did not record any other information, so for Angel to know the specific content, he would need to flip further.

When Angel turned to the second page and finished reading the entry there, he suddenly froze.

This indeed was related to alchemy, but it was entirely different from what Angel had imagined. This was neither a book on a certain alchemy school nor an alchemical record, but a... hand-drawn illustration.

The first hand-drawn illustration was of an elegant golden olive-pattern circular mirror with a noble style.

With a few simple strokes, Culori captured its essence, looking like a handheld vanity mirror used by noblewomen.

Below the illustration, Culori recorded information related to this vanity mirror in that elegant script.

The name of this vanity mirror was: ”The Voice of Forgetfulness”

Beneath the name, it was written: ”Hoopa Coefficient: 2”

Further below, it recorded that ”The Voice of Forgetfulness” is currently held by a witch known as the Heartbreaker.

Following that was the effect possessed by ”The Voice of Forgetfulness”: ”Facing this object, if you repeatedly chant a name, you will completely forget everything about them from the root. It’s also effective on objects.”

Finally, Culori added some personal opinion, or perhaps a ”note”.

”If you repeatedly chant your own name, over time, you’ll feel as if your name has become very unfamiliar.”