Warlock Apprentice

He still remembered how Leon once told him that a mighty steed was the romance of men.

To most hot-blooded gentlemen, a vehicle always held irresistible charm. Angor was not an exception. But at the same time, he also needed to think about whether a vehicle was necessary.

It was, at least before he could learn any flying spells.

More buildings appeared as he approached the center of the Tree Spirit Garden. There were high-leveled apprentices everywhere. Angor could also sense the prowess of someone suddenly show up now and then.

This was where people usually gathered, which meant there would always be fights and conflicts… as well as someone’s painful screams.

In several minutes, Angor already saw multiple individuals flying past the bus, escaping from something.

People in this violent district all tended to regard everything with indifference. Not long ago, Angor saw a man covered in his own blood reaching out a hand to a passerby for help.

As expected, the passenger never lifted an eye.

Seeing such a sight, Angor suddenly got a feeling that the apprentice town he was living in was such a paradise.

The questing hall was right in front of the central plaza. Compared to the smaller houses nearby, the hall looked exceptionally big and majestic. The entire building was decorated by golden bricks, shining painted glass, and a pointy red rooftop like the tip of a mountain. The place looked like a religious church.

Crowds kept shifting in and out of the building. Everyone was walking on hurried steps.

The first thing that drew Angor’s attention when he entered the hall were a dozen giant, round-shaped counters. Each counter had a 360-degree curved screen above it, which showed all sorts of information to patrons. Meanwhile, the workers at the counters swiftly noted down different records about ongoing quests.

The information on the screens was all about quests. There were also large glass screens placed on the walls on both sides, which displayed similar info. Angor also noticed that there were different sections on them. Quests issued by Brute Cavern and wizards were placed on top, while those issued by apprentices were located at the bottom-right. As for the bottom-left area, it showed some other important notices.

This was only the first time for Angor to come here, so he was unsure of how to accept quests. Angor simply moved to a less-crowded corner and began to observe the other people.

He learned the basic workflow after watching for a while. Most apprentices would check the screens for quests they were interested in and note down the code number of them. They would then ask one of the workers to register the quest. People could also directly ask for quests according to certain criteria.

Angor followed their example and looked at the screen.

Most easy-to-do quests would disappear as soon as they were published, while those that persisted on the screens were mostly time-consuming, less rewarding ones. For example, there was a quest that asked someone to go looking for talents in other continents that had been scrolling on the screen for years.

There were also difficult quests with great rewards such as ruin exploration or guard post for plane expeditions. They were still meant for apprentices even though most apprentices knew that the quests expected them to be expendable cannon fodders.

There were some other seemingly easy jobs with great pay but still discouraged everyone from taking them.

Angor quickly learned why when looking at their issuers.

‘Miniature Creator’ Dumartin Bayer, a wizard known for his brutal experiments in which he extracted the brains of live creatures.

There was a quest issued by Dumartin:

[Looking for an apprentice to join my experiment. The collaborator must have a spiritual power indicator of 15 or above. Reward: 100 magic crystals (daily).]

Some of the difficult quests had great reward because they required knowledge from a certain profession, such as magic array or alchemy. These were the ones Angor was looking for.

Due to the lack of alchemists, there were always quests that required alchemy skills which all provided insane rewards. And the rewards were still going up by the day.

Angor saw a quest that asked to buy “White Orchid Potion”. As he looked, the reward changed from 200 crystals to 230. The issuer already prepared the materials for making the potion, and he only needed an Apothecary alchemist now.

Angor had not learned about Apothecary yet. He recalled something mentioned by Mara that the Morning Dew had similar properties as White Orchid Potion, which helped apprentices break through their bottleneck.

He still had some Morning Dew leaves, but he was not going to give them out.

Next, Angor checked for Tooling quests. Most of them asked for the necessary components to be used in wizardry experiments. There was such one asking for an Energy Stabilizer while providing 300 magic crystals in return.

Of course, there were people looking for alchemy weapons.

One month ago, Dave mentioned that a tiered alchemy weapon could at least sell for 200 crystals. At this point, however, most such weapons already went beyond that price. There was even someone willing to pay a thousand for a weapon.

This was unsurprising to Angor since he had already expected it.

When the message about the purification garden was announced, a simple scythe he crafted sold for 400 crystals. Naturally, there would be better ones.

Angor started from the most rewarding quest and looked down to see if he could accept one.

He found several of them doable, and they provided nearly 1,000 magic crystals. However, when he thought about the time they would take, combined with his own intention to lay low among people, Angor decided to put them aside.

In the meantime, he also noticed that those asking for customized weapons usually had higher pay. There was someone asking for a non-tiered custom weapon for 50 magic crystals, while tiered ones all paid 500 crystals or above.

He only had ten days to spare so he could not possibly meet with everyone and negotiate. Angor went for quests with easier requirements which provided raw materials.

He chose seven quests in the end. Upon finishing, they could probably earn him 3,000 crystals.

When this was done, Angor took some time to look through the announcements displayed at the bottom-left of the screen. Most of these announcements were important matters related to apprentices.

As expected, the info about the purification garden was there.

The second message said that the second Moonfrost Passage was about to open.

Nothing else caught his attention. Angor turned away and headed toward a less-occupied counter.

The clerks at the counters were mostly mortals who paid good respect to the patrons in the hall.

Angor told the clerk the code numbers of the quests he accepted. Accepting multiple quests was not something rare, so the clerk did not express anything in particular.

“Please show me your bone card, sir.”

When Angor complied, the clerk revealed a strange expression. “Sir, the record says that you haven’t done any quests before, so you need to pay a 10% security payment for each quest. Also-”

A young man wearing a gold-rimmed white robe came from behind Angor and interrupted the clerk. “Also, you need to pay assurance for materials provided by the issuers.”

The clerk nodded. “As this gentleman said, sir.”

Angor frowned and inspected the stranger behind him.

The young man smiled at Angor. “Sorry to barge in. I happened to hear the quest numbers you registered, so I knew you accepted alchemy quests.”

Happened? Not likely.

Angor was sure that this man was nowhere near him just a moment ago. He came straight to this counter after the clerk checked the bone card.

Angor humphed and looked at the clerk who looked away to avoid his gaze.

“Just as I thought then…”

The white-robed man did not mind Angor’s success in finding out his little trick. “Excuse me, sir, are you an alchemist?”

Angor put up his cold expression. “What’s it to do with you?”

The stranger kept his bright smile against Angor’s indifference. “Oh, please don’t be like that. Trust me, I highly respect all alchemists. Maybe I used a small… tactic, to find you. But even if I didn’t, someone else will. Ask this man if you would. Every alchemy quest you accepted had countless people watching from behind.”

The mentioned clerk trembled a little. “He’s right, sir.”

Angor grimaced, “You… gave my information to someone else too?”

The clerk shook his head quickly. “No. Not yet.”

The white-robed man chimed in. “I paid a higher price, so I should be the one receiving the information first. But I think I drew enough attention by speaking to you, which meant they would come to you soon.”

“Just because I accepted alchemy quests?” Angor frowned hard.

“Correct. You probably know how valuable an alchemist is in here. My quest is up there for half a year now, and no one took it. But don’t worry, people who looked for your information, including me, simply wish to establish a friendly connection with you. Most people will not actually do harm.”

“Are you one of the ‘most people’?” Angor asked.

The man was taken aback by the question. Those who meant harm to this kid would never admit it. Now that he looked at Angor closely… he realized he was looking at a really young man at the age of sixteen or so. Someone so young had not succumbed to the darkness of this world. The kid asked such a childish question because he still believed in humanity.

“Of course I am,” replied the man. He then asked, “So, can you listen to my offer, sir?”

“What do you want?”

“The same question. Are you an alchemist, sir?”

Angor considered for a while and nodded.

“Brilliant! I’ll get to the point then. I saw you accepting quests for making tiered alchemy weapons. Are you interested in quest 5428?”