Warlock Apprentice

Chapter 3226: Chapter 3227: Clever Mouse

Not long after, Pixi came running back jubilantly.

Accompanying Pixi was a Red Skin Pippi dressed in an exquisite indigo robe.

”This is Pierdan, he is the heir and butler of the Pier family.” Pixi pointed at the Red Skin Pippi and said.

”Ah, I can’t believe it, I actually get to meet such noble guests. This is an honor that humble Pierdan has struggled for half a lifetime to obtain!” Perhaps due to prior arrangements, Pierdan acted extremely humble in front of everyone, with a flamboyant expression, and compliments coming all too easily.

Angel was already familiar with the shameless personality of the Pi Luoxiu Clan. Pierdan’s flattery did not elicit the slightest change in his expression.

However, Pierdan’s identity puzzled Angel somewhat.

Heir and butler, what kind of unrelated identity combination is that? In the Pier family, can service mean multitasking as God?

Even though it seemed odd, Angel did not inquire... treating it as a unique custom of the Pi Luoxiu Clan, akin to the tooth-dyeing tradition, difficult to understand yet demanding respect.

”Enough with the pointless chatter, let’s get to the main topic.” Pixi glared at Pierdan, still engaged in flattery: ”Bring the item out!”

”Item?” Angel looked at Pierdan with confusion.

From Pixi’s words, could it mean Pierdan had brought the Invention Mouse?

Yet no matter how Angel looked, he couldn’t find any signs of movement under Pierdan’s thin robe. If the Invention Mouse wasn’t being carried, does it mean Pierdan placed it inside a spatial artifact?

Thinking this, Angel’s expression became quirky and subtle.

The most commonly used spatial artifact by the Pi Luoxiu Clan was the Golden Silk Stomach Bag... which is an artificially implanted organ typically embedded within the body.

If the Invention Mouse were in Pierdan’s stomach bag, wouldn’t that mean he needed to... vomit to bring it out?

The image was too beautiful for Angel to keep thinking.

Still, he vaguely understood why that Golden Silk Gloves invention concept had received so much investment.

While Angel’s fantasies soared high, Pierdan had already brought out the item.

But contrary to Angel’s expectations, the ”item” that Pixi referred to was pulled out from Pierdan’s sleeve rather than vomited out.

This ”item” was not the Invention Mouse but a neatly bound little thin booklet.

The cover of the booklet bore an emblem, depicting a Pi Luoxiu standing atop a mountain, facing away from the sunrise, raising its right hand in a sketch.

According to Pixi’s introduction, this emblem was indeed the family crest of the Pier family.

Angel was seeing for the first time such a ”unique” family crest... given this design, one might as well have someone paint a miniature oil painting.

While internally ridiculing, Angel listened to Pierdan’s introduction.

This booklet was essentially a ”roster.” The so-called ”roster” refers not to people or Pi Luoxiu, but various different Invention Mice.

Pixi: ”The Pier family brought thirty-six Invention Mice this time, among which there are six direct offspring of Pifeifei, and the remaining thirty are generational descendants.”

To sell these thirty-six Invention Mice, the Pier family created a dedicated roster for them, not only recording each Invention Mouse’s appearance, character, and dominant skills in the booklet, but the Pier family also consulted a famous inventor of the Pi Luoxiu Clan: Pipai, to write proverbs and subjective evaluations for each Invention Mouse.

One might say, the Pier family went to great lengths to sell these Invention Mice.

Unfortunately... aside from a little fame in Pipi Castle, Invention Mice attract no attention when taken outside. Even attempts by the Pier family to bring the Invention Mice to market stalls met refusal from above.

The kind of thing Invention Mice should be sold in the market stall areas surrounding Ring Fort, keeping them here only shames Pi Luoxiu’s inventions.

Upon reflection, it makes sense; Pi Luoxiu is renowned externally for invention, claiming invention can always be achieved with Invention Mice, how would other races perceive this? Isn’t it a form of self-deprecation?

If one says the inventions of Invention Mice aren’t quite successful, merely ”smart mice,” then there’s no gimmick or label, what would other races buy them for? To keep as pets?

Thus, Pi Luoxiu’s top decision is correct, these Invention Mice may be sold, but go to Ring Fort’s outer market stall areas to sell them, not locally or nearby.

Selling Invention Mice is even more meaningless than a Tooth Dyeing Shop.

For that reason, the Pier family’s Invention Mice are not in Ring Fort nowadays, but scattered across various surrounding market stall areas.

To swiftly gather these thirty-six Invention Mice requires quite a bit of time. Thus, Pixi figured it’d be best to bring Pierdan first, letting Angel and Luigi take a look at the roster, and if any Invention Mouse caught their fancy, Pierdan would then send someone to fetch it.

Luigi didn’t mind this, but Angel was somewhat disappointed.

He could utilize Hyper Perception to gauge the emotional state of Invention Mice, thereby determining the activity level of their brains and judge whether the Invention Mice themselves were ”intelligent.”

But now, with a notebook in between and no way to see the Invention Mice in person, assessing quality becomes difficult.

Nevertheless, despite the disappointment, Angel didn’t give it much thought.

If it were Pifeifei, he might pay a little more attention, but just a few relatively smart hamsters, he had little expectation.

Of course, to prevent Luigi from detecting that his enigmatic behavior previously was a façade, he needed to appear quite interested, even taking the initiative to receive the roster and flipping through it in front of Pixi and Pierdan.

His movements while flipping were slow, as if genuinely appreciating.

Luigi also leaned over, following along to inspect these ”smart mice.”

The first six pages listing the Invention Mice were the direct offspring of Pifeifei.

Angel glanced at the pictures, and this group of mice were truly a disorderly bunch. Fat and chubby tri-color guinea pigs, little white-eyed pure white rodent mice, small field mice wearing tiny glasses resembling scholars, hedgehog mice with the size of a baby, old hamsters with long whiskers and leaning on a cane, and black- furred house-like mice with oily hair...

Many small mice couldn’t really be called hamsters, judging by their appearance, they’d belong to entirely different genus and species.

Angel found it hard to imagine these were all birthed by the same Invention Mouse.

That Invention Mouse named Pifeifei was indeed a heroic mother mouse.

Among these six direct mice of Pifeifei, purely by appearance, the pure white rodent mouse and tri-color guinea pig seemed cute, but compared to the Golden Silk Bear seen earlier with the parrot, their looks fell short significantly.

Angel recalled that Luigi had once said that Golden Silk Bear resembles Pifeifei exactly... originally he thought other Invention Mice would be the same, it turned out he guessed wrong, the only true resemblance was with that Golden Silk Bear.

Judging only by appearance definitely reveals nothing worthwhile.

Angel carefully perused the introductions of these little mice as well. All six were proficient in languages, able to speak, and capable of assisting humans with basic tasks.

Among them, two could read, their intelligence reaching the standard of ordinary Pi Luoxiu.

Judging them as smart mice, all were smart mice, and an extremely few were even smarter... but none have reached an astonishing level.

At least in Angel’s view, training these smart little mice was far less useful than training a human.

Luigi displayed a look of affection towards every little mouse, mainly because compared to the golden hamster he saw with the parrot before, these little mice were truly extraordinarily intelligent.

Luigi even began to imagine some scenes: he plays the piano, the little mice dance happily; he recites poetry, the little mice are moved to tears; he rests, and the little mice hold special string maintenance oil, wiping each one.

Imagined scenes always carry a beautiful filter.

However, Luigi didn’t forget his original intention; he wanted to know from Angel what was special about the golden hamster with the parrot, and whether these little mice also had something more special.

Luigi didn’t ask directly, but stared straight at Angel, using his gaze to imply.

Angel naturally received Luigi’s gaze, but he acted as if he didn’t see it, quietly flipping the pages... mainly because he also didn’t know how to explain to Luigi.

Admitting that he was pretending to be mysterious at that time? That would be too embarrassing.

Angel maintained a calm expression, flipping page after page.

Except for the first six pages, the latter were full of distant descendants, with appearances that were diverse and varied.

Most of the distant descendants had become foolish, using Pi Bubpi’s critique, they were: ”The bloodline becomes thinner, wanting to cultivate an Invention Mouse that can reach Pififi’s heights still depends on the first generation. The distant descendants, unless they are reversion must, can only be considered semi-finished products.”

Actually, semi-finished products were Pi Bubpi being restrained in his speech; what he wanted to express was that these were actually failures.

Although among the distant descendants, there were a few that understood language, seemed quite clever, and even had a ”thirst for knowledge” personality among the mice, still, they were far off compared to the parent generation’s descendants, as for comparing them to Pififi? That was even more impossible.

However, Pi Bubpi’s critique mentioned the term ”ancestral traits.”

This made Luigi immediately think of the golden hamster with the parrot.

That golden hamster and Pififi looked exactly the same, could it be a form of reversion to ancestral traits? But does it revert only in appearance, not in intelligence?

Luigi was a bit puzzled.

However, he believed even more now that the golden hamster was very special.

If it is ancestral traits, and Angel regards it differently... perhaps he should contact the parrot and ask him to help buy it?

Angel was unaware of Luigi’s thoughts, he never considered the ancestral traits, mainly because he had used Hyper Perception to test the golden hamster and confirmed it was a superficially cute without any intelligence mouse, so reverting to Pififi? Impossible.

After Angel roughly flipped through the roster, he fell into a moment of contemplation.

He was thinking about how to ”artfully refuse” next.

But from Pixi and Pierdan’s perspective, Angel seemed like he was caught in a dilemma, pondering deeply, and unsure of which Invention Mouse to purchase.

Pixi found Angel quite appealing and upon seeing his ”struggle,” decided to give Angel a hand.

”Pierdan, are these all the Invention Mice available for sale?” Pixi asked.

Pierdan didn’t know Pixi’s intention but nodded anyway: ”Yes.”

Pixi: ”Hmm... Pi Bubpi’s evaluation actually isn’t very valuable; his time with the Invention Mice was quite short. Pierdan, why don’t you introduce them? You’re probably clearer on their qualities than Pi Bubpi.”

”Out of them all, if you were to rank them, which Invention Mouse would you recommend the most?”

Pixi spoke while subtly signaling to Pierdan: Didn’t you notice the guest is hesitating? You need to proactively introduce it! Why so dim-witted?

Pierdan received the ”signal” and immediately began to non-stop talk about his recommendation: ”Personally, I recommend the first one on the first page the most; overall, it has the highest score, and it’s quite human-friendly, can take a beating, and doesn’t hold grudges...”

Angel: ...I thought you were recommending a pet, but it turns out you’re recommending a punching bag?

When Pierdan was dry in the mouth, he finally stopped, using eye contact with Pixi to ask: Is this alright?

Pixi silently responded: Depends on whether the guest finds it convincing.

Pierdan nodded and quietly moved his gaze to Angel.

The reason he didn’t look at Luigi was because Luigi’s gaze was also glued to Angel. Clearly, Luigi also wanted a definitive answer from Angel.

Facing everyone’s gaze, Angel cleared his throat before speaking: ”These Invention Mice aren’t bad, it’s just that, in my view, they lack a certain flavor.”

”Missing a flavor? What flavor?” Luigi and Pixi almost asked simultaneously.

Angel put on a troubled expression: ”It’s hard to say, it’s a mysterious feeling.”

In short, it doesn’t feel right.

This generic excuse at this moment was placed on the table by Angel. As for what feeling it was, as he himself said, it’s mysterious and difficult to articulate.

Everyone was puzzled, even Luigi, was somewhat unclear on Angel’s meaning, thinking it over and over, finally glancing at a crooked line between the thin booklet: None of these work.

Luigi suddenly understood; Angel looked down on these Invention Mice!

Why look down on them?

Isn’t it simple enough? Because of the golden hamster!

With a more ”mysterious” ancestral golden hamster, how could he look at these childish affairs?

Luigi, thinking he understood, nodded to Angel, with a look of ”I get you.”

This left Angel bewildered, what did I say? You understand what? I don’t even understand what I’m saying, how can you?

One self-assured while the other indifferent, and another side remained confused.

Pierdan: ”Respected guest, your meaning is...”

Angel’s peripheral glance caught Luigi before slowly speaking: ”What I mean is, are there none even more special? If there are none more special, then these ones just won’t do, they’re lacking in flavor.”

Angel was already placing the words of refusal on the surface, thinking this matter could be smoothly passed over.

Unexpectedly, upon hearing Angel’s words, Pierdan instead fell into contemplation.

After a long while, Pierdan finally raised his head and said: ”Speaking of special Invention Mice, I really have seen one. However, that one wasn’t cultivated by the Pier family but was sold to a merchant who privately bred it, producing a distant descendant.”

Angel: ”???”

I thought this topic would end, now you’re opening a side quest?

Angel was momentarily unsure how to respond, but Luigi, with an expression of ”I understand again,” spoke to Pierdan: ”The special Invention Mouse you mentioned, what’s special about it? Let’s hear.”

Pierdan glanced at Pixi, and seeing the latter nod at him, he slowly continued: ”That Invention Mouse is a grey-furred mouse...”