Warlock Apprentice

The world’s consciousness brought disastrous weather upon its arrival and vanished from people’s sight silently.

The sky regained its brightness when gentle sunlight came shining down again.

Angor followed behind Sunders and returned to his professor’s manor on Phantom Island. When looking from the side, Sunders’ handsome and gentlemanly look was decorated by a golden rim by the sun.

“Professor looks pretty good. No wonder Lady Mirror asked for something like that,” Angor muttered to himself.

When thinking about Lady Mirror’s request, Angor immediately felt a headache.

If Lady Mirror asked something from himself, Angor would comply without a doubt. But she asked for Sunders, and Angor certainly could not make the decision in place of his professor.

“I should be the one returning the favor. Why drag Sunders along?” Angor only grew more frustrated.

After arriving at the manor, Sunders took Angor to an open ground protected by a magic array.

“Come. Let’s see what you learned.”

Toby left Angor’s shoulder and hovered in front of Sunders. Seeing how his professor and Toby were now staring at each other, Angor silently stepped back.

Sunders reached out a hand and pointed his palm at Toby. Invisible ripples began coming out of his hand.

“You’re now in a state of spirit resonance. Release the gravity sequence you learned,” Sunders spoke to Toby.

Toby tweeted several times as if protesting about something, but no one understood it. Toby only gave up in the end. He was not moving at all, apart from fixing its gaze on Sunders with his two tiny eyes.

Angor thought Toby was mad for some reason and urged Toby to listen to Sunders and released the… sequence or something.

Toby gave him a stare in response. Angor believed that if Toby was not engaged in something with Sunders, the bird would definitely come and kick him in the face.

A moment later, Sunders stopped his spirit resonance.

Seeing Sunders remaining silent, Angor complained in his mind for Toby’s unreliable reaction. He quickly approached his professor. “Sir, Toby is a bit naughty. Maybe he was joking about learning his destiny. Please understand.”

Sunders looked up and glanced at Angor.

“Not quite. It did comprehend the basic sequence of gravity,” Sunders slowly spoke. He then realized Angor was still dumbfounded at his words. The man frowned. “Didn’t you see that Toby wasn’t using his wings at all? It attuned himself to the law of gravity to stay afloat.”

Did it?!

Angor was completely puzzled. His spirit was too fatigued to notice such details.

“Your spirit… doesn’t look right,” said Sunders. His eyes shined with the light of spell. “Oh? Your mind space is damaged, and your spirit is… wilted.”

Sunders squinted his eyes. “You went through magic backfiring on you.”

That was not a question. Sunders sounded sure of it.

Angor lowered his head in shame. “Um, when I was rearranging a combination for Cleanse spell, I failed to notice my remaining mana, so, uh…”

“You deserved such, trying to run before learning how to walk properly.”

That was the only complaint Sunders expressed. After that, Sunders smiled a little, somewhat satisfied with Angor’s attempt.

“Remember the lesson. When you pursue the root of a spell again, know your own limits.”

“I understand.” Angor also realized that Sunders was actually encouraging him to do so, instead of following the steps of ancestors.

Sunders turned around and headed to the delicately-built castle in the center of the manor. “Let’s go to the study. Tell me about your training in these days.”

“Okay!” Angor quickly followed him.

Along their way, Sunders told Angor the gravity sequence Toby had learned.

“A very low-leveled sequence of the law of gravity. It can help the bird change its own gravity within a certain range,” said Sunders. He seemed interested. “Still, it’s already as strong as a level-3 cantrip. Toby is able to change gravity for itself, which allows it to increase its speed and burst power in close-quarter combats. If Toby learns how to change gravity for other objects in the future, it would become capable of long-range battles as well.

“Interesting. None of the people seized any destiny, and a bird triumphed in front of everyone. Very… interesting.”

During their talk, Angor also learned why every wizard, no matter formal or not, wished to learn the sequences of laws.

Because learning a sequence of law equaled to receiving a spell slot for free.

As for spell slots… another concept needed to be explained along with it: Quickened Spells.

How fast a wizard cast a spell depended on how well he or she understood the spell as well as the wizard’s mastery level at the spell.

There were currently two ways to cast a “Quickened Spell”. One, by pursuing the root and fundamentals of a spell and understood it from all perspectives. This approach would take a long time. Many wizards spent decades or centuries, just to quicken a single spell.

The second approach was using spell slots.

A spell slot was a special location built on one’s spirit model. It could hold the model of a spell, permanently. This permanent spell model would allow the wizard to cast the spell instantly.

Comprehending law sequence equaled to acquiring a spell slot because the ability to use the law sequence could be cast instantly. The user still had to spend mana, but a quickened spell meant absolute advantage in a fight. This was why every wizard would pursue chances of learning law sequences like crazy.

“Too bad I didn’t learn a sequence of gravity, or I could use it as another ace move when challenging Sky Tower,” Angor exclaimed in his mind.

However, he still thought he actually learned something… or rather, the “he” under a certain state, learned something.

…

Just as Sunders walked into his study and sat down, someone knocked on the window behind Angor.

Angor looked back and saw Flora floating outside, wearing her usual cunning expression.

Angor opened the window to let Flora float inside slowly.

“What are you doing here?” Sunders crossed his legs, placed his black top hat onto the desk and removed his monocle, before finally looking at Flora.

Flora made a “hee hee” sound and pointed to Sunders’ new golden ear nail. “I’m just curious about the Sorcerer’s Garden.”

“Then you can go find the tree spirit. It has a garden inside its body as well,” said Sunders.

“That’s different. Your garden is new. I’ve never seen a newly-constructed garden before. Besides… I really want to see my dear professor’s garden.”

Sunders sneered. “There’s no difference. The law in a new Sorcerer’s Garden is not condensed. It doesn’t differ from a plane fragment in the slightest.”

Flora curled her lips.

“Something else?” Sunders glanced at her.

Flora muttered “dumb guy” under her breath and floated to Angor. “Well, Leona asked for something.”

“Leona?” Sunders remembered a certain witch who loved dresses decorated by flower petals. “She asked you. What’s it to do with me?”

Flora gently kicked Angor’s shoulder with her bare foot. “Because it got something to do with Angor.”

Sunders stared at her and waited for an explanation.

“Leona saw Angor outside the island, and she smelled the essence of Glutton Flower Lord on him. She wants to make a glass of pheromone perfume recently, and she’s quite fond of the smell,” said Flora as she took out an alchemy vial used to extract gaseous materials. “Just a little. Some pressured gas in the vial will do.”

Angor did not know what was going on yet. He never paid attention to his smell these days. He thought it already dissipated. But how—

Angor sniffed at himself and realized the smell of essence was still there.

“Angor, sweetie, you want the smell gone, right?” Flora revealed a sweet smile.

Angor nodded. The smell ruined his manly image!

“Then you can give it to me, alright?” Flora’s smile grew more and more charming.

Before Angor could agree, Sunders interrupted them. “The smell of Glutton Flower Essence can soothe your soul and improve spirit concentration even if the effect is reduced now. It’s considered a tier-1 alchemy material. Also, the world has not witnessed any Glutton Flower Lord for thousands of years, which means this material values way more in the view of certain individuals.”

Flora’s smile instantly disappeared. She looked at her professor with a sad look. “Aw professor, with a new student, you forgot about your old one? I’m still your student too. Don’t ruin my business!”

Sunders tilted his head and smiled. “Ruin your business? No. I’m simply reminding Angor of the basic rule in this world, which is, equivalent exchange.”

Flora threw an angry stare at Sunders. In the end, she took away all the smell on Angor’s body by paying the boy 1,000 merit points. Then she left and slammed the door behind her.

It was not much. About ten magic crystals. Still, Angor gladly accepted the income. With the smell removed, this was a double benefit!

However, Angor also had a strange feeling about himself. Someone just took some kind of good smell from a gentleman’s body to brew perfume for women? That did not sound right.

He recalled reading about some ancient eastern recipes about making perfumes. Some of them were animal excrement, such as ambergris. Some were extracts taken from male glands, such as musk. When thinking about this, Angor felt better.

“Now this is strange. Last time you came, the smell already vanished on you. Why did it come back all of a sudden? Did it have something to do with your experience in the Nightmare Realm?” Sunders mumbled.

Angor was puzzled as well. “I don’t know. I’m sure I didn’t smell it in the last days, so I thought it was gone. I wouldn’t have noticed if Miss Flora didn’t come.”

Sunders considered for a while. “No matter. Let’s put such trivial things behind. We shall talk about your training during the last month.”