Warlock Apprentice

Angor was glad the white-robed man did not drag the conversation unnecessarily longer with useless courtesy.

He looked at the screen and searched for number 5428. As expected, it was a quest asking for a customized weapon.

It did not say the exact type of the weapon, but the reward of 1,100 magic crystals was good.

“Are you interested, sir?” The man asked again.

Angor did not reveal his decision. “It didn’t say anything other than the reward. I’ll not accept a quest like this.”

“I need a customized weapon, and we can always negotiate. It’s fine if you decline after hearing me out. There’s a guest room on the second floor, shall we go there? And just in case, there’s a safe exit on the second floor for you to leave this place.”

Angor glanced around and realized that many people were giving him curious gazes now. Some of them were using their transmitters to send messages.

“Hold on,” said Angor. He then turned to the clerk and said, “I accept those quests. Take any security payment from my bone card.”

The clerk was still terrified by Angor’s questioning gaze a moment ago, but he quickly complied and worked on a machine on the counter.

“I’ll get the money back after I’m done with the quests, right?” Angor questioned.

“Yes, you will. However, some of the quests have a time limit, so if you miss the deadline-”

“Don’t worry about that,” said Angor as he waved a hand.

The white-robed young man frowned a little when seeing Angor’s decision. The kid accepted so many quests which meant that his own quest would probably take a long time. Yet as a mere bystander, he could not make up decisions for Angor.

He only sighed in the end. His quest had been left hanging for half a year now. Some extra waiting would not hurt anyway. For now, the most important thing was to befriend this young alchemist.

The registration process took several minutes. Three out of the seven quests Angor accepted already came with materials provided by the issuers. When Angor took back his bone card, he also received three one-time space capsules from the clerk.

Angor turned to the stranger. “Lead the way.”

Along their way to the second floor, Angor learned that the man in front of him was called “Bobota”.

“Everyone who learns about my name for the first time will find it strange. It’s kind of a tradition from where I came, that we must use a name that leaves enough impression to others,” said Bobota with a chuckle. “Letting our names be forgotten by people is the biggest insult to us. We used to use ordinary names a long time ago, but the ancestors decided to use this new approach so as to obey our clan motto.

“My name is already a better one. You should know about my young sister… A Fringilla Sparrow is the signature bird of my country. To give her an impressive name, my father called her ‘Spaparrow’. Funny, eh?”

Using the interesting names as an opener, Bobota explained his home traditions to Angor.

Angor found Bobota’s stories quite interesting. The names were surely easy to remember, which also helped them melt down the barrier between strangers without the need for finding other topics to initiate a conversation.

Man… their ancestors were so smart.

“Hey, Bobota, long time no-oh, who’s this gentleman? Your new friend?”

A bulky man showing chunks of shiny muscles on his body suddenly yelled at them from a distance.

Bobota curled his lips. “See that? Someone’s coming for you already. Let’s move. This will only get worse. The second Moonfrost Passage is about to open, and people are looking for alchemists like wolves hunting for meat.”

Bobota began to jog toward the guest room.

The muscular guy was still too far for Angor to see his face, and he was already introducing himself.

“Hey, mister! Name’s Hercules! It’s nice knowing you! Can we shake hands?”

But they were still hundreds of meters apart!

Thanks to the distance, when Bobota shut the door to the private guest room, Hercules was still far away.

Bam! Bam!

“Open up, Bobota! We’ve been away from each other for some time! Let’s get together! And hey you! Mister alchemist, or are you? Check out number 5487, please! The reward is-”

Click!

Bobota activated the soundproof ward of the room.

Everything quieted down.

“Don’t mind him. Even his brain is filled with muscles. Thank the lords that I rented this private room yesterday, or that guy will ruin our talk,” said Bobota. He pointed at a teleportation array in the corner of the room as he continued, “You can use that to get to any teleportation node in Tree Spirit Garden, so don’t worry about anyone waiting to catch you outside.”

Angor made sure that the array could be activated anytime and finally nodded.

Like before, Bobota asked Angor to take a seat and got to the topic right away. He did not even ask for Angor’s name.

“First off,” Angor tried to speak first, “I don’t know what you’re looking for. Just so you know, I only make alchemy weapons.”

A weapon was the only thing he was confident in making now.

“No problem. Just what I’m looking for. It’s just that it has a weird shape. Also, I need to use an Altar of Blood.”

Altar of Blood…

Angor gave Bobota a strange look, but he did not say anything.

An Altar of Blood was another artifact related to a grand demon in Abyss Plane. It was as foul-named as items granted by Crown Clown.

“Looks like you know about the altar,” Bobota commented.

“I do. I don’t care what you want with it, just keep in mind that I do enchantment alchemy, not synthesis. The effect I apply to weapons is fixed beforehand. Don’t expect a random surprise because it’s not likely to happen.”

Bobota looked pretty satisfied with this. “A qualified wizard does not depend on chances.”

“One last thing. I’ll arrange my quests according to their difficulty, and I can’t tell you when your item will be finished,” Angor said that because he feared Bobota’s request would prevent him from making enough money in ten days.

Bobota nodded. Since he had been waiting for half a year, he did not mind waiting for a little bit more. Besides, “that matter” would not happen any time soon.

Once Angor finished explaining his own conditions, Bobota explained about his request.

Angor frowned after listening to Bobota’s item.

It did not sound too hard. But… was that a weapon at all?

Bobota asked him to craft a chain while using the heaviest material Angor could find so that anyone who was trapped in the chain would never get out. Plus, he needed a Rune of Silence on the chain.

A chain enchanted with Rune of Silence? Why not just use a Ward of Silence?

A synthesis alchemist might need enough experience as well as to look for proper materials to make such an item. It explained why the quest was not taken up by anybody after half a year. To Angor, however, it was not really difficult—he simply had to apply the Rune of Silence onto a chain and that was it.

Still, Angor wondered what Bobota planned to do with such an item, and what was the deal with Altar of Blood?

“Can you do it?” Bobota looked at Angor eagerly.

Angor pondered for a while and nodded. “I can.”

Whatever it was used for, he only meant to earn money out of it. Furthermore, the chain was not complicated.

“Nice!” Bobota stood up in the excitement and clenched his fists out of joy. Half a year! If he could achieve “that matter”, he would find his path of wizardry becoming smoother than ever!

“I don’t have knowledge of alchemy materials, so you have to prepare them on your own. My only requirement about the material is its weight. The heavier the better,” said Bobota as he took out 200 magic crystals and handed them to Angor. “This is down payment. You’ll get the remaining 900 crystals once you give me the chain.”

“We’re not going to the questing hall?”

“The hall will ask for a share as a service fee. We can avoid that if we do it in private. I won’t trick you. Let’s see… You decide where we finish the deal so you can make sure I don’t do anything funny.”

It seemed legit enough, and Angor did not decline.

Angor exchanged contact method with Bobota and left through the teleportation array.

Bobota stayed in the room for a while to calm his excitement. His was determined to make sure nothing went wrong during his job. Another must-do to ensure the outcome was to silence that young alchemist once and for all.

However, he needed to figure out who he was first. Bobota still had no idea who the alchemist was called.

He considered a little and decided to go to somewhere which happened to be familiar to Angor as well—the Bartterfly Pub.

A moment later, Bobota walked out of the pub with a dark expression.

He used his transmitter to record Angor’s picture so he could ask for the boy’s information. He thought it would take some time for the informant to find him a result. Instead, the informant immediately told him what he needed by looking at Angor’s photo.

Bobota was a bit shocked when he learned that he was dealing with Sunders’ personal student.

“Looks like… I can’t do anything to him. For now.”